Archimage

Archimage is an underground Finnish black metal act which is just beginning to nose its way out into the (s)limelight. Possessed of an enviable creativity where frosty leads and hypnotic structures are concerned, they have an authentic and a pleasingly classic approach that will engage purists whilst still bringing fresh compositional flair to keep things interesting. Following the release of raw yet biting third demo “The Solstice of Winter”, I caught up with founder and song-writer Evil, who most graciously expounded on every subject I could throw at him.

Hierophant Nox: Hails Evil, how are you doing?

Evil: Hi Ellen! I'm doing just fine, got Woe's debut album in the mail today which I've been trying to get to my hands for a long time. Thus the day was a good one, though I'm a bit tired since it has been a rather long and busy one too. But.. that's kinda typical.

 

HN: We’ve come together to discuss the band following HN’s review of your latest demo, "The Solstice of Winter". How are you feeling about the release now that it is out in the world? Is there anything you would have liked to have done differently with it?

E: Well, everything and nothing. I'm really satisfied with the demo on many aspects. The playing on it is tighter than on our earlier demos. The songs are more complex and written with a bit more mature view to the music comparing to the earlier stuff. My voice was on better shape than ever in the studio, so the vocal parts succeeded rather well too. Then again, the overall sound of the demo could have been better. I mean, I'm seeking for a raw sound, but this recording got left a bit too raw. The guitars could be stronger and also the cymbals could have much more power. But, we noticed all these problems already while mixing and mastering the material and this was the best sound we were able to produce from the recording sessions. Nevertheless this is absolutely the strongest release from us till this day and a good way to say goodbye to making demos. One thing I'd also do differently now is a part in the song "Martyrdom", that we changed in the studio while recording. I'd now keep it as it was before but who knows, the world might see another version of the song one day..

 

HN: What kind of responses have you received since the demo was released? Are you interested in the opinions of others or did you create the demo primarily for yourselves?

E: The response has been rather good. The demo was actually played in the national radio of Finland last week in a weekly metal program. They usually play only one or two demos in a show so that was kinda unexpected, but I don't complain haha. In general all the feedback has been pretty much positive in my eyes. Some people have complained that it sounds very Norwegian and traditional, but I guess 80% of my favourite black metal bands come from there so if I create the kind of black metal that I want to listen to, it's bounded to have a bit Scandinavian sound.

I'm somewhat interested to hear what people think of our music, but their opinions aren't the reason why I create it. I aim to write as good songs as I can to suite my own taste, the songs that I'd love to hear from some other bands if I wouldn't be creating music myself. Then, if someone else likes it too, they must have something similar with me in their music taste haha.

 

HN: What does the demo represent in terms of the band’s creative journey? Is it made up of your newest ideas, or do the tracks date from an older time?

E: It had pretty much the newest ideas when we started planning the recording back in late 2008. The title song has been written during a really long period, part of it was complete already before our previous demo "The Dark Glory of Quietus" was recorded, but the composition got complete sometime during the autumn or early winter 2008. Since that I've composed some new songs that I personally find reaching a higher level comparing to our older works, which is kinda crucial since it would be horrible if I didn't see any progression in our material after making three demos hahaha. Some parts of those songs were also ready before we started recording this demo, but at times completing a song can take a really long time from me, even years! On the other hand some of our songs have been written just within few days, so my style to write songs varies a lot. Right now this is the peak of our creativity, but we should easily top it with our next recordings.

 

HN: You chose to make "The Solstice of Winter" available for free download rather than a limited CD like your previous releases – why did you make this decision? What is your view of the effect of the internet on the music industry?

E: Well the whole demo isn't available, only the title song, but yeah we gave it for people to download the day we started streaming the demo via Myspace and last.fm. There are many reasons for it. First of all, it's kinda pointless to sell physical demos these days as people will download the stuff anyway somewhere. Printing a CD for two euros a piece and selling them for three isn't worth the trouble, so I made only an extremely limited print of CD's that I sent to a few carefully selected medias and labels. Then again for a small band like Archimage giving free downloads is a rather good way to get people listening to them. The word spreads as the files spread and then there are more people that already know your band when your first album comes out. I see it as a modern version of tape trading.

