A Death Metal band that come from Finland, is a safe bet. Corpsessed is a proof of this.They have manage to become a reference of most dark and heavy Death Metal. Their album debut "Abysmal Thresholds" is a fucking masterpiece of this sound. We had a pleasant chat with Matti, guitar of the band.
Greetings Matti. Two months later of order your debut álbum LP “Abysmal Thresholds” in Me Saco un Ojo Rec, here I am making this interview, fully amazed with this ten tracks, probably one of the best bands emerged from Finland and Europe in this latest years with Krypts and Gorephilia. How do you see the álbum now that is out?
Matti: Greetings, and thank you for the kind words and making this interview. I like the songs on the album a lot and love playing them live. I'm pleased how the album turned out, but of course there are still things I'm not 100% perfectly satisfied with. Mostly with the production, but you live and learn... of course this leaves something to strive for next time, things to do better and being more ambitious. Otherwise the band would stagnate and become futile.
Your sound is very close to bands like Incantation mainly, but also I can listen influences of bands like Demigod, Sadistic Intent or even Immolation. This is something that often we are seeing in bands that comes from Finland like Krypts, Gorephilia, Ascended, Stench of Decay… Why do you think this resurgence of bands with this Death Metal style?
Matti: I don't think Death Metal ever died in Finland, it has just lain more dormant during the years. I don't know why it is just now that it has again emerged from its slumber with a full force. Perhaps the time is just right and enough new blood has been injected into the rotting carcass which was the Death Metal scene of Finland. Things always work in a cyclic nature, something new rises and takes the old ones place, until it's time for the old to re-emerge again.
As for the style, Finnish underground Death Metal has always been more dark and obscure, so perhaps that is in our blood. The old Finnish Death Metal has influenced us a lot.
Personally I think that in your debut álbum you have managed to capture the best Death Metal more dark and heavy, but without loosin the brutality and overall this infernal and funeral feeling and atmosphere. Who’s the genious that compose the tracks in Corpsessed? Which is the composition process for a track of Corpsessed?
Matti: I compose most of the riffs, Jyri writes some as well. Usually the writing process goes like that we write riffs and song structures on our own and then bring them to the rehearsals and arrange them to complete song as a whole band. Niko also creates some rhythm patterns to the vocals, and the lyrics are written last to fit those patterns. So everyone contributes in the end.
Are you one of this guys that have special moment for compose where the riffs come to your head? Or as contrary in any time of the day you can image a riff and then you have to get yout guitar top play it…
Matti: It usually requires a special mood to compose riffs. I'm also not that fast as a composer, some songs may takes months to complete from start to finish so it takes time to arrange all the details within a song before we see that it is complete. Of course there are times when a riff just comes into your mind and then you just need to pick up the guitar and start jamming it, so you can get the idea down.
In the vinyl version that I have, not put the studio where were recorded this full álbum, only that were recorded and mixed by you. Thats means that were recorded in your own studio? What equipment did you use for record the álbum?
Matti: We recorded the drums with the help of L.L. from Desolate Shrine, who mic'ed and engineered the drum recordings at their rehearsal room. Everything else was recorded on our own with the equipment we had available. Nothing really hi-fi - more like a demo-type of production but I love that kind of darker and grittier unpolished sound.
In the credits of the vinyl version says that all tracks where recorded from June to September of 2013, almost four months of recordings, is so time no? Something happened?
Matti: Nothing drastic happened. As we all have our jobs and studies, the recordings usually happened on the weekends and tracking the whole album took about 4 months. We started with the drums, which were recorded in one weekend in June of 2013. After that, we slowly tracked all the guitars, then bass and finally the vocals.
Finishing the lyrics also took some time. All the songs were totally composed when we started the recordings, but all the lyrics were not.
Searching in internet about the Corpsessed members and I haven’t seen that you had been in many bands before. Is Corpsessed the first serious band that you play?
