But, to hear bassist Olli-Pekka “Oppu” Laine tell it, that’s kind of how the band came together as well. Disparate players involved in separate bands, each trickling in the direction of what would become Barren Earth. As the central organizing force, Laine — formerly of Amorphis and Finnish stoner rockers Mannhai — had the task of bringing everyone together — and with members of acts as far-reaching as Kreator and Moonsorrow, it couldn’t have been easy.

The complete lineup of Barren Earth includes Laine, vocalist Mikko Kotamäki of Swallow the Sun, lead guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö of Kreator, guitarist Janne Perttilä of thrashers Rytmihäiriö (also live Moonsorrow), keyboardist Kasper Mårtenson who was also in Amorphis and Mannhai, and drummer Marko Tarvonen of Moonsorrow. If you didn’t follow all of that, here’s what it boils down to: a lot of talented players and a lot of crowded schedules.

Nonetheless, in the short three-year time Barren Earth has been together, the level of output has displayed a cohesiveness that goes well beyond having players on the same page. Not only is the band tight, they’re productive, and as Laine explains in the following interview, it’s a common influence ranging from ’90s death metal to ’70s prog that unites them and makes them able to compose material as diverse as that on Curse of the Red River.

Whether or not you’re in Finland and can catch them in the next couple days — they’ll be playing Turku, Kuopio, Jyväskylä and Oulu — please enjoy the Q&A to be found, as always, after the jump.

How does a band like this happen? How did everything come together?

It was quite a long process, which started even before there was the decision to form a band. I had talked to these guys separately during the years that it would be nice to do something together, and we even had a band with Kasper and Marko, the keyboard player and drummer, which played pretty much the same kind of music, but arranged in more of a progressive rock style. We even made a demo tape with three or four songs, and it was totally instrumental stuff. But because we didn’t find a suitable vocalist, we split up. Because of that project, I knew myself, Marko and Kasper would have perfect chemistry. So when I started to write metal songs, progressive metal stuff, I already knew I would have the right players ready. When I quit playing in Mannhai, my previous band, because I got bored with stoner rock (laughs), surprisingly, I already knew who I would call. With Janne I played a few years ago in The Camel Gang, basically a tribute band. That’s how I met Janne in the first place, and noticed he was quite a player. With Sami, I had a chat with him in a bar. We were real drunk or something, or high, and we were discussing about music and realized we have a lot of similar musical tastes, so that’s when we agreed to form a band someday. When we lacked a lead guitar player two years ago, I recalled the conversation with Sami, so I thought that it would be a great chance to play with him. This is how it all happened. I’ve known these guys for years, and we all have been talking about forming a band together some day. It was quite a process, but it was really quick. It was about three years ago I started to call people up, and it was half a year and I was already there. Mikko was the last guy who we called after we made the demo, and we said we needed a vocalist for the band, and he needed to growl and do clean vocals as well. Marko remembered Mikko because they toured together, Swallow the Sun and Moonsorrow, so he was the perfect match for the band. Icing to the cake.

He has that kind of versatility that can go wherever the music is going.

Yeah, he’s really good. He does the perfect growling vocals that we wanted, and his clean vocals are also fit with Sami’s higher range together. They almost sound like one vocalist. They somehow blend together perfectly. That’s another bonus.

You mentioned Mannhai and being bored with stoner rock, but was there something that made you want to go in the progressive, heavier, death metal direction?

It was fun to play stoner rock after playing metal for 10 years, because I grew up with listening to AC/DC, it was fantastic to learn how to play rock music. That’s the reason it was so fun to be in Mannhai. I enjoyed being in it, the gigs were great and I enjoyed the albums as well, but after all, it was a really limiting musical genre. It was really, really hard to try to stretch the sound, and make it original. I thought when we formed Mannhai, I wasn’t the active part of putting the band together. I wanted to get away from Amorphis, and it was an alternative for that moment, so I just kind of drifted to play the rock music. We did four albums and after those, I didn’t really like them. It’s hard to explain, but I didn’t see any way to experiment with music with stoner rock. It’s limiting kind of music. I just made a decision around 2006 that now I’m starting to write songs that I like to write, without any limitations, because with Mannhai I had to stick with stoner rock, but with Barren Earth, I can do anything. I can play acoustic stuff, do death metal, whatever. That was the main reason why I wanted to switch musical direction.

