Now when everyone’s talking about best doom release of 2013 do not forget about Finnish doom metal act Fall of the Idols. I Hate Records released their third full-length album “Solemn Verses” in October 2012 and this outstanding stuff is on par with strongest doom-releases of last year, Fall of the Idols did surpass their previous works “The Womb Of The Earth” and “The Séance” and six songs which were included in the album are solid monuments of crushing, epic and mournful traditional doom metal. Jyrki Hakomaki (vocals) and Vesa Karppinen (bass) are here to reveal their secrets of forging great riffs and beautiful dirges.
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Good day men! How are you? Don’t you mind if we start with questions about band’s name? I think that it was a kind of trend for some period – to ask any band who and how did figure out a name but I didn’t ask it for a long time, really.
Vesa: When we picked the name I had a whole list of band names and Fall of the Idols was a name us the founding members (myself, Jyrki and Tommi) could agree on. It was inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche.
“Fall of the Idols was formed by members of punk / metal band Adder” as metal-archives prompt me, how was it to change your musical direction?
Vesa: There wasn't any big concious effort to change direction - Adder was crippled by attitude and substance abuse issues of one (now deceased) member and when the rest of us decided to carry on in guise of another band we decided to focus on elements we found interesting and thought worked best.
Jyrki: The problem with Adder was that this now deceased member, Peter, was very despotic by nature; it seemed like his ideas were the only ones worthy of composing. Perhaps the biggest issue with Peter was his impatience---everything had to be ready on a silver platter when he came to ‘do his thing’…in overall he was disillusioned by some sort of grandeur of his own excellence and the rest of us were crud. So...Off-topic…we decided to put his speech on the album; one can hear him curse the audience during the middle part of the song “Cycle Of The Fallen”.
Vesa: As difficult being in band with him was, Peter was the one who dragged me into this business by introducing me to Black Sabbath and enticing me to start to play bass.
Men you play doom metal since 2000, how do the band’s sound and conception change from one release to another?
Vesa: I wouldn't call first recordings we did pure doom - the early stuff was really off the wall stuff, unfocused and hyperactive. But as time passed we became more focused, new members joined the band, the music took leaps and bounds towards its current form by each consecutive demo. By late 2004 all the elements were on their place on Agonies Be Thy Children demo.
Jyrki: There were some great sounds made by accident on some of those early recordings, but no…it wasn’t doom. And I think that we still haven’t found the essence of doom as it could be portrayed by us. Vision of a song seems to change quite a lot along the process or processes---I think the problem is that we don’t record our songs live, but each instrument individually…
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Let me disagree with you for “Solemn Verses” album sounds as example of pure and qualitative traditional – quiet epic – doom metal. Yes, there’re some influences but there’s also unique touch of Fall of the Idols – great tunes, very good vocal lines, the stuff is doomy yet there’s also some diversity. I thought that you know it without any comments. But can you honestly say how much of different influences from other bands do you see in this record?
Vesa: To me, some of Jyrkis vocal arrangements bear clear Dead Can Dance influence. What I think Jyrki tried to say that we haven't portrayed our vision of ultimate doom yet - we haven't quite reached the bottom so to speak. Solemn Verses certainly is a doom metal album, but is it the purest "doom metal as Fall of the Idols it envisions" album, I do not know.
Jyrki: Yes. I like the way DCD compose their songs and boldly I’ve taken some ideas from DCD here and there and transferred them to FotI, because I really believe that a good choir or chant belongs to epic doom; “Hymn” is a great example of this melting pot of such ideas. When it comes to screaming I’m tempted to say there’s some Today Is The Day –type of activity involved but only to a certain extent; the vocals haven’t been ‘burned’ with distortion.
And what did you achieve with such monumental new release as “Solemn Verses” is?
Jyrki: Not much. Everything. Why everything? Because we’re living the final moments of this band and seems that this doom n’ gloom some of us are going through is getting worse, so it is in some way understandable to get those peak moments of this negative energy into a recording before the grave boogie. And day by day I’m getting more and more convinced that like attracts like; positive people usually walk away from this kind of music. Perhaps I’m just experiencing the Onion Peelings…(meaning that famous game of “he/she loves me/not”)
You’re saying that you did live the whole album through you, aren’t you? I see but look – lyrics of “Solemn Verses” is quiet abstract and mostly based onto themes of human stupidity in a face of religion and vanity of our existence as it ends with death. Did I get you right?
