Even nightmares have points where everything seems fine

Astral Sleep from Tampere, Finland, are an up-and-coming true doom metal monster. Lane reviewed their debut demo 'Self Titled' and was so taken by it, that he sent some questions to the band. Guitarist/vocalist Markus kindly provided the answers.

AM: Let's kick the things off with a basic basic question: how did you discover the world of doom metal?

Markus: Tough one to start with. I have always been very open minded for every kind of music, and my tactic for exploring the musical scenes is that I get to listen a band that has only a familiar name to me. Years ago this tactic got me to know bands such as Thergothon, Unholy and disEMBOWELMENT. The first two doom metal records for me were Thergothon's 'Stream from the Heavens' and Runemagick's 'Darkness Death Doom'. I had those two as my only doom records for a pretty long time, until I really started to pay attention to doom metal scene and it's offerings. That's pretty much it, no D(r)agons in this story, heh.

AM: According to the band's biography, you wanted to form a new band, because your old one was pretty much inactive. What can you tell me about your past band activities and the styles performed? How come you wanted to form a doom metal band?

Markus: I'd rather not tell anything about those, haha... Well, my first band Velvet Darkness, which had also Rolle and Jaakko involved, was formed over 4 years ago, played music that can be simply described as shit. We were more amateurs than anyone has been after that... After that band broke up, I found a thrash metal band called Funereal with Rolf Pilve, who played drums for Astral Sleep's debut demo and is also a member of Sightless and Dreamtale. Jaakko joined Funereal band little later and we did lot's of great gigs which I still remember with great warmth. We still were pretty much amateurs, but we had the spirit and the attitude, and songs that could not be played without massive amounts of headbanging. Hopefully we will do a reunion someday... Funereal broke up after our guitarist/vocalist Sami Pilve quit the band because he found that he's heart was beating only on 80s Heavy Metal. After that it was pretty quiet for a while, until Jaakko and Rolf formed a Death Metal band called Division Of The Spoils, where I later joined as a vocalist and guitarist. We released one demo, 'Inside the Mind', about two years ago. It still was pretty amateurish and raw, and the songs were boring. We discovered this fact only after the media told us that we suck. Soon Divspo started to fade, and Jaakko and Rolf were asked to join Sightless. This pretty much did that Division Of The Spoils did not have time to rehearse, and I had nothing to do. So then I contacted my old mate Rolle(not Rolf) and we started a band. That was a time when practically drummers did not exist, so I played the drums. I had heard about Unholy's hypnotic live performances which did not involve pretty much things going on on stage, so we decided to play Doom Metal. Later I realised that it was really a good decision, doom metal is very original and wide scaled style of performance so it fits us really good.

AM: What is the philosophy you portray with the music and lyrics?

Markus: There isn't really a thin line drawn philosophy in our music, there is lots of thoughts and visions that come with great variations. The main themes on the first demo are ruin and love, and I think those two themes will remain. By ruin I mean the state of world and society, from my view very many things are in pretty bad shape, some may not be fixed at all through any normal actions. By love I mean things that come with this Queen of all Feelings, and when the pressure of society is combined with the toughness of love, the mixture is pretty much of a nightmare. But life is not full of tragedy and so is not our music. Even nightmares have points where everything seems fine.

AM: Astral Sleep's songs are long, hypnotic yet always permutating. Who are your influences? How do you explain the soul of the band's music?

Markus: Our influences are dreams that we have, the life that we live, things that we experience, visions that we fantasize and feelings they all represent. As for musical influences, I listen to all kinds of music and so do Jaakko and Rolle too, and they have been also writing some new material. I would say that our music is, and will be, a mix of 70s progressive rock, experimenting, funeral doom, heavy metal and a bit of unknown. The soul of our music is the soul of ourselves, mixed and twisted to represent something we can not put into words. To give an example, our upcoming material will be balancing between Sunn O))) and Iron Maiden!

AM: How the debut demo has been received by doom metal fanatics and the press? Have you sent it to record labels or did you feel it wasn't time for that as yet?

Markus: The most heard line of feedback is "what a surprise, this is good!". At this point we've heard no negative feedback, although Archaic Metallurgy is the only media that has published its review. Only one copy has been sent to a record label, but I am starting to feel more that we should send them more. The time for a record deal would be good now, since we have so much new material coming that it would need 3 demos to publish them all. Full length would be much better option. So record labels should not hesitate contacting us!

AM: You mentioned, that new Astral Sleep material is balancing somewhere between Sunn O))) and Iron Maiden. Can you reveal any other future plans about Astral Sleep?

