Mathias “Vreth” Lillmåns, the frontman of Finntroll and …And Oceans, has released his retrospective album Remains. The album offers 17 tracks and a three-decade look into the depths of the desk drawer – raw experimentation, changes in direction and a gradually emerging sound that later became a significant part of Finnish metal.

At the same time, a sampling of bands that have been buried over the years will be heard. It includes material from bands such as Twilight Moon, Remains, Degenerate, Chthonian, Vere and Observant. The album’s lead single is Chtonian’s Sanguine Sadism, which was released with a visualizer. The album is released by Stormbound Records.

“Most people think of me primarily as a singer, but through this collection I wanted to show the kind of transformation I went through: how I grew from a musician who lived in the shadows to a singer who rose to the forefront.”

Gathering the material for the album was an adventure in itself. Material salvaged from basements, MiniDiscs, unlabeled cassettes and old hard drives, Remains is a timeline of Lillmåns’ search for a way to express himself. The journey takes him from a musician who started out on the bass to a reluctant vocalist and finally a luminous frontman.

For those listeners who crave deeper context, the physical version includes lyrics written by Lillmåns, telling memoirs and curiosities from various sessions. In them, he opens up about the adventure that began with Twilight Moon’s reel-to-reel tape days, the roughness of Remains’ garage recording, the first visits to a professional studio with Degenerate and the deliberate roughness of Chthonian. There’s also the story of the Vere project that was born in one evening and Observant’s increasingly polished self-produced expression.

The album has been remastered by Owe Inborr at Wolfthrone Studios. Remains was released on November 28th digitally and on CD via Stormbound Records.

Tracklist:
01 Twilight Moon – Wanderlust
02 Twilight Moon – Spirit Lord
03 Twilight Moon – Shattered Reflections
04 Twilight Moon – Stuck in Eternity (Live 1999)
05 Remains – Forced into Lies
06 Remains – Leaving the Path of the Blind
07 Remains – The Life That Passed (Slowly Fading)
08 Degenerate – Blinded
09 Degenerate – Displacement
10 Degenerate – Lost in Glass and Stone
11 Chthonian – Ill
12 Chthonian – Larvae, Nymph, Decay
13 Chthonian – Sanguine Sadism
14 Vere – The Silver Lining
15 Vere – Ignite, Enflame
16 Observant – As Corroded as You
17 Observant – Still Nameless

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Mathias Lillmåns is celebrating 30 years as a musician with his solo project, and will release a compilation album called Remains under the name Lillmåns on November 21st. The album will be released by new Finnish label Stormbound Records.

The Twilight Moon – The Forgotten Recordings EP, released last month, began a process in which the artist, who has worked with several bands throughout his career, will bring rare and previously unreleased tracks to fans. The EP The Degenerate Years was released at the end of September, remixed and remastered by Wolfthrone Studio’s Owe Inborr. The three-track released brings to light material from the band Degenerate, which marked a turning point in Lillmåns’ career.

“Degenerate is where it all got real,” Lillmåns recalls. “The band had fast and technically challenging riffs, progressive rhythms, complex guitar solos and melodies, and a groove and drive that I had never experienced before.”

In 2002, Lillmåns began studying to be a sound engineer. The songs now released capture both the young band’s bold ambition and his first steps in a professional studio environment. In addition to recording, Lillmåns played bass and sang backing vocals on the recordings.

“The songs Blinded and Displacement are from those sessions – it was the first time I recorded a whole band in a professional studio,” he says.

The Degenerate Years and Twilight Moon – The Forgotten Recordings have laid the foundation for a compilation album to be released in November, which brings together rare and previously unreleased material from Lillmåns’ three-decade career in metal music.

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