Wrathrone - questions answered by Matti Vehmas
1. Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording and release of the new album?
W: Our debut album called Born Beneath came out on 22nd of January via Inverse Records and since then we have done several gigs to support it in Finland and there´s more to come. The most part of the year 2015 went in making of the album, although we ended up doing a bands record for one year´s total shows, we are aiming to top that again this year!
2.In January you had released a new album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the ep you had released in 2013?
W: All in all, I think everything on the album is done in much more professional manner than on our previous works, which are self-produced from start to finish. This time we felt that we should do the recordings, mixing and mastering with professionals so the songs wouldn´t suffer from any lacks in that department, as may have somewhat been the case with the EP:s released earlier. We accomplished the strong yet distinguishable sound on the album, it really came out great! There are quite different songs on the album but there is the definite W-sound on them, just the needed variation to keep the interest up!
3.The band has been around since 2008 but so far has only released 1 ep and a full length, can you tell us a little bit more about the gap in between releases?
W: Officially we have released two EP:s before the album, those being 2011´s Burning Hatred and 2013´s Left Unburied. There are also some demo tracks from as far as 2009 that circulate on the internet. So when we take account those, the gaps grow a bit smaller. That being said, our working method for new material is not all that fast, we tend to build new songs bit by bit with no rush so new songs appear when they have been thoroughly tested in rehearsals. Many of the songs on the album we had already played live for some time before recording them, so they were in that sense worked on for a decent while.
4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the new music?
W: The lyrical concept of our music is quite typical death metal imagery, painting visions of death, war, horror and suffering. Not the most innovative stuff but it fits the music and adds on the aggressive undertone we want to deliver. For us that is the main thing. By this time, lyrics have been written also by quite many people, by me, Mikael and Lauri and also for many songs by a friend of ours, Nina Hurme. So there´s no certain agenda, just the dark and gloomy feel, that´s the spirit of it.
5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Wrathrone'?
W: You´re one of the few people that have really asked that, cool! Our name dates back to the first half of the year 2009 I think. We sat down with the guys in the band at that time (of current line up me and Lauri remain) and had a long drunken discussion of the name. I recall that all of us had some ideas for the name and we just picked the best ones of them all and finally decided on Wrathrone. It is one of my ideas, quite simple wordplay combining the words "wrath" and "throne". I felt it had and still has a powerful yet evil sound and feel. And yes, I am familiar with Darkthrone but there is no meant similarity.
6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
W: In 2014 we did a few shows in Germany and one of our best gigs was in Oberhausen, at the famous metal club called Helvete, amazing atmosphere and all-round solid performance. I must say that of the recent shows, the release show in Turku was easily in the top three gigs too, great and loud audience and everyone enjoyed themselves, the band and the crowd! As for the performance, we have done a lot of shows lately and it is clear that we feel at home on stage even more now than before and the show is real aggressive and energetic!
7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the new album?
W: Yeah we sure do. As I mentioned, we are in the midst of a string of shows in Finland at the moment and in early May we´ll head to the Baltic area once again, it has always been really great for us. We did a small tour there already back in 2013 and we just did two shows in Riga and in Tallinn before christmas. This time we´re also gonna do some shows in Poland on the same tour. It seems that we´ll let some hell loose in Germany too in the autumn. We are always on a lookout for possible shows so everyone, feel free to invite us to play your festival or venue and let´s see what comes of it!
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of death metal?
W: The amount of reviews, interviews and interest has been really encouraging! The album seems to be well received to say the least and the word is spreading! We are grateful for all the interest and promotion we´ve gotten lately. It´s good to realize that we are gaining more ground little by little, that is our goal. We enjoy what we do and if more and more people feel the same way, that´s just great!
9.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part of?
W: Apart from Wrathrone, Mikael and Vili are the most active members, working on other bands and projects. They are both in a band called Sydäntalvi, an atmospheric rock band that is just about to release an album too. Vili has another death metal band too, called Galvanizer that is quite active also. Both have numerous other projects going on too, of which I can´t keep count really :D I think it´s for the most part a good thing, they get to work on different material that also gives Wrathrone some new ideas and variation. It takes some planning to fit all the bands activities to calendar but so far we´ve managed fine. It is clear that Wrathrone is of high priority for all of us and that´s what counts.
10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
W: At this point I see that we have evolved to the stage and level we feel pretty comfortable, musically speaking. So I think there isn´t gonna be any dramatic changes in our style in the near future. We first started the band to do traditional midtempo death metal and now the true W-sound has been honed close to perfection! It´s a good point to work onwards!
11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
W: That´s a tough question for me to answer because we all have quite varied taste in music. There is still clear vibes of the genres household names, Cannibal Corpse, Six Feet Under, and the likes. Also our music features a lot of melodic elements in the style of early Amorphis and In Flames. Hints of thrash and black metal can also be found. I´m personally really lazy in finding new bands, I listen metal on a fairly wide scale from 70´s Sabbath to the extreme ends. Other guys are a lot more diverse in their taste, and listen a lot more than just metal.
12.What are some of your non musical interests?
W: On my part, I tend to read a lot and movies have a special meaning for me too. It´s mostly (surprisingly enough) horror, fantasy and war themed and from there comes a certain influence for my lyrics too. One of the best book series ever written is Stephen King´s The Dark Tower
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
W: Music and specially metal music is best enjoyed on the spot! So everyone, keep supporting live music as much as possible, that´s the core of it! Check out the album and see you guys at the shows!
