Burialmound
Wywiad przeprowadził Bart Donarski
When many bands worldwide just focus on coping their metal idols, Finnish BURIALMOUND lead themselves unto musical candor. The title of their debut - "Black Death" speaks for itself. Raw as hell death metal, yet not disposed of its mightiness, promising musicianship and all the more important - evil spirit within the three Finnish souls - it's definitely enough for me to be content. If you like latest Azarath or Witchmaster, then the another reasonable choice of Portuguese Sound Riot Records is what you're craving for. I talked to guitarist of the fiendish hell-hound Aki Saaksniemi. (spelling his surname seems to be a real challenge!)OK. First off I try to pin you down. Ha! At your website you told (in an interview) that the songs you created formerly didn't sound natural to you, you were just playing, the ones lacked feeling and so forth. Then my question is - why the hell did you play like that if they weren't natural for you? Kind of odd...
Huh, man you're hitting me hard! Ok, that's not so odd that it may seem to be. Sometimes when you play some new songs they might sound great at few first times, but when you play them more they might loose their effectiveness and be kind of a dead. It was just that what happened - you can't play songs that are not fun to be played anymore. When I take a thought to our previous BURIALMOUND -era recordings, they all are really enjoyable to play. I still like to listen to these UTGARD songs. They're not bad at all, but we won't be playing them anymore. They belong to our history.
Nevertheless, the newest output of yours seems to be an excellent kick in faces of sissy scum! But being not that abstract, reveal the process of creating the fiendish death/black masterpiece!
That CD was a easy work for us. I remember that when we get really doing these songs, there was no end for new ideas. Songs just happened to come from like nowhere, and eventually they were so good that we didn't needed to fix them much. Our process is very plain and simple - we create songs on our home and come up with few rehearsals to re-arrange them. Of course we try to feel the mood that it's in the songs to pick the lyrics that suits for them. I'm really happy that we got so great feeling to our songs on "Black Death" album. It sounds like as whole.
How did you get in contact with Sound Riot and eventually signed the deal? How the one looks like? Besides, I read you were supposed to release the album at Swedish Downfall Records formerly. What happened?
Well, actually Louis from Sound Riot contacted me and asked if we were able to sign with them. I believe they checked out our website and listened to our samples in there, and that caught their attention. Our work with them had been successful this far. Of course we were a bit worried that the album was delayed for almost a year, but still I understand the problems that they were through. Now they are working more on the promotional side, and that suits us fine. "Black Death" needs still a bit more promotion, that people can find it. I'm sure there are lots of people that would enjoy it, but they can't, because it's still so hard to get.
Yes, Downfall was going to release the album at first, but as we didn't sign any kind of deal with them, we were free to try someone else too. So, there was nothing like harsh things between us. They did their job fine on our "Horror" 7" ep, and I really appreciate them and wish them a best luck.
Is alcohol still that expensive in Finland as it has always been? You seem to be a pretty boozed nation, therefore you have to have a lot of money! Am I mistaken?
Yes, you're damn right that we're pretty boozed nation. Almost everyone at least in weekends like to drink so much that they are totally out of control. Majority of country's crimes are committed in being drunk. I'm not that far from that. We like to drink lots of beer in our spare time and hang out with our friends. Nothing wrong with that, but we don't mess our band activity with any kinds of these things. About that the fact that we're rich people - well, I'm not sure about that, but of course our country has well balanced economy and we get mostly good salary from our jobs. I could live and pay my apartment rent, have some booze, take care of my instruments and eat the necessary food to survive even if I don't have any job right now. So, maybe we're bunch of a rich people.
As well as I know you live in a small town. Do you think bands that come from such places must have a lot more self-determination to make things happen?
Hmmm, yes. Without the will of doing the music, we would have been dead a long time ago. I've seen the bands come and go, and forgotten that don't have the will. We've been through some major difficulties, but always managed to survive from them. It's fucking hard to find suitable persons from there, but still we've played with just three of us. We have had at least four bassists and couple of guitarists, but unfortunately they didn't had the same will as we do. I hope now, as we have again some guys being tested with us, that they at least remain to be help in the gigs. I don't believe anymore that any little changes or problems would tear us all apart.
The sort of death metal you create is not that common nowadays. I mean, there are a lot more bands influenced by American heritage and usually become just pure plagiarists. How do you consider the issue?
That's just true. I've heard tons of new bands that sound like these American mates, and they fail to create something of their own. I really appreciate bands that have something fresh to offer. And even if they sound a bit like someone else, that's not too bad if they have their own touch and sound. It's easy to figure out the bands that are honest with themselves and the ones that are just copying each other. I don't think that this kinds of bands survive long out there, or they just change their style to the one that they really want to be. If you take a look at these long run bands like Morbid Angel, Vader, Incantation and such; they've released lots of great albums and they've been honest with themselves and tried to get their beloved expression to a deeper level.
Are there any chances for you to go abroad touring and so on? Will Sound Riot give you a helping-hand in any shape and form?
Sound Riot signed recently a deal with a bigger distributor, that have the possibility to bring out their bands to play in Europe. We really hope that this could work someday, and we will be able to play live gigs abroad. Our songs are well-trained and we sound as aggressive as we were on album.
Do you know any of Polish bands in most appropriate metal genres?
I know these few bigger names, and they sound very good in my opinion. I've heard Vader, Behemoth, Yattering, Lost Soul, Decapitated etc. You got very raw and aggressive bands out there, and original in their own way. Maybe I should check out the smaller bands too.
What actually UTGARD meant? It sounds a bit like abbreviation of Stuttgart!
Hah, hee. Man, you're joking with me. Well, it's not so far from that. UTGARD is a land of the giants taken from the Germanic mythology. Our songs were in the past linked a bit into that direction.
What can you say us of recent Finnish scene condition? Do you still listen to Beherit?!!!
Our scene condition is really bad. I don't like the way the bands play here nowadays. We're not popular here in Finland due to our rawer and aggressive output. It's the melodiness and symphonic stuff that counts, and that bittersweet fucking gothic stuff. No good! There's only a very few bands that play a little aggressiver music today, but still they're not considered as my favorites. I prefer the music of Morningstar and Warloghe f. ex. that still are doing their own stuff. Beherit's first two albums are still bloody good music. Sadly, they missed their touch to metal after them.
Besides, what is the most respected and popular straight-metal band in Finland present-day?
I don't know. Maybe it's Impaled Nazarene or someone else. I don't care about success of our own or someone else. Destroy the masses.
I head a indecent gossip that you've been seen on HIM gig. (two times in a row!!!) Shame on you!!!
Yeah, that really is a shame on me. I got to the backstage and whimpered this jerks head off. Eh, you're one of a guy, that gets this kind of information by spying innocent bandmates whose try to keep their reputation in safe, hah.
OK. Thanks for your time. Keep on playing this mighty music!
Yes, thanks to you also Bart. Check out the "Black Death" for raw and brutal satisfaction guarantee, and wait for the second assault that's coming in early next year. Hammer on!
