When you think death-metal & Finland, you automatically got in mind Alexi Laiho’s famous Children of Bodom and its shitty army of clones. But you must know that the "Land of the thousand lakes" proposes also some very fresh & original young talents, Omnium Gatherum are one of us. Their mix of death-metal & thrash with some progressive elements really caught my attention. They will release their second & brand new album on Nuclear Blast, beginning of november. It was time for guitarist Markus Vanhala and vocalist Antti Filppu to answer these few questions in october 2004.

 

>Hi, first i\'d like to know more about the founding reasons of Omnium Gatherum. Can you tell us when & why did you decide to create this band ? An history of the band would be great.
M: Omnium Gatherum is a "melodic" death-metal squad from the wastes of Finland that produces complex but accessible death-metal that incorporates elements of thrash and traditional metal. Omnium Gatherum was formed somewhere in 1996 by me and that was because a teenager metal dude wanted to play death-metal with melodic touch and my old band had just broke up... and secretly we liked the local band called At Dawn They Sleep and wanted to be like they, hehe! The very first inspiration and decision to the dream of forming a band someday came from the band Europe when I was six-years old. Omnium Gatherum released four demos in 1997-2001 and line-ups changed and after hearing our "Wastrel" demo’01, Rage Of Achilles label from England offered us sensible deal. Our debut mcd "Steal the Light" was released in 2002 and album "Spirits and August Light" was released in 2003. Those releases caused very positive whizz on the metal medias and among the "scene" and they even got few "album of the month" titles in some magazines. When it was time to record the second album titled "Years In Waste" Rage Of Achilles label decided to quit their business at the time when we were already in the studio recording it… So, it was time to send some promos from the album to some companies and luckily we got some good offers from many labels and signed the deal with Nuclear Blast.

 

>I read that some of you guys play in other bands. What are those bands ?
M: My other band is called Manitou that plays traditional heavy-metal with progressive spices. Harri and Jarmo play also in a band called Total Devastation which plays modern death-metal. Antti has also an anonymous band in which he\'s been playing for over a decade by now. At the moment their music could be described as folk-influenced art-rock, a purposeful contradiction in terms! Then there’s also some humour therapy bands as technical-gore-grind outfit Gore Penetration and stoner-heavy-rock crew Kaihoro, so there`s a lot different kind of stuff made by the group, I guess we don’t have a life or something else to do than music, hehe.

 

>Where did you record your brand new album "Years In Waste"? Was is a good experience ?
M: "Years In Waste" was again done in the Sonic Pump studio in Helsinki, Finland as also the previous two releases of ours. That`s a good metal workshop and we have had a good connection with the studio engineer Nino "Thunderstone" Laurenne and he is beginning to know exactly of what Omn

ium Gatherum should be sounding. This time we had first time also external producer Teemu Aalto kicking our asses in the studio who was a big help to get us, the lazy dudes trying to play our best efforts on tape.

 

>"Spirits And August Light" was very well acclaimed by metal medias. Was it a surprise for you ? What did you try to change now on this second album ?
M: Yeah, I could say that it was a big surprise as the feedback towards the album was sooo amazingly good almost from everywhere and the reviews summed that we are something like a refreshing "new wave" of melodic death-metal. The main goal for the new album composing was of course to make much better and versatile album than "Spirits and August Light" and my opinion is that we reached our goal as "Years In Waste" sounds very much better and individual album to our ears. I think that the album have still something new to offer to the overcrowded metal genre.

 

>I find your style very different from the average finnish metal bands. You play death-metal but don\'t sound at all like Children of Bodom. What are your influences ?
M: Cheers, nice to hear that really! Eventhough sometimes we have been however compared to Children of Bodom, that`s a standard here in Finland if you play death-metal… We try to combine different kinds of styles in our stuff so that the music would have more varitation and it would be overall more interesting. Influences come from a large scale from everywhere; from At The Gates to Massive Attack to Death to Devin Townsend to Europe to The Who to Anathema to Allan Holdsworth to Morbid Angel to Judas Priest and so on.. We all listen music from a very large scale and hopefully that brings some colourness to OG Omnium Gatherum`s own noise. The first point when the band was formed was to do something to compare with swedish death-metal bands and old Amorphis and Death.