Jyrki: I’m just little bit eased, that we finally got this album released…but yes I must admit I’ve listened to it many, many times in various places and situations—but that’s because I mixed the album. To me there are some flaws present in this record, but I can live with them. What comes to lyrics, well…in general your interpretation is correct, BUT there is also this underlying theme what it is to be a human being in 21st century and has our existence changed at all compared to our ancestors. The lyrics in “Solemn Verses” are more like a cold debate of values and trends; it’s not just slandering the religion and morals, but also science and rationality, since human being is not yet capable of such detachment from itself. We are not cyborgs—yet! There are also various themes hidden in single keywords or catchphrases, such as ‘flexploited’ or ‘never cry, always provide’—for example, some of the words or catchphrases have a certain historical undertone to them that, once understood, may change the interpretation of the listener. I became obsessed with the idea of compressing the lyrical content into a single word (or a catchphrase!!!) when we were doing “The Séance” and still I’m fascinated by it…
“Solemn Verses” was released by I Hate Records in October 2012 and I’m bloody happy to get it for review because I’ve already thought that we’re finishing this year with two “best releases 2012” – The Wandering Midget and Bloody Hammers. Yet your album gets straight into this power doom trio! How much time did you spent on whole process of creating the album?
Vesa: Timespan from the moment we started to record the album to release date was almost exactly 3 years. Basic drum- bass- and guitar tracks were recorded back in late 2009, early 2010. So it took a very long time to finish the album. The music was composed between 2008 and 2009 and crafting the lyrical content continued onto late 2011 or so. The death of our drummer Hannu in June 2011 made us to take a brief time-out but we were determined to carry on and finish the album.
Jyrki: Blame me this recording took so long---crippling depression is my excuse.
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It’s said that the album cover was initially intended to continue with the “forest” theme of the last two albums with green as dominant color and be done by Sami Hynninen. Yet this idea didn’t work – why? And why did you want to unite few of your albums with that motive?
Vesa: Sami was too busy with his own projects and we really didn't want to delay the release of the album any further. At least the colour theme we had planned for the album remained - our debut had red theme, second one had blue, so green-ish theme was the natural choice. Elaine, who did a remarkable job by the way, was then was assigned to the task had done the artwork for our split 12" with Forsaken so in a way it was kept with "the family".
Why did you want to keep similar conception for these albums? True to say I see no any objective connection between art-works of “The Womb of the Nature”, “Seance” and “Solemn Verses”.
Vesa: I like symmetry - having an idea clearly defined series of albums has always intrigued me. Tree trunks appear on both The Womb... and The Séance artwork, so there is a vague connection/continuation.
May you name a song from “Solemn Verses” which does better reflect band’s soul?
Vesa: Cycle of the Fallen.
Jyrki: I agree with Vesa. Cycle of the Fallen it is.
Vesa: One could say it is the story of this band.
But why?..
Vesa: It's in the lyrics man!
Jyrki: I simply like the atmosphere of that song.
You have “The New Crusade” song onto the album, it differs from other songs of “Solemn Verses”, how did you figure out such untypical composition?
Vesa: Originally there were two rough song ideas, one by Rami and one by Hannu. I got the idea of combining them and that is how it came about. It certainly is a bit different but clearly it is also a song by Fall of the Idols. I have to confess that I have a habit of using the song structure of Black Sabbath's Iron Man and perhaps it was a concious effort to come up with something different.
Jyrki: The lyrics differ a lot from the rest of the album, because it’s a critique on the value and concept of labour and plain, simple-minded Social Darwinism disguised in the concept of Homo Economicus. I say that this theme will be continued somehow on the 4th album.
“Solemn Verses” is bloody strong and catchy album, I’m feeling not that it’s right situation but I would compare this work with best of Officium Triste, Cathedral and Mirror of Deception. What make you proud with this album?
Jyrki: Perhaps the fact that the songs really resonate with the title of the album in essence and substance; “Solemn Verses” is the quietest FOTI –album.
Fall of the Idols have two split-albums – one with Forsaken and another one with Spiritus Mortis. How did you find a chance to collaboration with these great bands?
