Immortal Souls - Q&A

How does this new release differ from the Ice Upon The Night that Fear Dark put out last year?

CD contest is the same, all the same songs are included. The artwork is new and totally different than in earlier Fear Dark release. This is a 'treat' for US fans, since label didn't want to just put the same album on sale there.

How do the dynamics of clean vocal parts get created? What inspired the use of those? Who sings those live?

Clean vocal idea came from Esa, he played with Kimmo and came up with idea to use some clean parts also. We had the songs already and clean vocals were all that was missing, so we did it with Kimmo. Kimmo Pulkkinen is very talented singer and we were happy to get him do this for us. Pete sings these clean
parts live.

What inspires many of the metaphors you use in lyric writing? What are some of the messages that most people have gotten? What are some examples of thought that no one (fans, etc) have "figured out" yet?

I love to do layers of meanings and subcontents with lot of metaphors. This has become my style to do lyrics and I think it fits our music very well also. Quite many fans have contacted me with questions and ideas and I really enjoy this, it is nice to see people really listen and think about the text also. In most of the reviews there is never comments of the texts, so the feedback straight from the fans is great. My use of meanings like snow falling down to earth like grace has been quite easily marked, like some elso nature farces that has a second meaning in the text. I try to keep it always, not to spoil it to anyone. Few times
I have had discussions with some students that read about theology and have very good questions of my meanings. That is cool.

What are your tour plans? How soon before you tour US soil? What are some specific plans there?
This summer seems to be the time for our first US tour. We are touring over two weeks, so there should be something for every fan. On the tour we will also be appearing in Cornerstone festival, I am really waiting for this tour.

What do you think being in a band represents to musicians such as yourself? Do you see differences in how you guys might feel as opposed to how others might feel in a band but in the USA? How are musicians perceived there? What kind of respect/disrespect do you receive as artists?
The band is the vehicle to get to our artistic goals, I don't see it in a long run as a team of superstars, but more of a simple friendship. I've been lucky to work with great guys, and that always comes through in performances, when the band plays tight and is enjoying it. I think band is always respected in some amount, as team is working for a same goal, I think it is the same in the US.

Does your song "man of sorrow" have any inspiration from or is it in any way a response to bruce dickinson's song of the same title?
No. I have not heard the song or seen his text, song name is just accidently the same. Our song is about loss, death and longing, I do not now what the other song is about.

What other bands have you played live with? What kind of response from and interaction with have you had from these bands?
We just finished our European tour and there we spent time i.e. with Sacrificium (GER), Slechtvalk (NL), Grimson Moonlight (SWE) and Drottnar (NOR) to name a few. All bands from all countries are great, I'm happy to work with these nice guys and girls. Looking forward to meet them again. My experience is that bands do cheer each other on long tours like we have been in. This is really nice, there is no competition between bands, it is more of a co-operation as it should be.

How important is fusing your faith and/or being vocal about your faith from the stage, etc to you guys?
None. We build our live as a rock show, let the music speak for itself. In metal concert I want firstly be entertained. Show is too hectic to stop it for a speech, it's not us.

If a few of our readers were snatched up or if they were lucky enough to win a contest to travel to your home and we could hang out with the band for a few days... What kind of places would you take us? What sites would you want us to see and/or experience? Why? (such a contest would be great, huh?)

Well, if there would be such a contest I'd have a great plan; We would drive with snow mobiles to Lapland (band, winners and label representative) in the north of Finland to a cottage in middle of nowhere. There we would hunt down a reindeer and make food on open fire, at the night we would go to sauna and swim in the snow, for a proper mental cleansing. This sounds even too good... I'll have to talk with label guys to make this happen.

In writing music, how important is feeling? Compare and contrast that to technicality and its importance... If you had to choose between one or over another, what would you choose and why? A great guitar lead/solo or a great guitar rhythm?

I think feeling is very important. It is needed to build up a song that is supposed to last and stay in listeners mind. A great melody will haunt for days, but complex rhythmics is easily missed. Some emotionally packed texts can remain in memory as a well written book. Technicality in a songs and structures is nice to have, but if feeling is missing and songs don't have any connection to listener, that is not good I think.

Please list 10 albums that all the Christian hard music fans reading this must immediately go buy or listen to.
Well, I can just speak for myself: these metal albums have given me lot of ideas and made my life better:
Paradise Lost: Gothic,
Vengeance Rising: Once Dead,
In Flames: The Jester Race,
The Black League: Ichor,
Black Sabbath: Paranoid,
and the greatest metal album ever -- Dark Tranquillity: The Gallery.

Anything else you'd like to add?

I await to see US fans on the tour, we are waiting for some confirmations still, but as they come we will update our site, so that anyone who wants to participate, can. Site address is www.immortalsouls.com and news are updated as they come in. Thanks, and see you on tour.

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