The session is going as planned: We recorded the drums at Finnvox in Helsinki after which we returned to Oulu’s Neo studio to record the rest. At this point bass and most of the rhythm guitars are already in. It seems Ville will start doing the vocals later this week.

A total of 16-17 songs will be recorded. 12-13 of these will be on the upcoming album. Which ones, that is a question yet to be answered. We will finish all songs before making the final decision. Some of the song titles published here have been changed or thrown away (f. ex. At Your Grave, Losing My Faith). To avoid further confusion we will let you know the titles when everything is ready and decided. Also the album title will be published later.

The atmosphere at the studio is more relaxed than ever. That, however, may change in 1 second. But as I said, so far everything is going as planned.

/Lopakka

  
 

As I said last time, the relaxed feeling with the recordings can change in 1 second. And so it did. We noticed some problems in the fine-tune of our instruments and had to play most of the songs again. That was pretty frustrating but in the end really worth it: now the songs start to sound exactly they are supposed to sound. All rhythm and acoustic guitars have now been recorded. Ville has done vocals for seven songs so far.

Today is the last recording day for now. We’ll have a break and continue on January 3rd. We have a lot of stuff still to do: the rest of the vocals, guitar melodies, solos, some synths and so on. But we’ll think about that next time after the break.

There has been rumours in some magazines that our style will change “radically” with the new album. We never said that. But we didn’t say it won’t either, heh heh… Just wait and see (hear).

Have a peaceful rest of the year

/Lopakka

 

All recordings are now finished. The mixing and mastering will take place at Finnvox, Helsinki February 4th – 14th. The release date of the album has not yet been decided. For us the sooner is the better but the release date is more up to Century Media than it is to us. In any case it seems that they will push it at least to May. At least one single will be put out before the album.

The album will include 11 songs (about 45 mins). As we had so much stuff to choose from, we could build the album from songs that are as different as possible from each other. Also, we could pick only the strongest songs, and I think the new album album will be clearly our best one yet. The songs differ from each other not only musicwise but also lyricwise and productionwise. Because of that the new album will be the absolute opposite to a theme album.

The album title and song list will be published here sometime after the mixing.

/Lopakka

 

The album is finally finished. As you know already, the album title is THE COLD WHITE LIGHT, containing the following songs:

1. KONEVITSAN KIRKONKELLOT
2. CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO DIE
3. BRIEF IS THE LIGHT
4. NEVERLASTING
5. AIKA MULTAA MUISTOT [EVERYTHING IS NOTHING]
6. EXCUSE ME WHILE I KILL MYSELF
7. BLOOD & TEARS
8. YOU ARE THE ONE
9. GUILT AND REGRET
10. THE LUXURY OF A GRAVE
11. NO ONE THERE

We gave Hiili one day per one song for the mixing, which is more than we ever had for mixing with an album. In other words we underlined the musical and lyrical differences with the sound as well. It paid off nice and the songs are now really individual and personal when compared to each other.

I’m having major difficulties when I try to describe the new album to you. That is probably because the album is so many things at the same time. On one hand the album has songs that are more rocking turbo-boost and aggressive than what we have had in years. On the other hand there are songs that are more mellow and very atmospheric. Even the songs that are musicwise somewhat alike, have been drawn as far as possible from each other with lyrics, production and different instruments.

Because of this it was very difficult to choose the single song: not one song fully represents the whole album and any decicion would be a kind of a compromise. Anyhow, we ended up choosing an edit of the song NO ONE THERE as the single song. It doesn’t really represent the album as a whole but perhaps tells you the direction we’re headed with this album. The song has really strong melodies and a strong atmosphere from the beginning to the end.

You can surely recognize the band on THE COLD WHITE LIGHT, the changes are not that radical and this is not an experimental album. Although you might find some similarities to our earlier albums AMOK, DOWN, FROZEN and CRIMSON, there are some elements in both music and lyrics that we have never had before. On the whole I think the band sounds fresh and the playing is relaxed, thanks to the break we took before this album. With THE COLD WHITE LIGHT we have also given a lot of thought to the arrangements. They are now way more interesting and different than f. ex. on CRIMSON, which was arrangement-wise pretty dull.

I have noticed that some people already criticize the album without hearing one note. I ask you not to do the same - at least give it a listen before hammering it down. I can only speak for myself, but I honestly think that the new album contains some of our finest songs and best lyrics yet.

/Lopakka

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