Vesa: Our tracks which appear on those splits were recorded in the same sessions for a EP release but when that plan fell through I contacted both the guys of Spiritus Mortis with whom we'd played a few times if they'd be interested in making a split release. They were and then I contacted I Hate if they'd be willing to put it out and they were so that's how it happened. After the success of SM/FOTI-split I contacted I Hate would they be interested in another one and they suggested Forsaken to us which was great and that is how Tales of Doom and Woe happened. Both bands are great and I feel honoured that our vinyl appearances take place in such distinguished company. Kudos to the guys of SM, Forsaken and I Hate!
Vesa, you also play bass in another band Wolfshead, what kind of band is it? What is it current state?
Vesa: Wolfhead is a band I started with a couple of old buddies of mine and our music is best described as old school heavy/doom metal, drawing influences with equal measure from both doom metal and NWOBHM bands. It's much more "rocking" and stripped to core affair than FotI, but when it comes to my songwriting and approach that hasn't changed a lot. So far we've released one 4-track demo/promo CD, played a couple of gigs and are currently recording an albums worth of material hoping to get a debut album out and playing gigs every now and then.
Man, I’ve heard that Fall of the Idols already have totally composed stuff for 4th full-length album, when do you plan to record and release it?
Vesa: My guess is that the recording sessions will start rather soon, but it is way too early to make any predictions when it would come out. That album will be the final Fall of the Idols album, since Hannu had his hand in creating some of those yet to be released songs and when they're done so are we as a creative force. When it comes to gigs - they're possible some point in the future but there aren't any concrete plans. Recording 4th album first is a priority.
Jyrki: We’ll start recording the last album at the beginning of the year 2013. It’s too early to say when it will be released. Anything can happen, so…
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Damn, I guess that everything may change in the future, but do you really see no reason to continue compose any new stuff after recording of 4th album. And well as it’s mostly composed can you tell us about it’s content in general terms?
Jyrki: There are some personal issues that I have to deal with after the recording of our 4th full-length. There are 10-12 songs, enough to pack 2cd’s worth of horror. Maybe a little bit of hope…
Vesa: As far as I can see it, when the 4th album is done that's it.
Thank you for this interview men, I only can wish you all the best on your way, good luck!
Would you like to say few more words for our readers?
Jyrki: You can get the best out of this album when you listen to it alone -naked- before sleep.
Interview By Aleks Evdokimov
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I Hate | Bandcamp
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I Hate Records | Official Website
Good day men! How are you? Don’t you mind if we start with questions about band’s name? I think that it was a kind of trend for some period – to ask any band who and how did figure out a name but I didn’t ask it for a long time, really.
Vesa: When we picked the name I had a whole list of band names and Fall of the Idols was a name us the founding members (myself, Jyrki and Tommi) could agree on. It was inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche.
“Fall of the Idols was formed by members of punk / metal band Adder” as metal-archives prompt me, how was it to change your musical direction?
Vesa: There wasn't any big concious effort to change direction - Adder was crippled by attitude and substance abuse issues of one (now deceased) member and when the rest of us decided to carry on in guise of another band we decided to focus on elements we found interesting and thought worked best.
Jyrki: The problem with Adder was that this now deceased member, Peter, was very despotic by nature; it seemed like his ideas were the only ones worthy of composing. Perhaps the biggest issue with Peter was his impatience---everything had to be ready on a silver platter when he came to ‘do his thing’…in overall he was disillusioned by some sort of grandeur of his own excellence and the rest of us were crud. So...Off-topic…we decided to put his speech on the album; one can hear him curse the audience during the middle part of the song “Cycle Of The Fallen”.
Vesa: As difficult being in band with him was, Peter was the one who dragged me into this business by introducing me to Black Sabbath and enticing me to start to play bass.
Men you play doom metal since 2000, how do the band’s sound and conception change from one release to another?
Vesa: I wouldn't call first recordings we did pure doom - the early stuff was really off the wall stuff, unfocused and hyperactive. But as time passed we became more focused, new members joined the band, the music took leaps and bounds towards its current form by each consecutive demo. By late 2004 all the elements were on their place on Agonies Be Thy Children demo.