Did you write most of the songs for the Barren Earth album?

From the beginning, I wanted that everybody should write music. I guess I was the one who was the one who was the most well-prepared for this band. I had loads of songs and I still have loads of songs on my computer, but I think in the future everyone will come up with songs, like everybody did for this album as well, but I just happened to have most of the songs this time. Next time it might be someone else, I don’t know. In that way, it’s not my project or whatever. We are all in this band seriously. Everyone wants to write music for Barren Earth.

The reason I ask is, listening to the album, you can hear a lot of different influences, and I was wondering if that was you trying to bring in a range of sounds, or just the input of the other players.

Well, both arguments fit quite well. I did want to bring as variable a sound as possible to Barren Earth, and I wanted to do acoustic stuff, clean vocals, death metal, and the whole scale. But the other reason is of course that there are so many composers in the band, so that widens the range even more. Every one of us happens to be open-minded when it comes to music, so there are many composers and every one of us is ready to experiment with music. That makes our music naturally quite progressive.

About the track “The Leer.” I’m a big Amorphis fan, Tuonela is one of my favorite albums ever, but I wanted to bring up that song, because I thought it had kind of an Elegy vibe to it. Are you aware of that kind of thing as you’re writing, or is it just what comes out?

Again, it’s both, and as I said earlier, I just wanted to let it all come out naturally after Mannhai. My influences are the same as which they were during the Amorphis years. About “The Leer,” there are influences from Finnish progressive rock, which we all listened to much in the ‘90s. Bands like Kingston Wall and stuff like that. That particular song, “The Leer” even might sound Iron Maiden-ish, a fast song. The actual influence comes from one Finnish composer [who] is still doing instrumental music, and he did a theme album in the late ‘70s called Landscapes from Finland. “The Leer” was written after listening to that album once again, so they’re all influences from Finnish prog rock and from Autopsy, but those bands are still the same which we used to listen in the early ‘90s, the Amorphis guys, so that’s the reason for the similarity in sound.

Both the album and the EP have very ‘90s, classic Peaceville album art. The EP cover looked like Paradise Lost. Even the logo is in that style. Have you had any say in that? Do you think of Barren Earth in line with those bands?

With the logo and the covers, we wanted to underline that we are a death metal band. We are not emo or whatever. We are not a love metal band. We wanted to honor the roots, and that is our taste as well. When we picked up the cover for the EP, there were six options and everyone agreed this should be the one, not the least because it looked like a Paradise Lost cover (laughs). We all dig Paradise Lost in a big way. Also with the album cover, it is very old school, and even in a little bit of a corny way, but that’s how we wanted to make it, to show this is what we are and this is what we want to do. The logo was a little bit the same as well. We had two options and the other one was even more death metal, with all the mushroom stuff, so this was a compromise between our progressive rock and death metal. So yeah, it was intentional to have an old school outfit for the band.

You’ve gotten a lot of sound comparisons to Opeth. How do you feel about that?

I’m happy with comparisons to Opeth (laughs). I don’t have any issue with that, it’s totally fine for me. That was one of those bands which made me want to play death metal again. It got me into some kind of nostalgic when I heard Still Life on the radio, when it was released. I’d lost it somehow, I couldn’t compose in that way or even play death metal anymore, but hearing that album made me realize that, well, these guys can make it, why can’t I do it again? They are kind of responsible for Barren Earth’s birth.

You mentioned before a backlog of songs on your computer. Are you always writing?

