Amoral
Amoral is a new upcoming
band from Finland that all the fans of melodic death metal should pay attention
to! "Wound Creations" is a great album and Silver Ots the band's guitarist
is here to explain some things regarding the band and their recent release...
1.FIRST OF ALL POINT OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT
MOMENTS OF THE BAND'S HISTORY AND INTRODUCE YOURSELVES TO THE READERS...
Hello, Behind the Veil readers! I’m Silver
Ots, the other guitarist of the band. Important moments start in the year
1997 when Juhana Karlsson (drummer) and Ben Varon (guitarist) started jamming
cover songs for fun. I joined in after a while and through various line-up
changes we recorded our first demo in October 2001 with our first vocalist
Matti Pitk?nen. A few gigs followed and in the summer of 2002 Matti was
replaced by Niko Kallioj?rvi, our present vocalist. Ville Sorvali came
to handle the bass guitar and we were off to play some more gigs. With
this line-up we recorded our second "record deal"-demo Other Flesh in October
2002 and this debut album in December 2003. In the beginning Ville Sorvali
left due to lack of time for this band and a new fellow is now on probationary
period with us.
2.WHY DID YOU NAME THE BAND AMORAL? HOW IMPORTANT
DO YOU THINK IS THE CORRECT CHOICE OF A MONIKER?
Amoral was simply a cool and catchy word.
Easy to pronounce by Finns and foreigners and the meaning of it suits us
just fine. A band's name is of course very important. It better be very
memorable or utterly ridiculous, something that people can remember.
3.SO, CONGRATULATIONS FOR YOUR ALBUM! I THINK
IT'S WONDERFUL! HOWEVER, IF I ASKED YOU TO DESCRIBE IT AND PRESENT IT YOURSELVES
TO THE READERS, WHAT WOULD YOU TELL THEM?
Well, first of all I’d honestly say it’s something
that hasn’t been done before. All the elements; the groove, the intensity,
the melodies and the all-around diversity is something I see is the strength
of this album. It’s open minded music and I hope we’ll evolve even more
in that direction in the future. I don’t even like to call thrash or death
metal because influences vary from pop to progressive-rock.
4.I LIKE THE ARTWORK! I THINK IT'S VERY SUITABLE
FOR YOUR MUSIC. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR IT AND WHAT DOES IT SHOW?
Yep, were also very satisfied with it. It
was done by Santeri Salmi, a professional graphic designer and a friend
of ours. He’s also a drummer of a Finnish band Dauntless. Coming up with
a concept for a cover was a real drag, since were all such boring blokes!
Yet we managed to picture our music as a painting. So there you have it;
Rock that bleeds lava! Hard and cold on the outside, but completely the
opposite from the inside! Kinda simple idea, but Santeri carried it out
very stylishly.
5.WHERE ARE YOUR LYRICS REFERRING TO AND HOW IMPORTANT
ARE THEY FOR YOU? WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SUGGEST WITH THE TITLE "WOUND CREATIONS"?
Unfortunately you are asking a completely
wrong person! I had nothing to do with the lyrics, but to quote Niko from
an older interview: "The lyrics include some traditional stuff: feeling
annoyed , hate and bitterness, but only as a spice. Every song is a story
of their own, to keep up even a slight development. Themes have been confined
on the negative side of things, what else. If there's any red thread going
in the lyrics, they are weakness of human mind, fallibility and stupidity.".
The title describes the content. "Wound" as in wound up describes the songs
since they are more twisted than most metal tunes.
6.HOW EASY IS IT FOR A BAND FROM FINLAND TO STAND
OUT FROM THE REST? WE ALL KNOW THAT FINLAND OFFERS MANY RELEASES
IN THE METAL GENRE AMONG WHICH MOST REPRODUCE THE SOUND OF MALMSTEEN, STRATOVARIUS
AND CHILDREN OF BODOM. WHO DID YOU MANAGE TO BECOME AN EXCEPTION?
I’ve never thought of those home country issues.
Reason for not sounding like most of the popular Finnish the bands lies
in our influences, the music we listen to. We’ve had a goal from the start,
that was to at least try to do something new and something that we like
to play. And believe me, the best Finnish bands are yet to be undiscovered
by the foreign audience…
7.DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR TOURING? WHAT SHOULD
THE METALLERS EXPECT FROM AN AMORAL LIVE SHOW?
