ETERNAL TEARS OF SORROW
Questions asked by Jon Wilde, added to Rock Realms 4th August 2009.
Eternal Tears Of Sorrow is a symphonic death metal band from Finland that's just released a new album entitled Children Of The Dark Waters.
We caught up with bass player / singer Altti Veteläinen for a chat.
Hi Altti, thanks for taking a moment to answer these questions for Rock Realms. Hope you are well?
Altti: Thanks, doing really great at the moment. Have been on summer holiday for 5 weeks and still 4 days left.
How would you describe the Eternal Tears Of Sorrow style to the uninitiated?
Altti: I would say that it's symphonic and melodic death metal... including lots of influences from various metal genres.
Who inspired the band's sound?
Altti: At the beginning the biggest influence was Paradise Lost with their Gothic and Shades of God albums.
How do you think Children Of The Dark Waters compares to earlier EToS work?
Altti: The new album is darker and more aggressive than our previous albums. And I would also say that the new album has the very best EToS songs too.
Which songs are you most proud of on the album?
Altti: I'm 110% proud of all the tracks on the new album and it's very hard to pick a favourite one out of them. But one which makes the greatest atmosphere is the title track "Children of the Dark Waters".
Are there plans for a big tour on the back of this release?
Altti: We're going to make gigs for sure, but no big tours that would last for months. It's not simply possible to do very long lasting tours in our case because most of us have families and day jobs as well.
Risto Ruuth recently left the band. What happened?
Altti: Risto just made a decision to leave the band because of personal reasons. We don’t know all of them but it feels like he wants to concentrate on something else in his life now.
How is the new boy - Mika Lammassaari - fitting in?
Altti: He's really a great guy and very talented guitarist. He's fitting on board just perfectly. We have been rehearsing our live set for 3 months now and it feels like he has have been playing with us always.
Is there anyone that EToS would particularly like to work with? Other artists, writers or producers...
Altti: Surely it would be great to play live together with some great bands or get some great artists to make a guest appearance on our album. But when it comes to the song writing and producing, we want to take care of all that by ourselves. We have always produced our albums by ourselves and I'm sure we'll continue that still in the future. It's only because we know totally what we want and how we want our music to sound.
Have you ever been in a rock club and heard an EToS song being played? If so, was it a surreal experience?
Altti: We have heard our songs played from CD many times, but I must say that I haven't seen anyone cover our songs live. Of course I've seen some cover versions on YouTube. It's always nice to see if our music is inspiring people and they want to tribute our band by making their own versions of our songs.
What is the rock scene like in Finland - do you have lots of clubs and live music?
Altti: The scene is better and more active than ever. There are many great clubs all around Finland, tens of great festivals in the summer time and of course hundreds of bands playing rock and metal.
Did the Lordi Eurovision win make a difference to your lives?
Altti: Of course it made Finland and Finnish metal/rock music more known around the Europe. But before Lordi there have already been lots of metal bands that have been pioneering the Finnish metal work around the world. So maybe Lordi's effort boosted the FInnish metal scene still a bit more.
Do any members of the band have any side projects on the go?
Altti: We have some projects, but nowadays it's a bit hard to find enough time to work with them at the same time. So, most of us are mainly concentrating on EToS. But I have For My Pain... which is still in the background. Maybe we'll record something at some point. Mika has his second band called Mors Subita and they are pretty active all the time.
What's the best band you've ever seen live?
Altti: There are many of them... but the best bands live have been Twisted Sister, Kamelot, Helloween, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden, Nightwish, UDO
What are your top 5 albums (sadly, you aren't allowed to include any EToS ones :))?
Altti: This is always a very hard question, because it changes from time to time.. but at the moment my top 5 albums are:
Kamelot: Black Halo
Katatonia: The Great Cold Distance
Katatonia: Last Fair Deal Gone Down
Helloween: Keeper of the Seven Keys part II
Satyricon: Now, Diabolical!
What's the best/worst thing you've ever done when drunk?
Altti: Haha..The worst things I've tried to forget and managed to do that pretty well ;) But the best thing is for sure making the decision with Jarmo to resurrect EToS after the split-up.
Does the music industry reinforce or destroy your faith in humanity?
Altti: It's does both from time to time..but unfortunately those bad cases are usually the things you remember.
What's next for EToS, or does the band take each day as it comes...?
Altti: Next we're going to play some great live shows during the upcoming autumn and next winter. After that we probably start do some composing work with new ideas.
And, finally, what are you up to once you've finished answering these questions?
Altti: I guess I'll go to sleep, because it's already past midnight.
The new Eternal Tears Of Sorrow album is out now. Check out the review on Rock Realms here for further details...