Jyrki: There were some great sounds made by accident on some of those early recordings, but no…it wasn’t doom. And I think that we still haven’t found the essence of doom as it could be portrayed by us. Vision of a song seems to change quite a lot along the process or processes---I think the problem is that we don’t record our songs live, but each instrument individually…
Let me disagree with you for “Solemn Verses” album sounds as example of pure and qualitative traditional – quiet epic – doom metal. Yes, there’re some influences but there’s also unique touch of Fall of the Idols – great tunes, very good vocal lines, the stuff is doomy yet there’s also some diversity. I thought that you know it without any comments. But can you honestly say how much of different influences from other bands do you see in this record?
Vesa: To me, some of Jyrkis vocal arrangements bear clear Dead Can Dance influence. What I think Jyrki tried to say that we haven't portrayed our vision of ultimate doom yet - we haven't quite reached the bottom so to speak. Solemn Verses certainly is a doom metal album, but is it the purest "doom metal as Fall of the Idols it envisions" album, I do not know.
Jyrki: Yes. I like the way DCD compose their songs and boldly I’ve taken some ideas from DCD here and there and transferred them to FotI, because I really believe that a good choir or chant belongs to epic doom; “Hymn” is a great example of this melting pot of such ideas. When it comes to screaming I’m tempted to say there’s some Today Is The Day –type of activity involved but only to a certain extent; the vocals haven’t been ‘burned’ with distortion.
And what did you achieve with such monumental new release as “Solemn Verses” is?
Jyrki: Not much. Everything. Why everything? Because we’re living the final moments of this band and seems that this doom n’ gloom some of us are going through is getting worse, so it is in some way understandable to get those peak moments of this negative energy into a recording before the grave boogie. And day by day I’m getting more and more convinced that like attracts like; positive people usually walk away from this kind of music. Perhaps I’m just experiencing the Onion Peelings…(meaning that famous game of “he/she loves me/not”)
You’re saying that you did live the whole album through you, aren’t you? I see but look – lyrics of “Solemn Verses” is quiet abstract and mostly based onto themes of human stupidity in a face of religion and vanity of our existence as it ends with death. Did I get you right?
Jyrki: I’m just little bit eased, that we finally got this album released…but yes I must admit I’ve listened to it many, many times in various places and situations—but that’s because I mixed the album. To me there are some flaws present in this record, but I can live with them. What comes to lyrics, well…in general your interpretation is correct, BUT there is also this underlying theme what it is to be a human being in 21st century and has our existence changed at all compared to our ancestors. The lyrics in “Solemn Verses” are more like a cold debate of values and trends; it’s not just slandering the religion and morals, but also science and rationality, since human being is not yet capable of such detachment from itself. We are not cyborgs—yet! There are also various themes hidden in single keywords or catchphrases, such as ‘flexploited’ or ‘never cry, always provide’—for example, some of the words or catchphrases have a certain historical undertone to them that, once understood, may change the interpretation of the listener. I became obsessed with the idea of compressing the lyrical content into a single word (or a catchphrase!!!) when we were doing “The Séance” and still I’m fascinated by it…
“Solemn Verses” was released by I Hate Records in October 2012 and I’m bloody happy to get it for review because I’ve already thought that we’re finishing this year with two “best releases 2012” – The Wandering Midget and Bloody Hammers. Yet your album gets straight into this power doom trio! How much time did you spent on whole process of creating the album?
Vesa: Timespan from the moment we started to record the album to release date was almost exactly 3 years. Basic drum- bass- and guitar tracks were recorded back in late 2009, early 2010. So it took a very long time to finish the album. The music was composed between 2008 and 2009 and crafting the lyrical content continued onto late 2011 or so. The death of our drummer Hannu in June 2011 made us to take a brief time-out but we were determined to carry on and finish the album.
Jyrki: Blame me this recording took so long---crippling depression is my excuse.
It’s said that the album cover was initially intended to continue with the “forest” theme of the last two albums with green as dominant color and be done by Sami Hynninen. Yet this idea didn’t work – why? And why did you want to unite few of your albums with that motive?Vesa: Sami was too busy with his own projects and we really didn't want to delay the release of the album any further. At least the colour theme we had planned for the album remained - our debut had red theme, second one had blue, so green-ish theme was the natural choice. Elaine, who did a remarkable job by the way, was then was assigned to the task had done the artwork for our split 12" with Forsaken so in a way it was kept with "the family".