The internet has its good and bad sides. The good side is that you can rather easily get thousands of people to hear about your band, but the bad side is that 10,000 other bands are reaching for the same audience. The ease of it makes the amount of shitty b-class bands vast, and sadly that obliterates many good bands from the map as they get drowned into the mass.

I don't think that file-sharing is as big a problem in black metal as it is in many other genres of music, as black metal listeners often want to support the bands and thus buy their stuff. Personally I have found many bands that I would have never heard unless I had first downloaded their stuff from some more or less illegal internet service. Then, if I have really liked their music I go and buy the CD or vinyl version of it. If I don't like it, I would have never bought it anyway so there really is no damage. More like bands really need to make good music for people to buy it, which I don't really see as a bad thing at all. Of course there are people who download everything and never buy a single CD, but what would they do without internet? Copy the music from their friends to cassettes? There has always been the group of people who want their music in crappy quality and for free, but I'm sure that the part of people who understand that the art doesn't come for free won't cease to exist too soon either.

HN: Going back in time a little, how did Archimage come to be formed? What was the original goal of the band?

E: Archimage was formed during the winter 2003-2004. I think we played together already in late 2003 and I came up with the name a few months later in early 2004. The original line-up was me in vocals, O. Sirius in drums and Hypna in guitar. We all went the same school and one day realised that one of us knows how to sing Emperor's "I am the Black Wizards", one of us knows how to play it on guitar, and one of us knows how to play drums to it. We all had rehearsed the song alone at home without knowing about the others doing the same, so then we just combined our forces. The only thing we ever recorded with that line-up was that same cover song and unfortunately that recording doesn't exist anymore. I started playing guitar pretty much the same time as we formed the band, and soon took over the song-writing process. I remember that Hypna composed one simple song for Archimage, but I don't think we ever even rehearsed it together properly, everything else has always been written by me, both songs and lyrics. Then on summer 2004 Hypna left the band and we continued on rehearsing with O. Sirius as a duo. We mostly played covers during that time, stuff from bands like Darkthrone, Emperor, Mercyful Fate, Slayer and so on. Anyway the black metal aspect was always there, and it has been the style of our own songs since the day one. Since that we've developed Archimage little by little through a vast amount of struggles and now we are stronger than ever. Our original goal with the band was the same as it's today. To create the kind of music we like to listen to; honest and cold black metal.

 

HN: As you’ve just detailed, yourself and O. Sirius have been the core of the band from the beginning – are you happy to work as a duo these days or will you be looking to expand your line-up? What problems have you faced finding like-minded musicians with whom to collaborate?

E: Well, at least we'll expand our line-up to fit the needs of live shows, but will those guys be just session members or become a part of the band on recordings too, that I don't know. Time shall tell. Right now there are two guys practicing the guitar and bass parts of our songs to join us for our first full live show ever, that should get done during the next winter.

It's kind of hard for me to see anyone else besides me and O. Sirius as "official" members of Archimage as we've worked so long as a duo and our collaboration is very smooth and creative. But if we would notice that some live-member can offer us something, that we lack without that person doing it on the albums too, it's not written on stone that only the two of us will always be the core of the band. It's the art that matters, not the persons behind it. That's something that also causes problems while working with me in music.

I have really strong visions on what Archimage should sound like, thus the ideas of others are often turned down in the song-writing process. There have been some other musicians in Archimage too at times, but only O. Sirius seems to tolerate me in the long run hahaha. Once I kicked even him out from the band (during the time I was making the Archimage EP that I did completely alone) but I asked him to come back soon after that. The fact is that you need to share the vision, not just the taste in music, to be able to play in Archimage.

One problem with other musicans has been the fact that I demand the impossible from myself, and even more from other. So I need the other players to be far more skilled with their instruments than I am. Right now with our future live members this demand gets fulfilled and I'm really satisfied with the situation. I'll be the only one on the stage who has played their instrument for less than ten years.

 

HN: Archimage started out as most bands do, exploring other artists’ creations, before developing their own approach. You’ve previously acknowledged the influence of Emperor and Darkthrone – what is it about the early Norwegian scene that most inspired you?