Yeah. I am writing all the time. It gets lazier from time to time and it’s hard to get the inspiration, but I have a bank of riffs on my computer and whenever I don’t get the inspiration, I listen to those riffs and try to put and force them together somehow. When I don’t write riffs or compose, I arrange music, so there’s something to do all the time. If I’m not doing those things, I’ll write lyrics or something. So it’s going all the time.

You’re doing this year’s Summer Breeze festival. Any other touring plans?

Yeah. We are doing a short Finnish tour in May and we plan to tour Europe during this Fall, but the release time of the album is sort of kinky. It’s really hard to sell any festival gigs if you don’t have an album out, and when it comes out, it might be too late to sell any gigs to festivals, but if it doesn’t happen this summer, it will happen the next one, and hopefully we can make it to the States as well.

Barren Earth on MySpace

Peaceville Records

Their oppositional stance to press, playing live and (occasionally) their own fans has made Darkthrone a pariah in the world of underground metal, and I doubt very much they’d have it any other way. As on their more recent albums, F.O.A.D. (2007) and Dark Thrones and Black Flags (2008), the latest, Circle the Wagons (Peaceville), was composed half by Fenriz and half by Nocturno Culto, and contains the barebones stuff of heavy metal hunger. Imagine being in a band for 23 years and still sounding as ravenous as though you were just releasing your first demo.

What’s most striking about Circle the Wagons opener “Those Treasures Will Never Befall You” is how produced it is. Of course, it’s all relative, but compared to Dark Thrones and Black Flags and F.O.A.D., which basically sounded as live and lo-fi as you can get, Circle the Wagons starts off sounding polished. I chalk it up to the added experience the band has recording themselves and maybe some new equipment at Necrohell Studios, where they make all their albums. Nonetheless, the song — a Fenriz composition — feels like the duo are starting to develop within this still basically new stage of their career, beginning to evolve within their punk/metal sound. The vocals are a little more complex in their arrangement, and on the whole it comes off as less reckless than some of their output in the last few years. It’s an interesting development.

And it keeps up for much of the album. A track like the 7:33 “Stylized Corpse,” written by Nocturno Culto, also sees more development, and although he has stuck more to the band’s black metal origins in his writing than has Fenriz, the two are starting to come together more stylistically. In this way, Circle the Wagons has a better overall flow than either of Darkthrone’s other albums in this style. I don’t think that’s something that was carefully planned out, it’s just the organic nature of the songwriting. The only listed joint piece, “Black Mountain Totem,” is the quintessential stuff of new-era Darkthrone, blending elements of ‘80s underground metal and punk with a little of the Norwegian coldness by means of which the band got their start. I don’t know what keeps these guys wanting to make albums, but their output is so refreshing in terms of what it says about the persistence of the creative spirit that I can’t help but be glad each time a new one comes along.

Those who saw the humor and/or memorable appeal of Fenriz tracks like “Canadian Metal” from F.O.A.D. and “Hiking Metal Punks” from Dark Thrones and Black Flags will find “I am the Graves of the ‘80s” fits right in line. Fenriz’s other declarative statement on Circle the Wagons, “I am the Working Class” is a little longer, but perhaps filled with even more punkish resentment in the lines, “I am the working class/Damn straight the daily grind is my fate.” One doesn’t generally go to Darkthrone for social commentary, that’s just not what they do, but it’s funny to think of white collar American hipster metal fans singing along to this on their iPhone, and one hopes that some equivalent image was in the mind of Fenriz when he wrote the song.

His other two contributions are the title track, a quick burst of punk anger, and closer “Bränn Inte Slottet,” which shows some doom influence in its closing moments. The Nocturno Culto-only tracks, “Running for Borders,” “Stylized Corpse” and “Eyes Burst at Dawn” provide ample counterpoint, with the latter being a genuine Circle the Wagons highlight. He doesn’t get as much attention from the media as does Fenriz — in no small part because Fenriz handles most of the band’s press and cuts a more sensational figure for himself — but a song like “Eyes Burst at Dawn” excellently melds all eras of Darkthrone into a cohesive mass that should please fans both new and old. And if I may say, fucking killer guitar solo as well.