1. Can you give us an update on what has been going on with the band since the recording and release of the new album?
W: Our debut album called Born Beneath came out on 22nd of January via Inverse Records and since then we have done several gigs to support it in Finland and there´s more to come. The most part of the year 2015 went in making of the album, although we ended up doing a bands record for one year´s total shows, we are aiming to top that again this year!
2.In January you had released a new album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording and also how does it differ from the ep you had released in 2013?
W: All in all, I think everything on the album is done in much more professional manner than on our previous works, which are self-produced from start to finish. This time we felt that we should do the recordings, mixing and mastering with professionals so the songs wouldn´t suffer from any lacks in that department, as may have somewhat been the case with the EP:s released earlier. We accomplished the strong yet distinguishable sound on the album, it really came out great! There are quite different songs on the album but there is the definite W-sound on them, just the needed variation to keep the interest up!
3.The band has been around since 2008 but so far has only released 1 ep and a full length, can you tell us a little bit more about the gap in between releases?
W: Officially we have released two EP:s before the album, those being 2011´s Burning Hatred and 2013´s Left Unburied. There are also some demo tracks from as far as 2009 that circulate on the internet. So when we take account those, the gaps grow a bit smaller. That being said, our working method for new material is not all that fast, we tend to build new songs bit by bit with no rush so new songs appear when they have been thoroughly tested in rehearsals. Many of the songs on the album we had already played live for some time before recording them, so they were in that sense worked on for a decent while.
4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the new music?
W: The lyrical concept of our music is quite typical death metal imagery, painting visions of death, war, horror and suffering. Not the most innovative stuff but it fits the music and adds on the aggressive undertone we want to deliver. For us that is the main thing. By this time, lyrics have been written also by quite many people, by me, Mikael and Lauri and also for many songs by a friend of ours, Nina Hurme. So there´s no certain agenda, just the dark and gloomy feel, that´s the spirit of it.
5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Wrathrone'?
W: You´re one of the few people that have really asked that, cool! Our name dates back to the first half of the year 2009 I think. We sat down with the guys in the band at that time (of current line up me and Lauri remain) and had a long drunken discussion of the name. I recall that all of us had some ideas for the name and we just picked the best ones of them all and finally decided on Wrathrone. It is one of my ideas, quite simple wordplay combining the words "wrath" and "throne". I felt it had and still has a powerful yet evil sound and feel. And yes, I am familiar with Darkthrone but there is no meant similarity.
6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
W: In 2014 we did a few shows in Germany and one of our best gigs was in Oberhausen, at the famous metal club called Helvete, amazing atmosphere and all-round solid performance. I must say that of the recent shows, the release show in Turku was easily in the top three gigs too, great and loud audience and everyone enjoyed themselves, the band and the crowd! As for the performance, we have done a lot of shows lately and it is clear that we feel at home on stage even more now than before and the show is real aggressive and energetic!
7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the new album?
W: Yeah we sure do. As I mentioned, we are in the midst of a string of shows in Finland at the moment and in early May we´ll head to the Baltic area once again, it has always been really great for us. We did a small tour there already back in 2013 and we just did two shows in Riga and in Tallinn before christmas. This time we´re also gonna do some shows in Poland on the same tour. It seems that we´ll let some hell loose in Germany too in the autumn. We are always on a lookout for possible shows so everyone, feel free to invite us to play your festival or venue and let´s see what comes of it!
8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of death metal?
W: The amount of reviews, interviews and interest has been really encouraging! The album seems to be well received to say the least and the word is spreading! We are grateful for all the interest and promotion we´ve gotten lately. It´s good to realize that we are gaining more ground little by little, that is our goal. We enjoy what we do and if more and more people feel the same way, that´s just great!
9.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical projects these days that some of the band members are a part of?
W: Apart from Wrathrone, Mikael and Vili are the most active members, working on other bands and projects. They are both in a band called Sydäntalvi, an atmospheric rock band that is just about to release an album too. Vili has another death metal band too, called Galvanizer that is quite active also. Both have numerous other projects going on too, of which I can´t keep count really :D I think it´s for the most part a good thing, they get to work on different material that also gives Wrathrone some new ideas and variation. It takes some planning to fit all the bands activities to calendar but so far we´ve managed fine. It is clear that Wrathrone is of high priority for all of us and that´s what counts.
10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
W: At this point I see that we have evolved to the stage and level we feel pretty comfortable, musically speaking. So I think there isn´t gonna be any dramatic changes in our style in the near future. We first started the band to do traditional midtempo death metal and now the true W-sound has been honed close to perfection! It´s a good point to work onwards!
11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your newer music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
W: That´s a tough question for me to answer because we all have quite varied taste in music. There is still clear vibes of the genres household names, Cannibal Corpse, Six Feet Under, and the likes. Also our music features a lot of melodic elements in the style of early Amorphis and In Flames. Hints of thrash and black metal can also be found. I´m personally really lazy in finding new bands, I listen metal on a fairly wide scale from 70´s Sabbath to the extreme ends. Other guys are a lot more diverse in their taste, and listen a lot more than just metal.
12.What are some of your non musical interests?
W: On my part, I tend to read a lot and movies have a special meaning for me too. It´s mostly (surprisingly enough) horror, fantasy and war themed and from there comes a certain influence for my lyrics too. One of the best book series ever written is Stephen King´s The Dark Tower
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
W: Music and specially metal music is best enjoyed on the spot! So everyone, keep supporting live music as much as possible, that´s the core of it! Check out the album and see you guys at the shows!
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