Interview with Henri Kanervo the vocalist and guitar player of the Finnish Death/Black metal band, Frostbitten Kingdom.
Hi Henri, how have you been?
Hi, Carla! I’m fine, thanks. I am finishing the writing of a new album. Basically everything is written, if we don’t count lyrics and vocal and drum arrangements. I am looking forward to start rehearsing new material. Some demos will most likely be recorded shortly. The actual album will propably be recorded some time next year. It will be awesome to record new material, as this is without any doubt the best music I have ever written.
Tell me when did Frostbitten Kingdom was formed?
In 2004. We wanted to create grim mix of scandinavian Black metal and US style Death metal back then. As time passed by, it started to sound more and more like Death metal and after that more and more melodic and at the latest album maybe even symphonic. Everything must evolve, right?
”The Winter Was Symphony” was released last year via WormHoleDeath records. Tell me about it.
The Winter War Symphony was our best work this far. It was more epic and melodic than anything we have done before. At the same time it was still beautiful, dark and grim. Basically there was more different kinds of influences and styles than in our previous works. I still think it was more compact than anything we had done before. If you listen to the album, you hopefully get my point. It isn’t just about death metal, there are shitloads of influences from rock ‘n’ roll of 80s, classical music of 1800s, and of course, a lot of black metal influences. It got fuckin awesome reviews as well. Anyway, hopefully the next album will be even better. You can always do stuff like this better.
Are you going to release new materials soon?
I won’t promise you anything, but maybe next year!
What can you tell me about the other band’s releases?
The first work we published was Through Nightfall Storms and Sunless Dawns. That was back in 2007. We were pretty young back then, and we couldn’t play shit. To be honest, the CD fucking sucks. Anyway, it was the best we could do back then and there are couple of good songs. I guess I was better songwriter than guitarist back then. A year later, at 2008, we published Obscure Visions of Chaotic Annihilation. That was much, much, better album. I can’t believe how much we evolved in a year. It wasn’t an awesome album either, but there was a couple of really good songs on it. Check out Embrace of the Frozen Oceans from Youtube, for example. By that point, we started to found our own sound. The first album was basically fucked up melodic black metal, even thou we have never called ourselves a black metal band. The second one was more like melodic blackened death, played by a young band who was starting to find their own sound. At 2010 we signed recording deal with No Sign of Life. They published our third album, Infidel Angel. Fuck, that was a good album. Dark, brutal and technical. Our first work that we can really be proud of, I think. You should check the album out, it seriously rocks. Back then we played a lot of live gigs in Finland, and also some gigs in Sweden and Poland. We opened for bands like Venom, Solstafir, Bal-Sagoth, Eternal Tears of Sorrow and The Devil’s Blood all the time. Those were good days to be on your early twenties. After that came The Winter War Symphony at 2014. By then we had changed the label from No Sign of Life to Wormholedeath. The album was more melodic and athmospheric than the previous ones, I think. More catchy than the previous works. And definetely more epic. It’s our best work this far, definetely. What ever comes next, must be better than anything we have done earlier.
Are there any influences for Frostbitten Kingdom?
Of course there are influences, lots of them. The biggest influences are propably Children of Bodom, Death, Dissection, Immortal and Suffocation. I also like glam metal of the 1980s a lot, as well as claasical music of the Romantic era. Maybe you can hear some nuances of those as well in the newest album. Our drummer Sami Vainio is a big fan of Scandinavian black metal and US death metal, like I am as well. He also digs all kinds of evil ambient, doom and stoner stuff. At the end of the day, I don’t think that much how artists we like influence our material. Maybe the listeners should decide what our music sounds like. We are wrong persons to answer to that, in a way.
What are the lyrical themes and who use to write the music?
I write the music and lyrics. Nowadays I also do all the rough arrangements. They usually change more or less as we start to rehearse the material together. When it comes to lyrical themes, there are different themes in different albums. The Winter War Symphony was about The Winter War, a war fought between Finns and Soviets during the World War II. Lyrics were based on a novel called Korpisotaa (which loosely translated means Forest War) by finnish novelist Pentti Haanpää.
Any shows conformed for this year?
No, we don’t have any shows confirmed right now.
Do you have a message for the fans?
Stay tuned, maybe something new is coming!
Kippis Henri, all the best!
Kippis, all the best to you as well!
https://www.facebook.com/FrostbittenKingdom
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