Matti: We've all played in different bands before. I for example have played in a few funeral doom bands (Tyranny, Wormphlegm, and now also in Profetus), Jyri also played in a trad doom band Cardinals Folly before Corpsessed. Mikko has been playing in many different bands over the past 20 years like Azure, and Jussi had a couple of bands as well - he recorded one album with a band called Pohjoinen Kuri (alternative kind of stuff). Niko had only done vocals in one band for a couple of years before joining Corpsessed.
All of the bands listed here are rather small, but serious none the less. I don't think even Corpsessed is that "big" but perhaps it has made it furthest of all of our previous bands and we have a totally serious dedication for this band.
Are you all from Järvenpää? Do you know each others many time ago?
Matti: Yes, we are all from the small town called Järvenpää in Southern Finland, though Jussi lives nowadays in Helsinki. I've known Jyri for the longest out of all of the members. Jussi and Niko I met in 2006 when we briefly played in another band together. Mikko joined our band in 2009, though I've seen the guy around for years before that already... playing in different bands in the same rehearsalroom building. The circle of (metal) musicians is rather small in this town.
Like we talked in the previous question, I can see you first influence in Incantation of albums like “Mortal Throne of Nazarene” or even “Onward to Golgotha”, are you devoted of this albums?
Matti: Yes, I think early Incantation is killer - though they aren't our only influence, or even the major one.
After listen your album many times, everytime that I listen I like more, and you can arrive to the conclusion that your Death Metal is dark and heavy, but you haven’t a bad production or sound, I mean, this ten tracks of the album have an excellent sound and production serving to appreciate more so all the best elements of the LP, such as dark, and suffocating atmosphere loaded ... do you give great importance to the good sound and production? What do you think about this bands that try to conceal their musical deficiencies with the bad sound?
Matti: When we recorded the album, I of course tried to make the best sound I could. It's still far from hi-fi and we were limited to the gear we had. I wanted the sound to be really dark, heavy and suffocating but still clear enough so you could hear everything that is going on.
Production is important in that sense that it must serve the music/songs. Some compositions may benefit from a murkier lo-fi sound when another one needs a more clearer approach. It all depends on what you want with the tracks, works with some bands and doesn't with others. It's very much tied to the atmosphere.
Any member of the band has taken music classes ever?
Matti: I took some lessons when I started playing guitar when I was 15, but soon realized I'd learn much more interesting stuff on my own. Most of us are pretty much self-taught. Jussi might have taken some drum classes years ago, I think. Not sure for how long though.
As I have understood many finnish bands receive many economic support from the government for pay studio recordings, buy instruments, etc… Are you aware that you are privileged? In Spain is a impossible thing for a band like you.
Matti: We don't get any support from the government. I guess during one period the city we lived in supported the local bands by offering cheap rehearsal places where the city paid some part of the rent and the bands paid the rest, but this is not the case anymore. We don't rely on any support, and pay everything ourselves.
We also know that the metal music in Finland is very success and popular, that even a Death Metal band could appear in the national radio… I can’t image here in Spain sounding in a national radio a band like Avulsed, Graveyard or Teitanblood.
Matti: You don't really hear any extreme or underground metal in the radio here either. It's more of the pop kind of stuff. Though there are a few radio shows that occationally play the more extreme music.
I can image that you don’t like bands like Stratovarius, Children of Bodom, Nightwish or even the same Lordi, but you have to know that this open many doors to bands like you in your country. Do you think that it’s beneficial that’s this kind of bands become as popular as any pop band?
Matti: Yes, I absolutely do not like those bands, hah! You might be right. Perhaps they've opened doors to other Finnish bands with their success. The stuff they do doesn't really have anything in common with the music we do, though.
Let’s talk something about your previous recordings to your full album. First the 7”EP that contains two new tracks which later appears in the full length too. Why did you decide to include this two tracks later on the album too? Was re recorded for the album?