A real tour is quite improbable at the moment
since all of our gigs are arranged by Ben at the moment and setting up
a tour is nearly impossible without an appropriate agency. Amoral live
shows consist of good old head-banging and entertaining the crowd. After
all, that’s what the people are there for, to get drunk and to get their
hair messed up! All of the songs are played exactly as on the album. We
have also played quite a lot of cover songs ranging from Borknagar to Sepultura
and I hope we’ll find something to cover in the future also, even though
we have enough material of our own now.
8.WHICH IS, ACCORDING TO YOU, THE BEST AND WHICH
THE WORST PART IN YOUR MUSIC? WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE TO OFFER TO THE
MELODIC DEATH METAL SCENE AND WHICH IS YOUR TRADEMARK?
The best part is like I mentioned, the variety
and open-mindedness. It’s always worth listening the song till the end
since there may come something completely different. The worst could be
that since were not experienced enough in songwriting, the songs might
be a little scattered and the parts may feel disconnected. Arrangements
is definitely something we’ll work on more on the next album.
9.IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD IT
BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
I doubt it could be expressed in a single
emotion! More likely some kind of a mental disease perhaps…The painting
is on the cover of the album!
10.IF YOU HAD A PROPOSAL TO DO A VIDEO CLIP, WHICH
SONG OF YOURS WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND HOW DO YOU IMAGINE IT TO BE?
"Atrocity Evolution" or "Other Flesh". It
would be a vision of a world struggling to get rid of it’s leeches called
humans… or perhaps it’d show us driving in our hummers with champagne?
Who knows!
11.WHICH WORDS DO YOU THINK COULD BEST DESCRIBE
YOUR MUSIC?
Apocalyptic Sci-fi Fun? Nah, that’ll be the
next album, let’s say "diversity" and "wreckoning".
12.IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO TRAVEL BACK IN TIME,
WHICH HISTORICAL PERIOD WOULD YOU LIKE TO VISIT AND WHY?
Odd question! Maybe the seventies. Smoke pot
and rock 'n' roll all night and day.
13.HAVE YOU DONE ANY MUSICAL STUDIES? YOU ALL
ARE VERY SKILLFUL MUSICIANS! YOUR PERFORMANCE IS TECHNICAL, PRECISE, AT
SOME POINTS BRUTAL AND AT SOME OTHERS MELODIC. HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO ACHIEVE
THIS?
Ben has taken a few guitar lessons, Juhana
has taken a lot of classic guitar (!) lessons. Niko also hasn’t taken any
lessons, not that I know of, he’s basically a guitarist also. My grandma
tried to take me to guitar lessons when I was 5 or 6, but it was so horrible,
since they tried to make me sing, that I haven’t taken any music lessons
since. All that we know comes simply from intensive practice and dedication
to music in every way; listening, playing and making it.
14.WHAT KIND OF PROCEDURE DO YOU FOLLOW WHILST
COMPOSING? DO YOU HAVE TO BE IN A SPECIFIC MOOD IN ORDER TO GET INSPIRATION?
DO YOU AGREE WITH THE SAYING THAT AN ARTIST MUST WITNESS PAIN IN ORDER
TO OFFER MASTERPIECES TO THE PUBLIC?
I can speak only for myself, when I say that
even playing itself is inspiring. Sometimes I simply find a pattern on
a guitar that’s just fascinating and I start to develop it from there.
Sometimes I hear a good band or a good song and I try to make something
alike. Then through playing and spicing it up, it changes so that it moves
further away from the initial influence and becomes something fresh! Rarely
I hear any melodies in my head like a lot musicians say they do. Eventually
when we have enough riffs for a song we pile em up on my computer and start
arranging the entity.
15.LET'S SUPPOSE THAT WE LIVE IN A WORLD WITHOUT
MUSIC. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IN SUCH A CASE?
A really appalling image. Maybe I’d use my
money on a motorcycle instead on music and hit the road to see the world.
Though I doubt, such a world would be worth seeing…
16.THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK YOU ANYTHING
AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?
Thank you! I’d like to quote Tenacious D,
"Quit your day job and concentrate on your craft." Silver Ots
Christine Parastatidou
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