Markus: To be honest, I can't. Our situation is not very clear right now. As soon as we get the rehearsing season started (which is now pretty difficult, due the lack of drummer), we will be doing everything to get on stage for live performances. The recording of the next demo will be started maybe next autumn, unless something big (like a record deal) happens. I am actually having lots sleepless nights pondering, what are we going to do with the band next.

AM: Is it hard to get gigs with this style of music? Considering your age, does it raise insurmountable walls between you and stages?

Markus: I don't know, we haven't really tried at this point, since we are not yet ready to perform. We have played one gig and that was totally awesome, too bad there were no audience, haha! I still think it will be hard to get gigs with this style of music, since this is not something to play in everywhere. Fortunately there are some events that include many different style of bands, and we just have to bare it that we need to play in "bad company" at first. Unless some guru from a booking office starts to arranges us gigs warming up for Reverend Bizarre, Solitude Aeturnus, Skepticism, Evoken, Candlemass and such, hahaha.
The age should not be a problem, it can be arranged somehow always. Besides, the year 2006 means that we all will finally reach the adult age.

AM: Are you going to study something in the future or will you choose to live total metal lifestyle? Which means no money, heheh.

Markus: Total study lifestyle means also no money, heh. We all are studying now, Jaakko is studying like a devotee in high school and his money goes to beer and music, I am studying like an unemployed to be a truck driver and my money goes to music and beer and Rolle is studying like musicians do, and spends his money on beer and bitches (just kidding). The future is not very clear, but I am very sure that none of us will be swimming in money ever, unless some record label guru arranges a huge world tour where our warm-up bands will be Metallica and Black Sabbath. Not Iron Maiden, because Iron Maiden > Astral Sleep.

AM: Well, the new year did begin a few weeks ago so let's do this one-off. Can you list me your 2005 music top list, please?

Markus: Sure. The following were the most inspiring works that the year 2005 offered:
Urfaust - 'Verräterischer, nichtswürdiger Geist': Urfaust has grown to be one of my favourite bands of all time. This album is packed with 4 pieces of occultic, original and haunting songs of one of the greatest raw black metal ever made. But besides that, these black metal songs are packed between 3 pieces of pure classical music. And the result is an album that makes one shiver by its flow of outer world power. The musicians of Urfaust have to disappoint me very badly to stop me praising them as geniuses, which gets me to another great album from the year 2005...
Gauhaert - 'Ygwaet Gwyr Gwynn Novi': A side project from the members of Urfaust. Like the album mentioned above, this album is also packed with few pieces of raw black/folk metal, but also classical/folk interludes. I got this just few days ago, but I have been listening to it many times a day, I just can't get enough. And it always gets better.
Temnozor - 'Folkstorm from the Azure Nights': I waited over half a year for this album to arrive in Finnish distributors from Russia, but it sure was worth it. Temnozor is one of the greatest bands at the moment, the fresh spirit of nature and the high pride of man is represented with magnificent production, great tunes and professional playing. And the vocals! If I would be a woman with a similar taste, I would wet myself every time the singer opens his mouth to let out some Slavonic tunes with full power! This is what NSBM should be, perfect.
Mournful Congregation - 'The Monad of Creation': Mournful Congregation is a marvellous doom metal band from Australia, and this album is full of great melodies, nice atmosphere and great songs. Good work!
Sigh - 'Gallow's Gallery': Japanese Sigh is one of the most bizarre and original band's at the time, and this new album makes them even weirder than they have used to be. Anime style vocals, 80s heavy metal style guitar riffs and speedy drums are nothing highly original, but Sigh can make everything sound like it has come from other galaxy. Like something was lurking behind the music...
Fornjotr - 'Arvet Auki' demo: I have to mention this because Fornjotr is one of the greatest death metal bands in Finland at the moment, and I think they deserve much more attention than what they have got at this point. Without these guys and their production skills and help, our demo would likely have sounded much more shitty than it does. And their own material is full-powered and brutal killing machine.
And because this is a band interview, our guitarist Rolle would like to add that in the year 2005, he has mostly been affected by bands such as Opeth, Planet X, Cynic, Portal (US), Black Label Society, Wintersun, Camel, Aeon Spoke and Ozzy Osbourne.
Jaakko lists the following releases:
Hate Eternal - 'I, Monarch': Powerful, proud and hateful death metal. This piece of destruction hypnotizes me into mindless bloodlust every time.
Baptism - 'Morbid Wings of Sathanas': Good songs and playing. Album has very intense, dark, atmosphere and good vocals.
Nevermore - 'This Godless Endeavour': Not actually my favourite band but worth mentioning. Tight thrashing with interesting melodies and weirdness.

AM: Whoa, there's some lists! Gotta check them bands out. Well, Nevermore's latest is one of my faves, too. But it's time to wrap up this interview. Good luck to Astral Sleep with their future endeavours!

01/19/2006 13:19