Why did you want to keep similar conception for these albums? True to say I see no any objective connection between art-works of “The Womb of the Nature”, “Seance” and “Solemn Verses”.
Vesa: I like symmetry - having an idea clearly defined series of albums has always intrigued me. Tree trunks appear on both The Womb... and The Séance artwork, so there is a vague connection/continuation.
May you name a song from “Solemn Verses” which does better reflect band’s soul?
Vesa: Cycle of the Fallen.
Jyrki: I agree with Vesa. Cycle of the Fallen it is.
Vesa: One could say it is the story of this band.
But why?..
Vesa: It's in the lyrics man!
Jyrki: I simply like the atmosphere of that song.
You have “The New Crusade” song onto the album, it differs from other songs of “Solemn Verses”, how did you figure out such untypical composition?
Vesa: Originally there were two rough song ideas, one by Rami and one by Hannu. I got the idea of combining them and that is how it came about. It certainly is a bit different but clearly it is also a song by Fall of the Idols. I have to confess that I have a habit of using the song structure of Black Sabbath's Iron Man and perhaps it was a concious effort to come up with something different.
Jyrki: The lyrics differ a lot from the rest of the album, because it’s a critique on the value and concept of labour and plain, simple-minded Social Darwinism disguised in the concept of Homo Economicus. I say that this theme will be continued somehow on the 4th album.
“Solemn Verses” is bloody strong and catchy album, I’m feeling not that it’s right situation but I would compare this work with best of Officium Triste, Cathedral and Mirror of Deception. What make you proud with this album?
Jyrki: Perhaps the fact that the songs really resonate with the title of the album in essence and substance; “Solemn Verses” is the quietest FOTI –album.
Fall of the Idols have two split-albums – one with Forsaken and another one with Spiritus Mortis. How did you find a chance to collaboration with these great bands?
Vesa: Our tracks which appear on those splits were recorded in the same sessions for a EP release but when that plan fell through I contacted both the guys of Spiritus Mortis with whom we'd played a few times if they'd be interested in making a split release. They were and then I contacted I Hate if they'd be willing to put it out and they were so that's how it happened. After the success of SM/FOTI-split I contacted I Hate would they be interested in another one and they suggested Forsaken to us which was great and that is how Tales of Doom and Woe happened. Both bands are great and I feel honoured that our vinyl appearances take place in such distinguished company. Kudos to the guys of SM, Forsaken and I Hate!
Vesa, you also play bass in another band Wolfshead, what kind of band is it? What is it current state?
Vesa: Wolfhead is a band I started with a couple of old buddies of mine and our music is best described as old school heavy/doom metal, drawing influences with equal measure from both doom metal and NWOBHM bands. It's much more "rocking" and stripped to core affair than FotI, but when it comes to my songwriting and approach that hasn't changed a lot. So far we've released one 4-track demo/promo CD, played a couple of gigs and are currently recording an albums worth of material hoping to get a debut album out and playing gigs every now and then.
Man, I’ve heard that Fall of the Idols already have totally composed stuff for 4th full-length album, when do you plan to record and release it?
Vesa: My guess is that the recording sessions will start rather soon, but it is way too early to make any predictions when it would come out. That album will be the final Fall of the Idols album, since Hannu had his hand in creating some of those yet to be released songs and when they're done so are we as a creative force. When it comes to gigs - they're possible some point in the future but there aren't any concrete plans. Recording 4th album first is a priority.
Jyrki: We’ll start recording the last album at the beginning of the year 2013. It’s too early to say when it will be released. Anything can happen, so…
Damn, I guess that everything may change in the future, but do you really see no reason to continue compose any new stuff after recording of 4th album. And well as it’s mostly composed can you tell us about it’s content in general terms?
Jyrki: There are some personal issues that I have to deal with after the recording of our 4th full-length. There are 10-12 songs, enough to pack 2cd’s worth of horror. Maybe a little bit of hope…
Vesa: As far as I can see it, when the 4th album is done that's it.
Thank you for this interview men, I only can wish you all the best on your way, good luck!
Would you like to say few more words for our readers?
Jyrki: You can get the best out of this album when you listen to it alone -naked- before sleep.
Interview By Aleks Evdokimov
I Hate | Bandcamp
Myspace
I Hate Records | Official Website