E: Hmmm.. Well, to me that's black metal at its best. The darkness and coldness of their riffs is unrivalled. Of course there are tons of great bands outside of Norway, but it was Emperor's version of Darkthrone's song "Cromlech" that got me in the first place and then there were no turning back. I listened Emperor's "In the Nightside Eclipse" and "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk" pretty much daily for a few years during the time we formed Archimage. I also adore Emperor's earlier material, specially the stuff on "As the Shadows Rise" -EP is really good. Darkthrone's works from the same era were almost as important, specially the "Transilvanian Hunger" -album. Mercyful Fate was also a big influence to me during those days and still is, even if it's not that clearly heard on our music. Later I think my biggest influences have been bands like Taake, Behexen, Sargeist, Mütiilation and early Enslaved , but also acts like 1349, Watain and Keep Of Kalessin have probably gave something to my playing too.

 

HN: There comes a point at which a band must leave behind its influences and stand on its own feet, which Archimage has arguably done since the release of your "Archimage" EP last year. Was there a certain point at which you felt your creativity was really taking off in its own direction? What would you say are the most distinctive and different features of Archimage?

E: I have always thought that Archimage has had it's own style and sound, even if the first "songs" that I wrote naturally weren't anything too epic since I was just learning to play guitar. But I have used some single riffs from the very early days on some other songs later, the feeling was there right away but I didn't know how to deliver it in full songs. The EP suffers from a really bad sound quality (it's rather clear, but lacks power) and it has programmed drums on it, so it's hard for people to focus on the songs on it. I still like the material on that one too as it was a mandatory part on our journey, but I think the compositions made after that has been more like the "true voice of Archimage".

I think our most distinctive features are certain kind of rather long and melodic guitar riffs. I don't really know how to explain it, but many of our songs feature these "trademark" riffs and I have never really played any covers that use the very same technique to build melodies, probably many do it but at least I haven't copied that from anyone hahah. The another thing is versatility. That doesn’t really show that much on our demos, but the album shall be rather diverse, yet tight entity. The fastest parts will be a lot faster than anything you've heard before from us and the slow parts slower. Aside of the traditional black metal riffing there will be some slightly folk-influenced parts, or as some say "pagan metal" -influences (more in the vein of Taake than Turisas or something like that). There will be a completely instrumental piece too. But in the end the mix of doomy depression, violent blastbeats and suicidal lead melodies create our own style to deliver the darkness.

 

HN: Where do you draw your inspiration from? Do ideas flow fairly constantly for you or do you encounter periods of creative block?

E: It depends. There are times that I don't get anything new complete for like six months, and then I can start writing four different songs within a week. My most creative time is usually the last few months of the year, though this year I've been rather creative all the time.

Usually I just take the guitar and start playing something random, until I get some idea that I start evolving. If I find something worth writing down, I do that and continue on playing. I can do that for like 15 minutes or six hours in a row and create just as many new riffs. There are endless piles of paper full of riffs in my home heheh. Then at times I notice that I've been making riffs for the same song for the last three weeks without realising it before, and the moment when I start working on the structure of the song. At times I also write the entire song in few days with one very clear idea in my head, but that has happened only a few times.

HN: What are the key ideas that Archimage explores? Would it be fair to say that the lyrical aspect is very important to the band?

E: I think it's fair to say that. I mean, the main thing in our art is the music, atmosphere and melodies, but the lyrics are like the frosting on a cake to that. And to make it effective, the lyrics need to mean something to me. I could never make stuff like power metal with knights and dragons and swords flying around in the topics, as it wouldn't mean a thing to me. I truly understand that some do that, but it's not my thing to tell fairytales through music.

Our main themes have become darkness, solitude, suicide, misanthropy and death. There never really were any specific agenda in the first place what to write about as long as it's not bullshit, but when I start writing, that's just the stuff that comes to the paper. The lyrics are more or less personal to me, and I can highly relate to anything that I sing (scream) about, which is mandatory to give feeling into the vocals.

My life philosophies are highly misanthropic and also close to Satanism, but I don't really refer myself as a Satanist (nor anything else neither) since people tend to get it wrong. I am absolutely not a religious person, and most consider Satanists to be religious so.. Thus I don't have a need to preach about that staff and for example the word "Satan" has appeared merely once in my lyrics during all these years. As the song on the Archimage EP says, "I Am My God".

