Interviews

First of all, receive our greetings from Peru. How is everything going there?

Scythe: Thank you Yusef. Well winter is coming, days grow darker and the alltime best of metal summer in Finland is now over leaving high expectations for the summer of 2006.

The first time I have heard your "anNihil[N]ation" I got the impression that your band could be a softer Black Metal band due to the introduction, but "Before the Monumental Beast" broke my thoughts and kicked my fucking ead with an attack full of rage and raw power. What was the first impression people had when listening to your production? What is the response "Annihil(n)ation" has received so far?

Scythe: Well glad to hear that we’ve accomplished what we were trying with that song – Serious ass kicking. anNihil[N]ation has received mainly good reviews and especially in Finland. In Middle Europe some reviewers have some kind of urge to insult or to mock bands that have good production or have used keyboards in their songs (or both) and instantly categorize the band under the Dimmu borgir worship section. Most of the Finnish reviewers have realised what Wrathage is all about and compared us towards our actual inspirators and motivators, like Dodheimsgard or Emperor. In overall we’ve been receiving good feedback from all over the world.

Wrathage has suffered different line-up problems, so I think the fact of releasing this roduction is a goal you have achieved. How does Wrathage el now that you have your son out?

Scythe: Well you couldn’t have brought this up at a better time since Chaos, our guitaris for almost 5 years by now just left the band due to lack of time so we’re looking for a guitarist at the moment. We’ve had our past members which most were friends to us in real life and in some cases the musical skills just didn’t evolve the way they should’ve had or the musical directions weren’t actually in line with Wrathage, but I still wouldn’t say we’ve had problems. Actually “Black light zodiac” our second promo was just released (and is heading towards Peru right now) so we’re pretty much celebrating our second release now, but at the time it was the first proper release that was played with real instruments and had a proper production so it was something I was really proud of it then and still am, but the new one kick’s ass much better, of course.

What do you like the most and the least of your "Annihil(n)ation"? Is there anything would you like to change in the case you could do it?

Scythe: Not actually anything to chance, it’s a milestone for us and it serves it’s purpose really well. The starting track “Entering” is a bit too cliché, but has that certain majestic sound to it and in a way it serves it’s purpose well as a fanfar as we start to conquer the world. Also in the beginning of the final track “Death” we didn’t actually achieve the effect we were trying to reach due to the different type of production in the studio than in the early homestudio version so the Orchestra-hit voice I would’ve wanted to do in a better way, but as in overall I’m still very pleased with the outcome and it’s a damn fine opening to the metal extreme’s. My favourite moments on the promo would be in “Before the monumental beast” with the more Death metal style parts.

You have shared the stage with Dismember sometime ago. How was that experience? Can you share any anecdote with us about this gig?

Scythe: Old, big, Swedish metal heads that played the shit out of Oulu that night, hah. It was a great opportunity for us to get a little bit of visibility in northern Finland and a first gig that many bands would kill for. They were pleasant fellows and didn’t overlook us in anyway. They also have one piece of anNihil[N]ation that I hope they’ve listened to. It’s hard to get gigs in Finland if you aren’t signed and since there’s lots of metal bands here the one who has the best connections gets the gigs, luckily we got that gig and going at the same level we played at the Jalometalli metal festival with headliners such as Exmortem, Dissection and Entombed so we’re definitely skipping the “school disco” -phase and going for the bigger stages.

In all this time you have playing. What do you think is the most difficult problem you had to surpass as band? and What have you learnt from it?

Scythe: We have been playing from like 1997 and the biggest issue on my behalf has been to play the first live gig as a band and to deliver our music to people in a way they’d enjoy the outcome and this we achieved at the start of 2005 with the Dismember gig and I’d say we did that pretty decently. I’ve read some good comments of our live-performance from the local media so we’re delivering. And what did we learn? Well it’s not only about how good and precise you play live, equally important is that it also looks good! Still you can overdo the headbanging if you play slower or lighter metal, but fortunately that’s not a problem with us.

What is the philosophy of life each member of Wrathage has?

Scythe: Philosophy – Smoke crack and worship Satan…hahaha…No, that Impaled Nazarene slogan just came to my mind. We’re not doing music to promote our views in life, but to offer people quality extreme music to relate to and to serve those emotions. Besides that we’re more of the more traditional Finnish Drink and drop metal heads. We enjoy harsh and aggressive music and continue to make Extreme music for the sheer enthusiasm for it.

What releases do you have out and What are your plans for the immediate future?

Scythe: anNihil[N]ation MCD/Promo 2004 was our first proper release and Annihilating Live DVD-R from the Dismember gig soon followed that. As I mentioned before, our second promo “Black light zodiac” is now out and conquering the media at the moment and at the spring of 2006 the Immortal tribute by Townsend Avalanche music –Athens will be out titled “Epimythion – A tribute to Immortal”. Besides that we’re looking for a label so that we could finally make a proper full length album. We’re currently promoting towards record labels, but if no-one gets interested we’ll definitely continue to make Extreme music. Me and D.V Grim have been going through some new riffs and ideas as well as composing some of the unreleased material so quality metal releases coming for sure.

Are any of you involved in other bands or side projects?

Scythe: Yes, me and D.V Grim have a death metal project called GUTFEAST that we’ll record some songs for a promo one day. Kusmin plays drums in KALMAH, MENTAL VOICE and one unnamed death metal band that I’m not sure whether I can tell more of that yet. Kalmah is recording their fourth album at the moment so it’s keeping Kusmin busy. D.V Grim graduated as a professional musician last summer so he has lot’s of ideas and projects that might turn into something interesting one day.

Finally, say hello to the people, thank you for answering this questions, and best regards for the future!!

Scythe: Hell is golden, Yeah!, also in south America I believe.

Adress for contact, web, etc.

www.wrathage.com

jun_tune@hotmail.com (scythe)