If you’re a fan of Darkthrone’s late sonic excursions, then Circle the Wagons is going to fit right in with what you’ve been enjoying about the other albums. If you hanker for the days of high-contrast black and white photos in the woods, there should be enough other bands out there aping the style to tide you over anyway, so go bitch somewhere else. Circle the Wagons is Darkthrone doing what Darkthrone does. It comes with a fair amount of antagonizing and confrontation, and it makes compromises for no one. If you can’t get behind that, I don’t know what to tell you.

“Destroy their modern metal and bang your fucking head.” — Fenriz, “I am the Graves of the ’80s”

Darkthrone on MySpace

Peaceville Records

Inevitability dictates there must be a full-length to follow-up a debut EP, and Barren Earth have theirs in the form of Curse of the Red River (still Peaceville), which, like Our Twilight, boasts a cover strictly adhered to an old school mid-’90s European death/doom aesthetic, even as the music finds itself in a different niche entirely, veering away from the Paradise Lost-worship suggested by the visuals in favor of a thoroughly modern progressive death approach. Opeth was a sticking point comparison to the EP and the same holds true for Curse of the Red River, Kotamäki’s multi-layered vocals moving gracefully between throaty growling and clean melodies. The title track of the EP shows up here as well, and fits in well enough with the rest of the material, which on “Forlorn Waves” puts keyboardist Kasper Mårtenson, also ex-Mannhai and Amorphis, to work on a track that recalls Elegy’s masterful blend of folk-inspired beauty and wrenching metallic crunch.

Liberal switches between heavy and acoustic parts are sprinkled into the songs, and as Curse of the Red River treads on, the tracks start to blend together. The closing trio of “Ere all Perish,” “Cold Earth Chamber” and “Deserted Morrows” — each track providing a solid listen individually — sounds undeniably samey after the six cuts that precede it, and one is suddenly surprised that a band with such a diverse sonic breadth would begin to feel formulaic so soon. Where earlier moments like “Flicker” grooved as only the best death metal can (and also offered a stretch of engaging folk guitar) and “The Leer” provided a guitar solo bound to perk up the arm hair of anyone who’s experienced Tuonela, Barren Earth seem to have packed Curse of the Red River top-heavy. That’s not to say the aforementioned songs aren’t enjoyable – I’ve started the album at track six (the memorably keyboard rich “The Ritual of Dawn”) and dug it right to the end, but the way the tracks are ordered on the complete record, it does drag compared to the first half.

Nonetheless, there is a certain sect of fans of Finnish metal (as opposed to Finnish metal fans) for whom Barren Earth will be a boon, and I count myself among their ranks. Perhaps what surprises most about Curse of the Red River is the dynamism of the playing and the flow between parts heavy and soft. These are all experienced musicians, but sometimes it takes a while for a group of guys – all used to doing things a specific way – to become accustomed to playing with each other. Barren Earth seem to have surpassed that learning curve on their debut, and for their having done so, it’s all the more exciting to think where they’ll go from here.

Barren Earth on MySpace

Peaceville Records

Here’s the info:

The unrelenting Norwegian duo, Darkthrone, will welcome a new decade with a new album, to be released on Peaceville Records. Circle the Wagons, a creative feast of metal and punk, will initially be released on vinyl on March 8th, through the Peaceville Records webstore, as an exclusive taster for the legions of metal supporters out there who still care about great music delivered the classic way. The vinyl will also include a link to download a digital version of the album, which will be available when the regular and special edition CD versions of the album are released on April 6th.

Circle the Wagons was self-recorded at Necrohell II Studios. Artwork for the album comes once again courtesy of Dennis Dread, notable for his talents on previous Darkthrone albums, F.O.A.D. and 2008’s Dark Thrones and Black Flags.