 

HN: Black metal is a genre about which musicians find it easy to become very passionate; do you have a strong belief in ‘black metal’ as such – that it is a genre that can uniquely express some part of the human psyche?

E: I think it's true that black metal has a very unique aura around it. It can express darkness and coldness with really strong feeling, which usually lacks from other metal genres. In my opinion only classical music can try to reach the same atmospheres that some black metal bands are able to reach. As I said before, that I'm not a religious person, but I guess the ideal of a "religious experience" is built in to all people, and on some black metal gigs that feeling is very much present. When you go to a death metal gig, it's just a gig. You bang your head, drink some beer, have a good time. But black metal gigs, the good ones, they are like rituals. For example when I saw Watain live last year, the darkness in the atmosphere, it was very real. Same with Behexen, and some other really dark and satanic bands. Another dimension is the coldness and trance that some suicidal black metal bands can create. All in all I think that black metal is more about feeling than many other genres. Not about some certain riff, but the atmosphere that the entities create. Naturally this makes stuff like "xtian black metal" absolutely pointless, since it's kinda impossible to create something honestly dark when you are actually fighting against darkness. I don't say that black metal needs to be satanic, but it requires the darkness, coldness and most of all, the feeling, to create the true essence of black metal.

 

HN: What about the visual side of the genre – do you think the visual impact of black metal is important? Where did the ideas for your own logo and artwork come from? And what made you decide to incorporate ‘corpse paint’ and traditional imagery?

E: I think it's pretty much every bands own choice. Of course it gives more credibility to a band like Behexen to look like they do, but then again a band like Woe does their thing just fine without corpsepaints, spikes or leather. I have always liked the visual side of black metal and the corpsepaints and all just came along naturally, I never really thought about it, should I or should I not use that stuff. If I one day feel like taking of the masks, I'll probably do it, but I don't see that happening too soon in the future.

I got the idea for the logo one day years ago and then asked our trusted artist L.K. to do it. The main goal was to make a partly symmetric text logo, that's easy to ready yet very iconic and after tens of versions I was happy with it. Then before releasing the new demo I personally improved the logo a bit with a few new ideas. So the visual side lives as the ideas grow. The cover art for the demo is taken from the lyrics of "The Solstice of Winter". It's like a scene that's left in the end of the song. Drawn by the same artist as the logo, and again based on a vision that I had and sketched. So our visual art is mostly my ideas, that someone with graphical talents turn into reality.

 

HN: What are your current goals with Archimage? I believe you are looking into doing some live performances in the future?

E: Yes, live performances are planned as I mentioned before, though it might be only one gig that might turn out to become the only gig ever. But I want to try to take the band to the stage, see how the songs work on a live situation. If I don't enjoy it, we probably won't do it again. If we all feel like it was something to do again, more will follow. Simple. Besides that, we should start recording our debut album during the autumn. It will probably contain seven or eight songs, for example new versions of the demo songs "Towards Eternity", "The Dark Glory of Quietus" and "The Solstice of Winter". Other songs will be completely new, written during the years 2008 and 2009. The final tracklist still lives at times, but I'm rather confident that at least songs like "Thoughts on Deathbed" and "The Hermit" shall be found on the album.. Beyond that, there are at least two split-records in the plans, but there's nothing specific to mention about those yet.

 

HN: Are you writing new material at the moment? What can fans of the band expect from your next release?

E: At the moment I'm trying to finish the last songs that are meant to be on the album but aren't complete yet. I'm also working on the song structures of the "complete" songs and modifying the alternative guitar parts, as well as trying to write lyrics as some of the album songs are still missing those. What fans can expect.. hmmm.. something more violent, raw, powerful, vicious, suicidal, fatal, crushing, depressing and doomy, yet more beautiful, proud and majestic than anything we've ever done before. That sounds a lot but I rarely exaggerate things.

 

HN: Thanks for giving up your time to talk with us; if you’ve any further messages for the world, please go ahead:

E: Thanks to you too Ellen. Check out "The Solstice of Winter" from our Myspace, download it, tell a friend and spread the plague. And if someone wants to show some support, a limited edition of t-shirts is still available. Heheheh.