Information
Author: Mourning
Translation: Insanity
Line Up
Jussi Heikkinen - Bass
Petri Mäkipää - Drums
Paavo Mikkola - Guitars
Jani Hentilä - Guitars
Pekka Okuloff - Vocals
After two demos, "The Halls Of Tormented Flesh" and "When All Fades", come to us with "Bloodtorn" the Finnish Fleshred. You will find the review of the album turning fin the site, here we will try to learn more about the band.
Welcome to Aristocrazia Webzine, have you been a good summer?
Jani: The summer has been great! It has been very HOT here in Finland. Festivals, work with new cd and holiday. We were at Gothenburg on beginning of July to see Big 4. One of the greatest concerts! Slayer is still best live band ever and my personal all-time favorite along with Testament.
As is my wont, the introduction is related to the history of the formation, how Fleshred they are born? Who are they? How did the choice of monicker occurred?
Couple of years ago I was thinking to form death metal band because I've always liked especially scandinavian death metal. I asked my friend Jussi to join as a bass player. After Jussi another friend Pave joined. Oku and Pete were found from Imperiumi forum
The line-up consists of artists with an established position in the Finnish scene, with militancy and former militancy in act like Soulgrind, Gloomy Grim, Ghoul Patrol, The Scourger and Murdershock. What made ??you decide to give life to this new band?
Passion to play music I like and enjoy listening. I had already made some riffs and song structures before we all hooked up together and established Fleshred.
"Bloodtorn" is an album of granitic and ruthless death metal that alternates between very good performance, fast and punishing, almost funereal other flavor, thanks to the pachydermic slowdowns, you are completely satisfied of it?
Yes... I am very satisfied. Fleshred is all about very talented musicians so I knew this album cannot go wrong. Oku is very good arranging vocals and Pete destroys with drums. Of course it's little bit hard for me to judge the album as I've written the songs and listened the album like 10000 times before the release. I was also recording drums, guitars and bass tracks.
You have used the demo tracks "When All Fades" and the title track of the first "The Halls Of Tormented Flesh", how it been fit it into a wider tracklist? Now the sound is what you wanted from the beginning for these tracks
"The Halls Of Tormented Flesh" was very first song ever written for Fleshred. It's pretty straight forward comparing to "When All Fades" songs which has lot of tempo changes, parts etc. You can hear the music has evolved between "Halls" and "When All Fades". I still think "Halls" is very strong song and that's the reason we choose it to be part of this album. Even if for example "Halls" and "When All Fades" songs are different, one can hear its Fleshred. Same style of song writing.
The platter runs nicely, does head anging and is imbued with that retro wickedness that never hurts, there were goals that you have placed in the songwriting process?
Not really. Just make very simple death metal with respect to legendary bands like Entombed, Unleashed, Grave, Morbid Angel, Pestilence etc. Even if our influences can be heard, there are our very own ingredients.
Who are the composers of music and who has take care of the part about the lyrics?
I'm (Jani) the composer. Most of the lyrics have been written by Oku. He has done vocal arrangements as well. Never forget that good vocal arrangements are as important as writing the song. Oku is one of the best I've known writing vocal arrangements.
The old school death is never quite dead, even in recent years has surged thanks to bands who dedicate themselves in style. One of the oddities I've noticed is that, except in rare cases of young people of "novice" who come out doing a bang, (thinking for example at people like Profanal and Funeral Whore), are the elements in the scene from very long time those who feed for the most part this movement by constantly creating new formations, and here I think people like Roberth Karlsson, Kam Lee, Craig Pillard, but there were very many others. How can you explain a similar situation?
We just go and play. If you think too much, it eats out the passion and exitment of creating new. Just plug in and bang. I think that is the way death metal should be. Of course there are lots of little tricks and things that go around and around. But that is with everything. And we do our music as we want. This is Fleshred. Nothing more, nothing less.
What is death metal for you today? What are the most obvious differences between the movement today and the one that characterized the period in which you have begun to approach to the genre?
For me it's still mostly the bands I listened when I was teenager. There is couple of excellent newcomers also here in Finland. I have to mention Vorum...old school death metal with old school production. The biggest differencies is that many death metal bands are nowadays VERY technical and of course the music has changed sound wise. I'm not a very big fan of very technical death metal...simpler works better for me. About the production...I like both; very primitive production like Nihilist demos but also modern production like Hail Of Bullets.
Often we talk about historical release, citing the names that many know and love, and that marked the way of playing and listening, it is also unnecessary to mention them. If I ask you five quite basic disks of the Finnish death scene, fall back on what you choose?
Abhorrence - "Vulgar Necrolatry" / Abhorrence demos, Funebre - "Children Of The Scorn", Xysma - "Yeah", Amorphis - "Karelian Isthmus", Disgrace - "Grey Misery". Big respect to Tomi Koivusaari for his effort to Finnish death metal scene.
The platter is produced by Violent Journey Records of Vesa, a person always ready to support its national scene, how did you get in touch with him?
He has always given feedback to music I've promoted at Finnish metal forums. We gave him couple of Fleshred songs to listen, he liked what he heard and asked if we would like the album to be released through Violent Journey. Vesa must be one of the most active persons working for metal here in Finland. He has put great effort for helping and supporting us.
In these early years of Fleshred you performed "on stage"? We were given very beautiful nights that have left you good memories ,or not perfect evening to remember only with a smile?
All gigs we have done have been a blast... at least for us Absolutely great time playing!
What are the next steps of Fleshred? We must expect a bit of live dates? Maybe will we see you live here in Italy?
We're going to do some shows before end of this year. Hopefully some day at Italy as well but it's not easy for small band to get gigs abroad. All organizers... contact US!
It's the end, the interview is over, thank you for your availability and for the time spent with us, you just have to take a last farewell to our readers by bringing out this conversation as you wish.
Thanks for your interest towards Fleshred. Folks... remember to BUY the music you like... forget Torrent, Spotify and shit like that. Artists really deserve their hard work to be respected. Give a listen to our new album Bloodtorn! It's really something worth to listen. Thanks and greetings from Finland.
