FINSTERFORST (Eng.)
– Hi, thanks for your time. What are you currently up to? How is everything doing right now with FINSTERFORST?
Wombo: Hi Tania! Everything is going brilliant! We are just rehearsing the new material for our upcoming concerts in December and it feels great to finally play the songs together and get the feeling of this epicness.
– First off, as you have just released your third album and I guess some people won’t know about you yet; could you please make some history of the band?
Wombo: Well, alright then…. FINSTERFORST was founded as a Pagan/Folk Metal Band in 2004 in the Black Forest which is located in the south west of Germany. Although we didn’t have a complete line up we recorded the EP “Wiege der Finsternis” which was selfpublished in 2006. The next albums “Weltenkraft” and “…zum Tode hin” were published within the next few years via different labels. Finally we found a new decent vocalist and began to work on the new stuff which you can hear on “Rastlos”.
– Your new opus is entitled «Rastlos». What are your expectations on it?
Wombo: Eventually it will kick all the German Pagan Bands in the balls with its mature epic deepness and hopefully the fans will see that too. The next album will bring world domination HAHA!
No seriously we are really satisfied with the result of “Rastlos”. The sound and production is so majestic and organic! We hope to be able to play as many concerts as possible.
– Getting deeper into this full-length; what’s the main concept behind it or what some of the lyrical ideas covered this time around?
Wombo: “Rastlos” – Restless covers something every one of us has felt in some point of his life: The feeling of having lost something or someone very important and the feeling of being an alien. We needed an emotional topic which fitted to the music which had already been composed. In our story the protagonist loses everything; his family, his home and even his home country. Although this is not explicitly written down in the lyrics this was the main idea when we came up with the concept.
So basically the story can be interpreted in many ways and thus applies to all of us.
– After giving the album some spins I can say it has an excellent balance between Black metal and Folk, being both styles more present and, therefore, creating a really interesting contrast. Was this what you were looking for? As it also gives a more extreme feeling to the whole record.
Wombo: We don’t try to mix different styles on purpose. We try to blend in every style as fits organically to our music and FINSTERFORST in general. Of course blending different styles brings a more extreme feeling so do tempo changes and a production that allows us to work with dynamic changes which we never really did before.
– Atmospheres are even more present, I’d even dare say are darker and more haunting. In fact they create a nice environment and take us to the FINSTERFORST’s world and seem to be influenced by nature but, where do you take inspiration from to create them and what do you want to express with it?
Wombo: First of all it is emotions which we want to express with our music. Some bands focus on only one set of feelings but FINSTERFORST features the whole variety. Therefore you need longer and more complex songs with great atmosphere. The next aspect is as you have already pointed out our love to the nature and especially to our home the Black Forest with its dark valleys and arboreous mountain tops. No hardcore song could capture this beauty and multi-layered environment – I don’t think we can draw the right pictured with our music either – yet hehehehe.
– This, next to the blend of different elements, showcases a really good and well-cared songwriting so, how is the songwriting process like for FINSTERFORST? I specially would like to know how do you come up with melodies, as they seem to be really thought-out but they are also simple and really effective.
Wombo: Simon is our mastermind behind all the songs and he composes them in his “castle of solitude” – so in front of his PC…
It takes quite a while until a song is finished since there are so many details he has to work on. Simon is a perfectionist which doesn’t speed up the composing process. We have thrown away a complete album since “…zum Tode hin” because Simon felt that he could come up with much better songs and what can I say? He did!!
– And besides this, how do you blend into your Black Metal roots the use of traditional/Folk instruments?
Wombo: Good question haha. It doesn’t happen deliberately. It’s not like we are in the rehearsing room and someone comes up with a black metal riff and then someone else has a melody for that… It’s all in Simons head and I don’t think he has different drawers labeled “Black Metal drawer” or “Folky melody drawer” from which he then takes some parts and puts them together. They are already bundled in his head.
– In fact your kind of music demands a really good production, and you’ve got it, getting a crystal clear and powerful sound that manages to enhance your epicness. Would you mind to tell us how was the production process and who took such duties?
Wombo: Ha! Thank you. It’s always great when someone appreciates your hart work! Just like in the composing departmend Simon also takes over the wheel in the production department together with our producer/engineer Christoph “Das C!” Brandes. As always we have been recording in his mighty Iguana Studios. I think it took us two months two record, mix and master “Rastlos”. I would say that was quite fast considering the over 600 different tracks we had to mix.
– This «Rastlos» has been your first release with Napalm Records, which seems to be a fitting label for you but; how’s everything going with them so far?
Wombo: Yes we are glad to finally be on the Napalm Roster. We also started to work with Napalm Events and you might encounter some nice news somewhen in December. We are really excited about that but we can’t tell more for now.
For now we are excited as hell to get some reception from the fans. We have already got some for our small snippets which can be found on youtube and on soundcloud.
– All this about «Rastlos» being said; how could you describe it in just 3 words?
Wombo: deep, emotional, mature
– And finally, what are your near-future plans?
Wombo: We want to play as many concerts as possible, maybe a small tour in spring and then some bigger festivals in summer. Furthermore we respectively Simon will start composing new material for the next album.
Finally some of us are busy with CRYPTIC FOREST where we will also release an album soon.
– That’s all, thank you once more for answering our questions. If you want to add some final words; feel free to do it.
Wombo: We hope to see you all soon on a tour! Until then drink lots of Schnaps and eat a bunch of knuckles of pork! Prost!