Drummer/lyricist, Fenriz explains the meaning behind the title…

“The new metal decade starts with our album. It is a message to the invaders of our metal domain to circle their wagons!  With our own brand of heavy metal/speed metal-punk we are a constant ambush on the modern overground metal traitors. Join us in our fight against instant gratification, and let’s see who stands when the smoke clears.”

Track listing:
01. Those Treasures Will Never Befall You
02. Running for Borders
03. I am the Graves of the 80s
04. Stylized Corpse
05. Circle the Wagons
06. Black Mountain Totem
07. I am the Working Class
08. Eyes Burst at Dawn
09. Bränn Inte Slottet

When a record label like Peaceville tells you a band?s sound is ?fusing death metal with progressive rock and folk elements,? your mind is justified in immediately flashing to Opeth as a comparison point. Barren Earth do have some Opethian moments, in their structures perhaps even more than their riffs or style, but as noted above, it?s more than just ?kerfeldt-style playing and singing going on. With Kreator guitarist Sami Yli-Sirni?, Moonsorrow drummer Marko Tarvonen, Swallow the Sun vocalist Mikko Kotam?ki and former Amorphis bassist Olli-Pekka “Oppu” Laine in the lineup, there is bound to be a number of influences on display.

Along with guitarist Janne Perttil? and keyboardist Kasper M?rtenson, Yli-Sirni?, Kotam?ki, Laine and Tarvonen are basically introducing themselves to the international stage throughout the four cuts, starting with ?Our Twilight (El Passion),? and continuing through ?Jewel,? ?The Flame of Serenity? and ?Floodred? along a path cut through melodic Euro death, doom and ?prog.? Perttil? and Yli-Sirni? spell out their parts with riffs that bear repeating, and as with his work in Swallow the Sun, Kotam?ki?s vocals bring a diverse set of possibilities, adding depth to the material at large.

The first half of Our Twilight was recorded this past summer, while the back end was done in 2008, and while there isn?t much of a sonic split to speak of between the front and rear, it?s clear to me that if Barren Earth are going to come together for a full-length ? which one imagines they will when their schedules permit ? there is going to need to be something to change up the songs. This sound works on this release, but if they were to add another 25 minutes of the same style, I?m not sure it would be able to hold my attention listening. As it stands, however, this is a strong EP from a band whose pedigree is undeniable and who will hopefully have a productive future.

Barren Earth on MySpace

Peaceville Records

All this, of course, isn?t a comment on the band. My Dying Bride are legends whose track record far surpasses whatever judgments I find myself making one way or the other. The UK doomers have been together since 1990, and they?re still going strong, vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe and guitarist Andrew Craighan (and, since 2000, guitarist Hamish Glencross) crafting lineup after lineup and never managing to lose sight of the melancholic mission of the band. On the stopgap release, Bring Me Victory, that mission is reaffirmed through singling out the title track and accompanying it by some tidbits fans will be thrilled to receive.

?Bring Me Victory? was a highlight of For Lies I Sire, and it works well on its own here, but it was more the cover of traditional English ballad ?Scarborough Fair? that I was excited to hear, wondering if Stainthorpe would tackle the harmonies Simon and Garfunkel brought to the song on their 1966 interpretation of it. He doesn?t, but the song is perfect for his clean vocals nonetheless, and gives new violinist Shaun MacGowan ample opportunity to show why he was included in the band to replace the short-tenured Katie Stone.

?Scarborough Fair? is followed by ?Failure,? released by New York?s Swans on White Light from the Mouth of Infinity in 1991. They give the song, a dark, moody minimalist exercise, a similar treatment to ?Scarborough Fair? in that it trades time between subtle bleakness and heavy doom riffage. A militaristic snare roll from drummer Dan Mullins shows up in ?Failure? to play off ambient guitar lines as Stainthorpe manages to give justice to Michael Gira?s original performance on vocals.