Matti: The untitled seven inch was originally meant as a taste of things to come since we take a quite long time to get new material out - we wanted to present something new to people while waiting for the actual album.
When it came to recording the album, we wanted to re-do these two tracks as the new versions have a different feel to them; A darker production and the songs are played much faster and tighter.
Your cover letter in Death Metal scene was your Demo “The Dagger & the Chalice”. That recording was quickly released by Dark Descent in CD and Me Saco un Ojo Rec. in vinyl. Did you hope this answer for this recording?
Matti: "The Dagger & The Chalice" was indeed first recorded as our demo, but it managed to raise the interest of these labels who wanted to officially release it as our first release. This response was more than we would have ever hoped for, and perhaps we were very lucky with this one.
In this demo you use the same formula as your next recordings the most dark and heavy funeral Death Metal, but the sound of your full álbum I think that is better. Did you use the same studio?
Matti: We used pretty much the same equipment for the new album except for the drums. The new songs had a more obscure feeling in them, so the sound also needed to reflect this. We took what we did on the previous one and tried experimenting things forward from there.
I have now in the past month updated our recording gear, so next time we should be able to record everything by ourselves and hopefully with better results - but first I need to learn how to use them properly, hah!
Let’s talk something about concerts. Not many time ago I saw in your Youtube Channel Matti, one live concert of Corpsessed in the Steel Fest 2012. Totally and amazing and blasting show by your side, but why the people and the crowd seems Zombies totally stoped? Were they shocked by your sound? People in the north of europe have fame of static in the fests and concerts in general, why this? How was this festival in general?
Matti: "The Dagger & The Chalice" had just come out last year when we did the SteelFest gig in 2012 and we had only done a couple of gigs before this, so not that many people even knew who the band was. We also played quite early during the day. Most of the crowd didn't know what to expect and were kind of just listening and sitting away from the stage. It's also quite regular here that the finnish people aren't that enthusiastic about new local bands... the audience just sits and judges you, and are more interested in bands from other countries.
This didn't stop us though, we always give our everything when performing on stage - no matter what the audience thinks.
Either way, SteelFest was great and had a good atmosphere. This was the first (public) edition of this fest when we played in 2012, and it has now been organized 3 times. I think it has grown into one of the best metal festivals in Finland during these past few years.
I have seen in your Facebook that you have been confirmed in NRW Death Fest in Germany for this year.
Matti: NRWDeathFest contacted and offered us a slot to play, to which we of course agreed! It will be great to get to play again outside of Finland and with bands like Incantation, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Funerus and Purgatory etc. This will hopefully be an excellent evening to remember. We are looking very much forward to it.
Any european gig planned?
Matti: One other European gig we just announced is the WolfThrone Fest in 2015 in France. There are no other ones booked at the moment, and probably wont be at least during 2014 as our drummer Jussi will be unavailable for the rest of the year... but let's see what 2015 will bring us! We are always open to all offers, especially one-off festival gigs etc. These are easier for us to arrange than full tours because of our job commitments etc.
For your releases you have choosen two of the best and more active labels in actual Death Metal scene, Dark Descent for CD version and Me Saco un Ojo for vinyl version. Are you happy with the work of both labels? Had you offers for anothers labels for release the stuff?
Matti: It's the other way around, these lables chose us, haha! We had a couple of offers from another labels when we put the demo out, but Dark Descent was the obvious choice to go with. Me Saco Un Ojo does occationally close co-operation with DD, so the vinyl deal came that way.
How is your personals lives beside the band Matti? You work or study? Have family?
Matti: I currently live alone and work a full day-time job.
Well friend this interview is going to end. I hope that this unstoppable trajectory continue like now, and soon I can see you in live. Greetins to you and to all the band.
Matti: Thank you for the interview! Indeed, hoping to see you on some gig in the coming years somewhere in Europe... who knows, the future is always obscure.
Interview by Necro.
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