 

>I even found some progressive structures in your songs & maybe a little Meshuggah influences here & there.
M: Meshuggah is very cool and original band that we respect a lot. That`s a compliment to us if you have found some pointings to Meshuggah on our album and of course it`s subconscious to combine those influences to own stuff from the bands what we respect and listen, we haven`t thought so much that now this part needs some Meshuggah spices`n`spirit and so on. But we try to cultivate some different kinds of arrangements and solutions in our songs in order that the stuff would be more individual and would bear more hearing times. It`s nice element on albums if you can`t hear all the hooks in first listen, that`s a sign of a good album in my opinion.

 

>Speaking about Finnish metal, you have many clones of Children of Bodom & Stratovarius in your country, many melodic speed-heavy bands, a lot of black-metal acts & a few funeral-doomsters. But i don\'t know another band sounding like yours. Is it intentional to propose something different & fresh with Omnium Gatherum ?
M: Of course it`s that way intentional that it`s quite normal and positive to try to find something own and new and not to copy others. Hopefully we`ll start the Omnium Gatherum invasion in Finland and every band wants to sound like Omnium Gatherum after a while… just kidding! This is just our way to do the metal stuff an

d it`ll always sound something like this when we do material, I guess even we would try to sound like Children of Bodom or Stratovarius we would end to sound like Omnium Gatherum, that`s our curse or blessing… hehe! That`s true that here is some high speed invasion going on at the moment in Finland and everybody wants to be the fastest band or drummer or guitarist on the field or something…
That`s shit! Who the fuck really cares in the end about that…

 

>What does your band name mean for you ?
M: If you translate it twistedly to english it means same as Mötley Crüe! Peculiar mixture, gathering of the freaks, freak circus, miscellaneous collection or something like those… The name describes perfectly our band, the dudes and what`s going on here.
A: The name means a lot to us... There are some things in this life that just can´t change! Even though certain people have recently insisted us to do it...

 

>Your first song "The Fall Went Right Through Here" reminds me a bit of Scarve. Do you know this french band who plays a kind of modern death-metal with some Strapping Young Lad / Soilwork / Meshuggah touches ?
M: Hell yeah, I was just while ago introduced to Scarve’s new album "Irradiant" and "Luminiferous" album and they`re really great albums. Nowadays there aren`t so much new metal bands that really convince about their own style and seriously kick my ass but Scarve did it! The band combines greatly those SYL/Meshuggah /Soilwork influences and I`m a big fan of those three bands so I guess that`s why Scarve is also so cool band in my opinion. I think Scarve is one of the truly best new wave metal bands!

 

>Your singer Antti Filppu has a very personnal style. His voice can sound really special almost like if he\'s suffocating. Is it a sensation he specially try to work or his natural tone ?
A: Grrkkkkhh. Yes, I\'ve had times in my life when I felt it was hard to breathe. Maybe it\'s still reflected in my growling style, don\'t know. Or maybe it\'s just the way our records are mixed? Don\'t know! Anyway, life can be suffocating sometimes. I don\'t deliberately do it.

 

>Let\'s talk about your lyrics now. Your song titles seems to be really dark & full of meanings. What are you talking about precisely ?
A: "Years In Waste" is a journey to the wastelands of youth, where depression is at first sought for and then found. And eventually it\'s something you have to fight against, at least when it becomes serious and deep enough. Some of the song titles are just simply stupid, not dark. That\'s because they were invented in the mid-nineties, when I was still a kid. Together with the lyrics, they create such amusing frames for the interpreter to look at it all. And I\'m not gonna tell you any exact meanings.

 

>Now that you\'re signed on Nuclear Blast, do you know if you will tour through Europe to promote this new album ?
M: Nothing really planned out yet, but if it would depend on us we would go tomorrow, that`s for sure! Hopefully we are able to get the tour bus started soon and head to the central Europe!

 

>Well thanks for your answers, if you want to add something more, last words are yours.
A: Try to breathe well, IN OUT, IN OUT.