Interviews

Born of Thorns; a melodic extreme metal act from Finland. We’ve seen quite few of them lately, but BoT is a somewhat new experience. Combining the traditional symphonic black metal, like Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, and a more atmospheric groovy sound, their new EP, “New Horizon” will set a new mark for this type of music. Hopefully! So I asked Peccath and Patrik, the synth guys and drummer a few questions about their new EP,

And as this is you first interview for Tragenda, let’s start from the beginning, shall we? Born of Thorns are five guys from Finland, playing more or less extreme metal with a melodic touch. And since the beginning there have only been a few minor line-up changes during the seven years BoT have existed.

This is your first professional recording, so let’s talk about that. “New Horizon” is out on the newly started “Oak Knoll Productions”. Why is the reason you chose this label? Well, Oak Knoll contacted us two years ago because they wanted to distribute our second demo “The Encounter of Light and Dark”, which they also did, and still do. As they started to release their own CD’s, they contacted us again and asked if we wanted to do a full-length album for them. But decided only to do an EP and it was no problem for the label at all. So I guess, without Oak Knoll, “New Horizon” would have been released as a CD-R demo.

So you didn’t have any pressure at from Oak Knoll to release a full-length? Nope. Actually in the very beginning we were talking about releasing professionally made demo!

Okay. So you’re your own bosses, so to speak? But how has the distribution been? No, it's the label that released our EP. But we have all the rights to the material and we're not bound to do more records to them. So, if some other label is interested in to re-release New Horizon, it's possible. How the distribution been? Hmm, I don’t know exactly, but at least Firebox distributes us in Finland. So that’s cool. But, Oak Knoll is quite a young label, so they don’t have the biggest name yet, and henceforth the distribution is the same. And I don’t quite know their contact and stuff like that.

Firebox is getting to be quite a name over here now, so that is a huge step for your part. They have some great bands on their list now. Hope you’re the next!

The music on “New Horizon” is somewhat more complex, and has much more variety than your processor “The Encounter.....” How has the songwriting been done this time? Has it been the same as always or? Our main writers, Simo and Tapio have their own way of composing new material. Usually they bring along a bunch of new guitar riffs to the rehearsals, and then we take it from there. However, maybe the biggest difference if we compare “The Encounter…” and “New Horizon”, is that we had more complete songs when we started to record. Arrangements were much better also. Peccath also mentions that he has spent more time with Tapio composing the synth lines this time.

So, it’s been a time since you released the EP. Has there been any request from other record labels than Oak Knoll? A major label maybe? We are really slow with everything, so most of the promotion packages is still lay on the floor of my living room, he he.

Okay, so there is nothing new to tell about BoT right now, regarding the label situation? Nothing yet, only a few contacts from some minor labels, but nothing serious. Let’s make the promotion through first. And hopefully after that something will come up.

Since I’m a representative for a music internet magazine I must ask; how has the response been from other zines and magazines regarding your EP? As already said, we’re right in the middle of our promotion. So there’s only a few zines that has heard our new EP. But the response has been absolutely positive so far. First we were a little nervous about the responses, because we agreed to release “New Horizon” as an EP, and not as a demo. It’s so common when a band, that has had some good demo reviews, releases their first real “one” the response attend to turn out to be rather bad. We’ve seen it so many times. If you know what I mean?

Yes, I understand. When a band releases a new CD it tends to be subject to critics because the people have heard the music before, and there is nothing new to be found. So this far we’ve been very lucky with our reviews, but still this is an EP, and not a full-length, so let’s see what the feedback will be when we release our debut, whenever that will be.

As musicians, I guess you have some sort of inspirations? A band, a special person or a musical play you’ve spent hours and hours listening too, and then brining it into the band. There haven’t been any conscious influences, so in other words we don’t have any specific visions how BoT should sound like. Of course, Cradle of Filth gave us a lot of inspiration during the time between our two first demos. And I guess Arcturus is something we all enjoy listening too, and maybe draw a few ideas from. But that is only a small piece within our own music. And we mustn’t forget Dimmu Borgir.

You mention CoF, and I must say that you may sound a bit like them now and then. But you say that you only had inspirations from them during the two first demos. So why do don’t you say that you get inspired by them now? Heh, CoF’s music…umm, let’s say has great atmosphere. And I’m not ashamed to say that we have some similarities. But I chose to say that we’ve tried to put us away from them on “New Horizon”. You know, heading towards a new horizon. We’re not a “child in a cradle” anymore. Ha ha! Additionally I have to mention the all-time legends like Slayer and such. Also Swedish, and of course Finnish metal is close to most of our hearts too. I can't pass this question without mentioning the Finnish band Stone (from the eighties). At least three of us are great fans of that band...and Metallica. Fuck the new record though...

I must thank you for the time you’ve spent with me. And as a last small question I want to ask you guys if there is anything you want to add? Visit our webpage at www.bornofthorns.com, you can also download or listen to the whole "The Encounter of Light and Dark" demo and one song from the "New Horizon" EP. If you like the songs please spread the word to other people out there. While visiting our website, please sign the guestbook and give us some feedback. Good feedback is something I always want to hear and read, whether people like it or not.

Besides that, do you have any plans for concerts or anything in the near future? Yes, but they are only plans right now. Tapio is in the army till summer, so we have to wait for him to get out of it! Then we might talk about having some concert around Finland.

interview by Nash