As if they knew they needed a heavy closer, a live version of ?Vast Choirs? from My Dying Bride?s first album, 1992?s As the Flower Withers, is tacked on the end. Recorded at the 2008 Graspop Metal Meeting in Belgium, if nothing else, it?s a good advertisement to go see a show.

Round it out with the ?Bring Me Victory? video directed by Charlie Granberg, and you?ve got yourself an EP. I don?t think Bring Me Victory was intended to do anything beyond please fans with the covers and maybe drum up some renewed interest in the For Lies I Sire full-length, and in that, it will doubtless serve its purpose. As the old saying goes, ?My Dying Bride? I?ll take it.?

MyDyingBrideSpace

Peaceville Records

And yes, Tonight’s Decision was badass.

A decade, four full-lengths and a live album later, however, Katatonia are still in the midst of their stylistic development. Capitalizing on 2006′s more aggressive The Great Cold Distance while at once melding gloomy heaviness with the sedate, gently depressive atmospherics for which the band has become known, Night is the New Day offers strength in both aspects at the same time it molds them into something new entirely. Something new and yet still definitively Katatonia.

Such the way of the record and the band as a whole. Continually changing and shifting the expectations of their fans, Katatonia has become an institution of quality songcraft and execution — thanks in no small part to the writing talents of Renkse and guitarist Anders Nystr?m, the two lone remaining original members. Renkse recently took some time out for a phoner to discuss Night is the New Day and the progression of the band, and The Obelisk is honored to feature that interview after the jump. Please enjoy.

Is it strange for you thinking of this as the eighth Katatonia album? Do you ever stop and think about what you?ve accomplished in your career and where you are at this point?

I don?t think we really thought in that way. For us, it was just important to start working on some new music and that was the main focus. If we were to think too much about where we are in the moment, that would make things more difficult than they already are (laughs). Also, focusing on the music for this album, once the ball started rolling, it was a creative journey. Maybe that wasn?t the answer to your question (laughs). No, we didn?t really think about those more profound things.

How was writing this one different coming off of The Great Cold Distance? You had a while between with the live record, but was the sound of that album a factor going into this one?

I think it?s a natural progression from The Great Cold Distance, but it?s been three years between the albums, and during this time we have probably matured as people and songwriters. You can hear there?s a difference, but I think it?s built upon the same foundation that we have established with the last few albums. Then we just want to take things further and try new things and not be afraid to try different paths. It?s all about the challenge for us. We try to do something different every time, not just repeating ourselves.

Peaceville sent me a stream of the album, and you can see the wave form of the song as it?s playing. It shows the differences between the softer and heavier parts, giving a weird idea of the structure. I wanted to get your sense of the balance of those two sides on this record.

It?s always about the dynamics, of course. To try to balance the light and the shade and everything that comes with. I think it?s a difficult thing to find the right parts that will intertwine with each other and make it listenable. It?s an ongoing process to find that, because we?re not just a band that makes heavy music, period. We always end up using a lot of atmosphere, but at the same time, we want to build our sound around what we have been known for in the past, the heavy riffs and everything. We?re just trying to find the equilibrium between the beautiful, more mellow parts, and the harsh parts, and make it sound natural and that it should be there. As I said, it?s an ongoing process. It?s difficult to master it, but it?s always entertaining to try.

How has that process changed over the years?

Basically, you could say that we get better at songwriting. These days for us it?s all about the songs and that?s where we want to be. And listening to other artists and bands, you can easily hear when something is being done so right. That is a spark, to hear that someone is doing something that matches in every part of the song. That?s where you want to be and that?s what you have to work for. Doing this album — I can say we?ve been working very hard on the songs to make them flow, adding stuff and taking away stuff all the time until the mixing of the album. We like to do spontaneous stuff in the studio, and also, there might be parts I was working on for a song that I might be super-happy with when I was working at home that just don?t work out in the studio. You can hear this part is not necessary anymore. Then you have to take it away. I think at some point you have to stop and say the song is finished, it?s not going to be any better in our hands. Then you move onto the next one and eventually you end up with an album. Then it?s up to the people to say if it?s good or not. I think what we have created with this album is at the height of our songwriting at the moment. I?m really happy with the result.

