IMPALED NAZARENE

-Mika : Compared to the old albums of Impaled, it’s a mixture of old and new Impaled Nazarene, but the new one has much more lead guitar solos : on ‘Nihil’ we had of course Alexi Laiho, but he didn’t play that many solos compared to the ones of this album, and that was really a decision : when Tuomo joined the band, we listened to him playing some leads at the rehearsal and, ok, I said to him that we had a guy who can play leads, and let’s pull him on the album because it fits. That what we did, we gave him completely free hands as I said, to do whatever he wanted, and all the solos on the album had been recorded in four hours, because we were behind schedule, so he said like ok, I will do it. So he did his solos, we were listening behind the door and we were like : wow !

And the production is much different from ‘Absence of war...", where the production was very digital sounding, the drums were really trickered and stuff, so this time we started, even before to record the album, to talk within the band that we needed to have more analog sounding record. That’s what we needed when we left the Astia studio, we said : trickers out, let’s use real drums sound, maybe samples of beats to make the sound more powerful but not trickered like ‘Absence...’ was. ‘Absence...’ is really compressed sounding, this is much more all band sounding, and much fast, and brutal ! When we were writing the record, we didn’t say that it had to be different. We did as we always do, everybody writes at home, we cannot write at the rehearsal place, we’ve tried it to play like a unit, but it didn’t work out and everybody writes the songs at their own houses, we meet at the rehearsal place, and so people are coming up with much more straightforward and brutal songs, so I wasn’t complaining !

-Did the success of ‘Absence of war’ open new gates for you ?

I don't know if it really opened anything new, but we got lots of new fans. Of course, it's nice for older bands like we are to gain new fans, because otherwise, your career is not going anywhere. I only hope that they will also buy "All that you fear"… (laughs)

-Did the death of Teemu Raimoranta put the band in peril ?

No, we've never thought that. It was very clear from the beginning. When we heard the news, we said that we would definitely continue because he wasn't a major songwriter. I don't miss him at all as a band member, because, when we went to rehearsals, he phoned and said he had to meet his mum or do this and that…, so he was never at the rehearsals. He wasn't writing any of the new stuff, he had one riff he had been working on for 2 years. I said to him, that's a good riff, now finish the song. But it took ages. Also when we were going on tour, everybody else was at the airport, we phoned him and he had just woken up! However, I do miss him as a friend, he was very loyal, I could trust him. When we were on tour, he always shared my hotel room, so I guess that I knew him the best. We had the same view of the world, the same misanthropic feelings. But when he died, he actually made Impaled Nazarene a better band, because we have a much better guitar player now.

-So there’s this new guitarist in Impaled, Tuomo, from Antidote : why this choice and what does he bring to the band ?

It went very easily for us, thankfully. After Teemu died, we took a one month break in respect of him. We then started to look for another guitar player and our bass player, who was in Antidote too, said "I have a friend who's an excellent guitar player and who's not playing in any band at the moment, what do you say?". I said fine and we gave Tuomo a CD-R with 2 songs. He had never heard our music, he only knew our name. I said "Learn them by ear and let's meet in one week at the rehearsals". At the rehearsal, he played the lead part and I went "Holy shit !". We finished the song, I just shook his hand and said "welcome to the band!". That's it! We also wanted someone who was in his thirties like us and who had already toured, so that touring doesn't come as a shock to them.

-For this album, you form again the production team of your two last albums : Ansi Kippo and Mikko Karmila, at Astia Studio and Finn Vox studio... Did you have the feeling you had found the right producers?

Yes, after "Absence…" was done, it was clear that for the next album, we were going to use them again. We were hoping that "Absence…" would sell enough for Osmose to give us more studio money, which happened, so it was very easy. For the next album, we might use someone else, but I don't think so, because I love working with Ansi and Mikko, they're excellent in what they do. They both have completely different ways of working, but when you put them together, you get an excellent result.

-A very important theme, topic in this album is the fight against the dominance of Christian religion, especially in Finland where it is close to the government today ?

Yes, there was an election in April in Finland and the center party won, but nobody really knew that its members were hardcore Christians. They have already managed, in 6 months, to make prostitution illegal, they are attacking video games, horror movies, so I think the next logical step is music. The one good thing about Finland is that we have an extremely big metal scene. So I'm sure that if they try to ban metal or something like that, there will be a huge movement. That would be their biggest mistake. Our Prime Minister actually said in an interview that women should stay at home and make children! In 2003! I don't understand, where do these people come from suddenly? It wasn't on their political agenda! I read an article saying that every Sunday, the leaders of the church and the government meet and the church gives hints about the way foreign policies, etc. should be run. Now we are stuck 4 years with these people! I only hope that the government falls soon.

-So the name Impaled Nazarene is more up to date than ever ?

Yes (laughs)!

-Do you expect more censorship or problems for yourself from this new political orientation ?

It's hard to answer, because with the previous government, there was one politician who tried to make a new legislation saying that violent lyrics, etc. should be banned, but nobody paid attention, but the situation is different now. Our Minister of Culture is a lunatic who seems to support extreme hardcore Christian ideas, I'm sure if someone talked to her about us, we would have problems, but if that happens, we will fight back.

-The opening song is sung in Finnish : what does it mean ?

It means something like "Soon, Jesus won't be laughing". It's in Finnish because of the political situation, the lyrics are a very harsh criticism of Christianity. I heard recently that this album is going to get reviewed by one of the biggest newspapers in Finland, either it will be good or it will totally smash it and maybe we'll have trouble after that.

-Talking about the title, what is your greatest fear ?

With me being a singer, the thought of losing my voice for good would be horrible. If it happened to me, I would slit my wrists, because the band is so important to me. Actually, the title "All that you fear" is a reminder to our enemies that Impaled Nazarene is what YOU fear.

-If Impaled was a movie ?

"The matrix", definitely.

Interview made by Jean Paul Coillard