SOTAJUMALA (Eng.)
– Hello, thanks for taking the time. What’s the band currently up to?
Hello! We are currently making a new and so our fourth album. Mainly focusing on training and making new songs which are stronger than all.
– First off, I hope you don’t mind to start making some history of SOTAJUMALA…
Sotajumala is a founded in 1998 and we play aggressive death metal. Drawing influence from both old and new generations of death metal. The lyrics are in our native language and the band name translates to Wargog..
Debut full-length Death Metal Finland received great response from press and fans alike in 2004, marking the beginning of a new era in Finnish death metal. As a result of meticulous writing process we unleashed our sophomore album Teloitus in 2007. With its eight crushing songs Teloitus displays our progress as songwriters, as musicians and as a band – something both press and fans noticed.
Our third album Kuolemanpalvelus came out in 2010 and received finnish chart position in at 6th. We have done also two split cd’s and one DVD.
– Why did you pick «Sotajumala» for the band’s name? What does it mean?
Our guitar player and bassist we together bit drunk in sauna back in 1998 and they decide to start up a death metal band which sings in finnish. Little bit more of king alcohol and one of them came up with the name. Main reason for the name was because it’s sounds quite cool in finnish language. And also because our lyrical theme back then was mainly war. It translates to “wargod”.
– And what are the main musical influences for the band? As I can notice influence from both modern and classic Death Metal, European and American, etc.
The main influence comes from the band which we listen when we were young and started to making this shit. So bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide, Obituary and all the old school U.S DM. Also we bring some finnish touch to the mix so it sounds like us and no one else.
– Your latest «Kuolemanpalvelus» came out last year anyway, I
would like to get a bit into it; how was its acceptance?
Well it was fairly good and it went into 6th place in finnish album charts along all the pop music and disco shit. So in your face popular music! 😀 the feedback within reviews haven’t been that good but who fucking cares what some critic thinks. It’s his/hers job to criticize and that’s it. The more important feedback comes from the real listeners and that feedback have been awesome as we seen in gigs. So thank you all who got the album!
– I noticed the songwriting and song structures in this album were more varied so, how did you approach the composition process? Was this something you aimed to get?
Well we did this album just like we have done all the others. Maybe it was just natural progress which happened and maybe next album we have got something else. Time will tell…
The basic routine for our songs writing is basicly this: The other guys do some riffs at home and then they do somekind of song structure at our rehearsal place. After that they send me the rough version and I figure out how to do the vocal arrangements. After that lots of practicing and jamming and the song gets it’s final form.
– Proof of that is the epic title track, which lenghts 15 minutes. What could you tell us about it?
The main idea was form Kosti who did the music for that epic monster. We had talked about slow song for the end just like our last albums. Then Kosti told me that it’s going to be over 10 minutes so I have to do quite long lyrics. Even though it’s that long song I think that we got everything that we were looking for. And I’m totally satisfied about the lyrical tribute also.
– I could say «Kuolemanpalvelus» mixes the best things of your previous albums and they do work as a whole. What are yout thoughts on this?
Thank you! I think the same thing. And hopefully we can make the same thing at our next album.
– All this being said; could you say this album shapes the definitive SOTAJUMALA’s degree of maturity?
Koulemanpalvelus tells our state of band at this certain time. You could say that we it is bit more mature than Teloitus. But it was nothing that we aimed. We just did the things that we loved and I came out like that.
– This was your first and last album with Cobra Records; how did everything go? And what made you move?
Well we had only one album deal with Cobra and after that we decided to try something else. I cannot reveal yet what we decided but I think it willwork with us very well. So nothing dramatic just natural grow.
– Your lyrics have always been in Finnish, so I guess you feel more comfortable singing and expressing yourself in your mother language but; have you ever considered using English for instance?
Actually we have done one song in English. It’s in our split cd with Torture Killer.
Finnish language has always been the natural choice for us and I think we will stick to it until the bitter end. There are some thing that are easy in finnish language for example arrangements and such but there are also some thing that makes it quite difficult. For example I have to think very carefully about
the sentence structures so it wouldn’t sound korny ja shit cause I have to sing it in our own language. And I’m very hard for myself when I’m writing lyrics.
– Finland seems to have a huge Metal scene, but from extreme genres I think Black Metal is predominant. What Finnish Death Metal bands could you suggest?
Well I don’t listen to Death Metal that much but I could recommend these few for example: Deathchain, Torture Killer, Napoleon Skullfuck and Devilry. That’s only a few to mention and all of those guys are my friends. Good guys with good music.
– And finally, what are your near-future plans? Over a year after your last effort, have you already started working on a new one?
Yeah, we are working the new album and hopefully it comes out in the begining of the next year.
– That’s all, thanks again. Now feel free to add some final words.
Thanks for the interview and support! See you at our gigs and check out our albums! Life sucks, scum fuck! Cheers!