I was fortunate enough to see you guys in New York when you last came around. In listening to this album, it seems like any of these songs would work live. Is that something you think about when you?re putting the record together?

Not really. Some of the songs you can easily hear when you start working on it that this part is great for live, but not all of it. First of all, it has to work in the studio, then you have to be able to reproduce it live in some way. What you just said, that?s something I?ve been thinking about now that the album?s finished and I listen through it, that actually every song on the album has some kind of live quality to it, if it?s done right. It?s difficult to play live as well, but if we were to rehearse every song on this album, I think it would be playable in the live situation, because every song has certain qualities that I think would come through live in a good way.

At this point, you have a back catalog that you know you can?t play everything. Is it difficult for you choosing which of the newer material you want to have represent the album live?

Yeah. I think that?s a bit of a struggle that we always go through, because everybody in the band has their own certain favorites on the album. Then you?re seeing the response from the people when the album is released, which songs they are expecting us to play live and which are their favorite songs in general. And you have to take everything into picture when you eventually have to choose four or five songs from this album. It?s a very strange situation, to nail it down to just four or five, but of course you can rehearse most of them and replace the songs, but I think it?s a mix between what do we think will work best in the live situation and what do people expect us to play, because of course we want people to be happy after a Katatonia gig, that we played the songs they wanted to hear the most.

I guess you?d have some idea from structuring the record too. Opening with ?Forsaker,? it just makes sense with that song in that spot.

The track order is super-important. I?m not sure if people actually think about that, how much effort we and other artists as well put in the track order. I think we did maybe 10 different track orders for this album, but this is the one we felt was perfect and represented the album in a good flow. But I think ?Forsaker? was always the opening track and we just rotated the other songs, like having ?Idle Blood? as song number three was something we were nervous about. But it was a good move, because songs like that you expect to have at the end of an album, but to have it very close to the beginning is giving people a feeling for what the album is all about, because it?s a very diverse album according to me. It?s varied and it?s got all kinds of different emotions in the songs. The songs are very different from each other. Having that song at number three, I hope it will give people a good feeling about the album when they start listening to it.

Do you worry about over-thinking it? 10 different track orders is a lot.

A little bit, yeah. I think the one that ended up on the album is one of the first track orders that we tried, but just to be safe, we wanted to try everything. Maybe it wasn?t 10, but eight or nine or something, because we already knew which should be the first song and which should be the last song. That was decided when it was written, we really felt this is the perfect closer. It was just between the first and the last that had to be rotated.

That was actually my next question, whether or not there was some significance to opening the album with ?Forsaker? and closing it with ?Departer.? Are those songs connected in theme or idea?

Not really. The titles are similar in a way, but that?s just coincidence, I think.

Do you ever have trouble, either writing or recording, putting yourself in the emotional mindset of the songs?

Not really, and that?s something I?m really happy about, because I think it would be easy to get distracted if I wasn?t able to put myself in the right mood and mindset, I would easily get distracted by other things and I think a lot of time in the studio would be destroyed, so to speak. If I come to the studio to sing and all of a sudden I?m not in the mood to sing and I have to wait until the next day to see if I?m in the right mood. I try to adapt to the situation and make the best out of it. I try to put the lights out and light up some cozy lights and try to get the feeling of the song as fast as possible and sing as much as possible and see where it ends up.

How was that for you on Night is the New Day? Was there something you did to put yourself in that place?

