MORS PRINCIPIUM EST (Eng.)
1- Hello and first of all, thanks for taking the time. How is everything going right now with MORS PRINCIPIUM EST? What are you currently up to?
Andy -I’m currently eating some dried squid tentacles that I brought back from our Japan tour! They’re better than you might think. Everything seems to be going well and we’re excited for our new release.
2- Earlier this month you released your latest album, entitled «Dawn of the 5th Era». How are the first reactions being? And what are your feelings on the final outcome?
Andy -So far the reaction has been amazing. The reviews have been great and I don’t think I’ve heard a bad word about it…yet. It’s a great feeling to create something and know that the fans are behind you. I’m really proud of the album and really hope it can lead to bigger things for the band.
3- Starting to dwell into this new opus; what does it title refer to? What’s that «fifth era»?
Andy -It’s the fifth album and in some ways a new era for the band, though of course we’ve not forgotten our roots. “…and Death Said Live” was a statement to say “we’re back” and “Dawn of the 5th Era” is a statement to say, “we’re not going anywhere”.
4- And is it linked to the lyrics on the album? You have always had pretty dark lyrics I think so, what are some of the themes covered here?
Andy -The album title isn’t really linked to the lyrics. The themes are much the same as Ville usually writes about: war, creation, god, mythology… I had a chance to write some lyrics for the album too this time around. Monster in Me, for example, is about a man who has killed people at war and can’t forgive himself for what he has done.
5- Throughout your career you’ve been through several line-up changes. How has this affected the band?
Ville -I think we are better and stronger now than ever before, so this is how it affected the band. 🙂
6- In fact this new album is your first release with your new guitar player, Kevin. How has he fitted in? And what could you say he has brought new to the band?
Andy -Kevin has brought his good looks into the band, which was desperately needed. Unfortunately he was a little late to contribute to the new album, but we’re tighter than ever playing live and we now have some French sex appeal too which is never a bad thing.
7- Due to these changes I would like to know how do you tend to work on the songwriting process and if there’s any main songwriter in the band.
Andy -I guess I have been the main songwriter since joining the band before “…and Death Said Live”. I write the music and Ville offers his insight into how the songs should be structured etc and after a long process of demos, we create an album. It takes a long time because it has to satisfy both our views on how the music should sound. But this is how we get a good balance between heavy and melodic music.
8- Musically you are still loyal to your trademark sound but, how do you think has MORS PRINCIPIUM EST evolved or matured since your previous «And Death Said Live» came out?
Andy -As you say, I think every album we put out has to remain loyal to our sound, because we have a unique style which people really connect to. If we lost that then we would just be like any other death metal band. Writing “…And Death Said Live” was a real challenge for me because I had three albums to follow and there was a lot of pressure to make sure the band retained its signature sound. Luckily I think we achieved this and I felt we had some more room to explore and experiment on “Dawn of the 5th Era”. The sound is maybe even more melodic than before but still heavy. I thought a lot more about structure and how to give each song its own identity on this album. Also, I didn’t want it to get boring for the listener so it’s a little less predictable than before too. I think it is a natural progression from “…and Death Said Live” and a step in the right direction for sure.
9- Anyway I think you’re getting a more polished sound with each new album, without this new album being an excepcion. Was this the kind of sound you were looking for? Who took production duties?
Andy -We’re all really happy with how it came out. The guy behind the mixing desk was Thomas ‘Plec’ Johansson. We worked with him on “…and Death Said Live” too and he’s been amazing for us. We recorded everything ourselves and flew over to his studio in Sweden to reamp the guitars, mix and master the album and we all feel the production was a step up from the previous album. I felt bad for the guy because we were all telling him it needed to sound bigger than the last album… but somehow he made that happen. Officially the album was produced by me and Ville.
10- This has been your second full-length with AFM records. How is everything working with them?
Andy -It was the right move for the band to sign with AFM. We’ve had two great albums and a music video since signing the deal and the promotion seems to be starting to drift over to the U.S now which is really exciting for the band.
11- All this about «Dawn of the 5th Era» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
Andy -Colourful, epic, grand!
12- You are hailing from Finland, probably one of the best countries for Melodic Death Metal, but this is also a genre that has evolved a lot throughout the last years, or maybe even throughout the last decade. How do you think has the evolution of this music genre been?
Ville -Umm, this is kinda hard one. Some bands still do the «original» melo death and some bands do not, for example In Flames. Some bands have taken a lot of «american» style in their music and some have not. So, as a whole, I dont think the genre has changed that much, just some bands have changed their style, but still there are bands that play melo death the way it was played at the end of 1990’s and at the beginning of 2000. This is just how I see this, off course I am not an expert in this subject, so…
13- And as the end of the year is drawing nearer, could you please tell us what have been your 3 favourite albums of 2014 and your less favourite one?
Ville -None of my favourite bands released any albums during 2014.
14- Finally, what are your near-future plans?
Andy -We don’t have anything confirmed yet. We hope to promote the new album and land some good tours in the new year so we can play to as many people as possible!
15- That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
Andy -A big thanks to you, Sergio, and Queens of Steel for representing us! Hopefully see you all very soon!
