Force
Majeure
“Force Majeure is crushing
the gates with metal & melody”, This was the title that the band wanted
for this interview and I agree with them. This is another band that “fights”
with their own power in order to make their music well known to the metal
scene. Read the very interesting things that they told us.
1. First of all I want to congratulate
you on your latest release. Can you tell me the latest news from the Force
Majeure camp?
Thanks! We're currently writing new material
and rehearsing new songs. We're planning to record some new stuff in early
2006. It's not 100% sure yet but perhaps we'll be recording more than just
three songs. Time will tell. At the same time we're doing some gigs around
Finland because playing live in front of audience is the best part in band
activity. And I think playing live is all that Force Majeure is about:
energy, power, sweat and more energy!
2. How did you find this name for the band
and what does it mean?
The year was 2001 and we were thinking for
a name for our band. I can't recall who came up with Force Majeure but
we liked it and decided to give a name to our band. Force Majeure means
literally "superior force" and besides that it's a legal term. If something
unstoppable happens (earthquake, flooding etc. ) then you have a Force
Majeure reason not to come to the court for example. We just like the name
and don?t care the implications behind it. Besides, I'm a Star Wars fan
and everything that refers to Force are cool!
3. From 2001 until today you are a very active
band. You had four releases so far, which you believe is your best?
The best from us has not been heard yet. But
the best of the existing releases is of course the latest, The Gatecrusher.
On Gatecrusher the vocals came down pretty well at least comparing to our
previous releases. Thanks goes to Riku who is really talented vocalist
and Gatecrusher was his first work with Force Majeure. The songs in Gatecrusher
represent Force Majeure the way we like to be known. To put it simple:
Gatecrusher is the best from us in all areas – songwriting, playing and
production.
4. Can you give us some details from "The Gatecrusher"?
The Gatecrusher is the latest release of Force
Majeure. It was recorded in three studios. All the basic tracks we're recorded
at Studio Mets?torni in Helsinki, Finland. Mixing was done in Sonic Pump
Studios by Nino Laurenne, the Thunderstone guitarist. And some additional
vocal tracks plus mastering was done at Riku's own studio, L.A. Turunen
Studios. The Gatecrusher contains three tracks. Title song is quite short,
aggressive yet melodic and composed for live-set opener. The second track
is called Distant, Silent, Gone and the lyrics of this one are based on
a short story by Dickens, called the Signalman. The last track is called
I Hear Voices and it's about the subject that every decent heavy metal
band should have a track about: insanity.
5. Why did you choose this name for this EP?
The Gatecrusher name refers to the impact
that we hope this EP has. Actually it has crushed some gates around the
globe. We've had plenty Of positive responses, visibility in different
medias and some Gatecrushing headbanging on our live gigs. The Gatecrusher
crushes your defences and conquers your mind while listening to it! Hehe.
6. How are the reactions of the metal press
and the fans so far?
The reaction has been overall positive. Majority
of the reviews have Been positive and promising and we?ve done more interviews
regarding to Gatecrusher than any of our previous works. I guess the fans
have liked Gatecrusher too because it?s almost sold out.
7. Any thoughts in order to support it?
Download the tracks from our site (www.forcesite.net)
and play them to all your friends, relatives, workmates etc. If you like
our music, there's some copies of Gatecrusher left. Go and get yours while
there's still time!
8. Do you like to play live shows?
Yes, we love to. As I mentioned before, playing
live is all that Force Majeure is about. Live shows are the best way of
transmitting the energy that we have and sharing it with the audience.
I personally think playing live is one of the best things there is in the
world.
9. So far you had changed two singers. Do you
believe that Riku expressed better the feelings of Force Majeure or not?
Riku is definitely better singer than our
previous one. Before Riku Joined Force Majeure, we constanly felt that
the vocals could be better but now this problem is solved. All the best
for Niko, our previous singer, but he couldn?t handle the vocals the way
we?d hoped him to.
10. Tell us some words concerning the lyrics.
Eemeli is our main man concerning lyrics.
If the music is done by me, I often give a title to the track and Eemeli
comes up with lyrics that are always great. We haven't made any rules what
the lyrics can or cannot be about. For example, I Hear Voices is imaginary
journey to the troubled mind on the brink of madness. A cliche subject
maybe, but I think we managed to bring something fresh to the subject and
I hope somebody gets something out of them.
11. How do you see the underground scene of
Finland?
The Finnish underground metal scene is vast
and varied. We have all Kinds of metal band from different genres. There
are plenty of bands that would deserve a record contract. Hopefully people
are active and try to find bands that cannot be found from record companies'
adds. Currently metal is very popular in Finland and even extreme metal
bands, such as grindcore bands have been seen on the Finnish Top-40 (record
sales list). Finland is said to be the heavy metal capital of the world.
Don?t know about that but many metal bands sell a pile of records here.
12. Give a title for this interview.
Force Majeure is crushing the gates with metal
& melody. That’s all I can come up with. Feel free to change it.
13. Thank you for your time and close the interview
as you want!
Thanks for this interview and everybody stay
metal!
Antonis Maglaras
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