I just did what I said, the usual ritual for me to try and get in the mood and deliver what the song needs in terms of vocals. I go through the lyrics and I listen to the song and make maybe a few final changes, and then I?m ready to go and I sing until the song is done. Then I have a break and go on with the next one or go home and start again the next day, something like that.

You personally and the band, are you aware of fan expectations? Is there pressure to live up to the last record?

Yeah, I think that?s something we felt before the writing process started. Rightfully, people have high expectations, because I think The Great Cold Distance was a great album for Katatonia. We put some pressure on ourselves, of course, but seeing what other people expect is healthy in a way, because it makes you have to really concentrate and do your best. Of course, that?s something you want to do all the time, but I think it?s even better to have the pressure from outside as well. I think if we felt we wouldn?t be able to top the last album, we would still be writing these songs. But when we eventually started writing for this album, I think we immediately felt we had something going that would be on par with The Great Cold Distance, or even better. Now when I listen back to the new album, I think it?s better than The Great Cold Distance, but I have to say that is a favorite album for me. I think that?s a great Katatonia record.

Do you have plans for touring yet? Are you coming back to the US?

We?re planning a headlining tour of Europe in early spring, and as it looks now — this is not definite — I think we?re going to North America straight after the Europe tour, in April or something like that. Right now we?re going to support Porcupine Tree on a Scandinavian tour, then we?re going to England to support Paradise Lost on their UK leg of their European tour. It will be a lot of rehearsals for us and try to find songs we haven?t played from the back catalog, then early spring we will be ready to do both Europe and North America. It?s busy times ahead, which I really like.

Katatonia on MySpace

Peaceville Records

UK doom legends My Dying Bride have been busy at Futureworks studio in Manchester recording material for a new EP. Entitled Bring Me Victory, the effort will include two covers — “Scarborough Fair” and The Swans‘ “Failure.” A new video has been completed as well to support the release. The band states, “An October release date has been penciled in, but this may be put back a little depending on how the last days of recording go.”

For Lies I Sire (Peaceville Records) is My Dying Bride‘s tenth full-length, and though “Echoes from a Hollow Soul” may carry that definitive MDB sadness, it’s hardly business as usual across the board. Rejuvenating Stainthorpe, Craighan and longtime guitarist Hamish Glencross are three new, younger players for whom this is their first studio output with the band; bassist Lena Ab?, drummer Dan “Storm” Mullins and keyboardist Katie Stone, who brings with her a violin that has been much missed since MDB‘s earliest days.

That alone would make it easy for this to become a novelty album, but as ever, My Dying Bride play it classy and don’t overdo it, making the instrument more of an accoutrement than a focal point.

For Lies I Sire‘s earlier portion serves as an extension of the trademark MDBism that presented itself on A Line of Deathless Kings in 2006, with Stainthorpe‘s unipolar/depressive poetry readings peppered with the occasional bit of growing, some double kick bass on opener “My Body, a Funeral” and one of the album’s most memorable passages on “Santuario di Sangue.” It’s “A Chapter in Loathing,” however, which at number eight of the total nine tracks, is the real standout of the bunch. In it, My Dying Bride take on black metal head first, with faraway rasping and deathly growls trading off to blastbeats and furious riffs. Nearly two full decades in, they’re doing something completely new.

That song is a break from the oppressive mournful nature of the rest of For Lies I Sire, but still makes use of the violin and some quieter breaks and so serves as a suitable lead-in for hyper-theatrical closer “Death Triumphant.” While it’s clear their most influential work is behind them on classic albums like 1996′s Turn Loose the Swans and their 1992 debut full-length, As the Flower Withers, My Dying Bride in 2009 lacks none of the individualized drama that made them such a force to begin with, and where other bands could be accused of shedding their heaviness over time, My Dying Bride prove that the “metal” still has a place in their doom metal.

For Lies I Sire is everything you could expect a MDB record to be, but not disappointingly predictable either. Like the band itself, it is bound to stand the test of time.

MyDyingBrideSpace

Peaceville Records