"A Dead Heavy Day" is our third album. The album was recorded at Soundmix studios in our hometown Oulu by Kari Vähäkuopus in December/January and it was mixed at Grooveland studios by Aksu Hanttu in Lahti in February.

How long have you been recording the album ?

Like I mentioned before, we did all recordings within two months last winter. It was great that we were able to record it in Oulu because then we didn´t have to work everyday. Like, for example, we had some days off during the Christmas holidays and some days we spent just a few hours in the studio and then went back home. What I mean is that we were able to keep the recording schedule quite loose and therefore the whole recording process was pretty relaxed. I think you can actually hear it on the album.

How did you proceed for the composition ?

Well, usually Ville or Janne had some riffs which we just started to jam at the rehearsal place. Sometimes Ville had some vocal lines as well, but usually the music came first. I think it´s safe to say that Ville and Janne are the ones who compose our music, but the whole band participates in arranging songs, too.

Can you tell something about the lyrics ?

I think the lyrics are much more direct and honest this time than on our previous albums. I know that Ville has always had his ispiration for lyrics from the real life, but this time he is not using so many metaphors as he used to do. I think it´s way easier for the listener to understand what the lyrics are about on this album than on our previous albums.

Can you speak to us about your musical evolution ? For you, what are the biggest differences between this new album and the previous ?

I think the biggest difference between "A Dead Heavy Day" and our old albums is that this is the first time when we had the whole band working as a unit for the songs. When we were recording "Lust Stained Despair", Janne and Antti hadn´t joined the band yet and it was pretty much Ville who wrote the whole album and did all the arrangements as well. This time we had the whole band jamming and arranging new material at our rehearsal place and I think you can hear it from the result. We have also played a lot of shows between "A Dead Heavy Day" and "Lust Stained Despair" and this has also made us sound tighter as a band.

Who created the artwork ?

It was a German graphic called Stephan Wibbeke. Our record label suggested him and we liked his art and decided to use him.

Which songs from the album will you playing live ? Why did you choose that ones ?

Actually we played "Left Behind" and "Me, Myself & I" on some of our shows before we even started to record the album. When we played 3 shows in Finland in August, we played at least "Bear The Cross", "A Dead Heavy Day"and "Lowlife" every night. We haven´t decided our set for the European tour yet, but I think we are going rehearse as many songs from the album as possible and alter our set every now and then. It keeps playing several shows in a row more interesting for ourselves and hopefully for our fans as well!

How do you prepare yourselves either mentally or physically before you enter on stage ?

Personally I usually go through our set in my head before the show. Especially if there´s some songs I didn´t play too well last night, I try to analyze what went wrong and I try not to make the same mistake again. Physically I don´t have any special warp-up routines. If the venue is cold, I try to warm-up my arms and legs a little bit, but I don´t have any particular exercises which I do every night or anything like that.

Can you speak to us about the promotional video of the song "Bear The Cross" ?

This video was filmed in the surroundings of our hometown Oulu and we used the same filming crew who also did the video for our last album. I think they once again did a great job and we are really happy with the result.

Are there certain songs on the album you want to mention or tell something about ?

My personal favourites on the album are "The Days Between" and "Only You Can Tear Me Apart" They both are quite epic songs and I think you have to listen them through few times before you truly get into them, but for me these are the highlights of the album. There´s also some great rocking songs like "Diane", Human-Compost" and Lowlife" There´s a lot of humour included in the lyrics and I like these very much, too!

Are there any plans for an upcoming tour ?

Yes there is. We will do an European tour with Dark Tranquillity and Fear My Thoughts starting from Berlin in the end of October. This tour will last 3 weeks and after that we are going to play several headlining shows in Finland. There´s also been some talk about visiting Russia once again, but unfortunately nothing´s confirmed yet.

And as a conclusion, can you say some words for my radio show Metal Choc ?