Finland has always been a magical land giving to the world some of the most exquisite bands in the metal genre. A land of lakes, mystical stories and Northern lights. A land of winter wolves and hearts of passion.
Wolfheart is just all this – the beauty of the Finnish nature and passion, a fiery dance of the snow, an extreme romance below the glowing skies. Epic, powerful, delivering gorgeous melodies and absolutely uncompromising sound. Wolfheart’s astonishing new album “Constellation of the Black Light” was out in the dying lights of September sun, and we invited Wolfheart, to tell us more about the wolves, the winter, the band and their brilliant new record. Don’t forget to read Emil’s very special review on the album here.
– Welcome to Blessed Altar Zine! For us is an honor to have you here. Thank you for accepting out invitation! We are really excited! How are you? – Hey! All my pleasure. Things are going really well!
– Throughout the initial three releases and on the upcoming one, Wolfheart managed to maintain a splendid balance between Nordic death metal, black metal, utterly complex arrangements and beautiful melodies, without sounding repetitive. How hard is it to maintain this impressive and constant level of creativity and musicianship? – I don't find it hard. Creative process is going on all the time for me and I write new music constantly. Naturally I need to be careful that I don’t end up repeating myself but at the same time I see each album as a different story as a whole and would never tell the same story twice so each album will also end up standing on it own and unique.
– We are aware that Wolfheart’s music is centered on the properly coined tag, “Winter Metal”, however, lyrically the band covers a variety of subjects. Could you please explain to our readers how you we’re able to fold this diversity under just one tag, “Winter Metal”? Also, do you know any other bands that could borrow this tag for their own music? – With the production I always aim for cold, harsh but still beautiful and massive result. Those 4 words also describe Finnish winter perfectly. Also many of the different themes still connect to winter in the lyrics even when the actual song is not about winter itself. So far I have not found any bands using the same title for their music.
– Tuomas, after recording and releasing “Winterborn” in 2013, as a one-man project, with Mika’s contributions, you’ve decided to form a full band in 2014. Was this based on the desire to be able to perform live? Any other reasons? – Definitely the goal was to be able to play live shows right after the debut was released. Also Wolfheart was never meant to be just a solo project but wanted to focus completely alone on the music with the debut.
– Finland is definitely home to the best melodic metal no matter how extreme, obviously Wolfheart included. Why is that? – Long and dark winter in combination with the beautiful nature and melancholic state of mind.
– Do you have a favorite Finnish artist? Which are you main musical influences and inspirations? – I highly respect Juha from Swallow The Sun and guys from Insomnium of their talent and hard working attitude when it comes to writing music. My own inspiration comes from Finnish nature and my own solitude.
– Where else do you find your inspirations to write such powerful, heavy and beautiful music? – Those things mentioned in the previous answer are the main reasons to write W style of music. Certain feeling of permanent loneliness is really inspiring in all of its sadness and darkness.
– What is the heart of the wolf? Lonely? – Solitude and strength.
– Upon listening to “Tyhjyys” on vinyl I wrote down the following: “(..) Wolfheart’s “Tyhjyys” is actually an audiophile record. The sonic clarity for such dense sound is astonishing!” Same applies to “Winterborn”, “Shadow World” and presumably “Constellation Of The Black Light“. Can you provide any insight regarding the recording, mixing and mastering process pertaining to Wolfheart’s records? – To me it is really important to be able to produce an album with minimum amount of tracks and focus hard in the individual tracks, the way of playing with even smallest details like the angle of the pic towards the strings etc and to be able to produce the best possible sound by playing and bring the song alive with natural dynamics. Each musician needs to react with the song and the aim is to make the music sound like a force of nature. Like it is alive with its dynamics.
– Now please tell us more about the crushing new album “Constellation Of The Black Light”. What the fans will find there? How would you present it to our readers? What are the main messages and ideas behind? – It will be the most varied W album so far. Also the most epic album so far. Rest I will leave the readers to hear on the album.
– What is different now compared to the older stuff? – There is our fastest song ever on the album. Also the longest. And generally there is natural musical evolution and progression.
– Which is your favourite track off the new record and why? – Breakwater and Everlasting Fall. Both are awesome songs to play live and I really enjoy the energy of both songs while paying on stage.
– Our world is really on fire, but are we in an everlasting fall? Or this is already a boneyard? – haha….:) a really good question. I believe that we are on the edge of “Tyhjyys” (emptiness) and just waiting for the “Flood” to bury us all.
– What would you compromise with and what you wouldn’t? – Musically I would never compromise.
– With the forth album “Constellation Of The Black Light”, the first with Napalm Records, the band will embark on it’s first ever US tour. Despite the catalogue being available for sale and streaming, Wolfheart is virtually unknown on the American scene. Are there any additional events and/or promotions targeting the US market planned so that the band will gain the well deserved recognition? – Both videos have got good feedback and exposure in US and also new album is doing really well in radios. We also played in 70000tons of metal cruise this year and 2 week minitour in Canada this summer. Tour is just a first step to start building things in US and there is already 2nd tour confirmed for US for the beginning of the next year.
– What about your upcoming European tour and what can we expect from the band in 2019? – It is going to be really cool tour with Omnium Gatherum. Going to be busy times since between US and Euro tour there is only 6 days at home. 2019 were are continuing to be busy with touring in US, Europe, South America etc.
– What is the success for you? Do you feel yourself a successful artist? – Success is mainly freedom to me to be able to music as I like to do it. Do the album when I want and where I want. There is still a lot to conquer but everything comes on its own so I don’t think too much about it. I just focus on the music and let the management and label to the work.
– Did the music take you a lot? What did it give you? – I don’t feel that it has taken anything. Of course I invest a lot of time for it but not because I feel I have to but because I want. Music is a lifestyle to me and it is pretty much the air that I breath.
– How do you see the extreme metal scene nowadays? With so many artists, and great and not so great albums released? Did the digitization and the Internet helped or just the opposite? Did the music loose it’s romantic spirit? – Maybe it has lost the mystery a bit because all the bands and members are more exposed now days in Instagram, Facebook etc. In the past you had to wait 1 month for a new issue of a metal magazine to arrive to get to read the news about your favorite bands. Now everything is available in few seconds.
– Which three tracks describe the best Wolfheart’s spirit? – The Hunt, The Flood and Breakwater.
– How would you like Wolfheart to be remembered? – hmmm…weird to think things that far ahead…I hope that I would be able to create emotional connection to the songs which listeners would also notice and remember themselves with Wolfheart music when the band is gone someday.
– Thank you very much for being our guests and taking time for this interview! We wish you great success with “Constelation of the Black Light”! Looking forward to hearing from you soon! – Thank you!
Interview by Count Vlad and Emil
© 2018 by Emil Chiru
コメント