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INDEX
INTERVIEWS
GUESTBOOK
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OPEN THE CRYPTS...
1. Havé
from the grave! First of all an introduction to your morbid band
would be necessary, because I'm sure not many readers heard about
you... When was the band created, what are your morbid releases,
what are the most important rotting facts from your livid existence...
Etc! Tell us all what we need to know to feel in the perfectly macerating
cadaverous conditions!
J.L.: Avoimen Haudan Löyhkä was formed in early 2007 in a mould-infested basement in Turku, Finland. We have released a demo CDr called “Raatomontun laidalla” in the autumn of 2007, a self-titled MCD in 2008 and a split 7” with Damngod in the spring of 2009. The members of the band are: H.J.: drums, S.T.: guitar, J.L.: guitar, A.P.: vocals and K.T.: bass and backing vocals.
A.P.: The band was formed around 2006/2007 by our guitar heroes and drum commander. I got in 2007 and K.T in 2008. We are just five different kind of guys, who love to play old school death metal.
2. Your music is heavy as fuck, brutal and grotesque like early GRAVE, there is some macabre heaviness à la DEATH "Leprosy" and something tasting the war, something like old BOLT THROWER... What kind of rotting influences can you quote for those who didn't listen? Would you rather compare AVOIMEN to a big fist of bricks in your face, or the final fatal hit of the undertaker's shovel?
A.P.: Hey, don't forget the almighty AUTOPSY! I think you've got the idea of our influences. Ok... and to that list you can add bands like ASPHYX, MASSACRE, NIHILIST and DISCHARGE.
J.L: Thanks for the impressive description, we are honoured to be compared the such great bands as those above. These bands have sure as hell influenced me quite a lot. Both Bolt Thrower and Grave blew my head clean off back in ´91. In addition to these I can say that the influences range from old Florida death metal, like the first two records from Obituary and Deicide, to European acts such as Asphyx, Benediction and Dismember. Also lots of hardcore and grind bands, like Negative FX, Agnostic Front, Extreme Noise Terror and early Napalm Death, have influenced me big time.
3. In fact your brutal symphonies from the tomb doesn't sound very Finnish in my hears, it would be a putrid cadaveric mix between Sweden and old England or something like that! Ah… Aren't you afraid to be mistaken for some Swedes? And maybe local death supporters would misunderstand you for some swedes trying to seem Finnish for some unknown desperate reasons? Ahah... Well, maybe I'm currently too drunk on black milk while some pure Finnish obscurity is hiding in your sounds? My creaking skullbox is a bit mixed at this very minute...
J.L.: Quite complex thinking there... Hah. But no, we are not afraid of being mistaken for Swedes, or any other nationality for that matter. It might be that we don´t sound that Finnish, but we just play, and the stuff that comes out just comes out.
A.P.: We're not stand for anything. Just pure fucking old school death metal!!!
4. What does Avoimen Haudan Löyhkä stand for? A cadaverous friend told me it was something morbid and putrid, but I want to hear it directly from your mouth: So we'll have the original version, with the putrid smell of death and all rancid body remains directly escaping your screaming mouth! ARRRGGGHH!
J.L. Avoimen Haudan Löyhkä is obviously Finnish. The name was taken from H.P. Lovecraft´s Finnish translation of The Hound. In the novel the line: “the frightful, soul-upheaving stenches of the uncovered-grave” has been translated to: “avoimen haudan löyhkä”. A direct word-to-word translation is “the stench of an open grave”. I guess ïll-odoured open graves are something that could be characterized as something “morbid and putrid”. :)
5. You released a split Ep with DAMNGOD through TRITONUS records, and told me a new split Ep with PANZERIUM was in the work! Apparently you like to release splits! What's good for you in this kind of formats? Do you prefer to release splits with bands who are your friends? Tell us more about the forthcoming vynil with PANZERIUM!
J.L.: The forthcoming split with Panzerium, also from our home town Turku, is only in the early planning stages. But some day it will be out. The guys in Damngod are our friends, as well as the drunks in Panzerium. It just feels natural for us to do these split releases. Not that much thinking and planning going on here... :)
A.P.: Vinyl
is the only choice for a split. ;) The split w/ PANZERIUM come if
it comes. We have just talked about it. They have few extra tracks
from their sessions and drummerguy Hellman (it's his real last name.
I'm not joking!) wants really do split with us. I just know him
and KOLKKA in PANZERIUM and I have to say that both of them are
just cool dudes. They also love old school death metal and being
so fucking drunk. That's how we get our friends. :D
6. Are you a vynilaholic, and is it a special burning pleasure for you to be released on vynil? Or is it just because that is a cool format with nice pictures (Covers are bigger than on a CD etc). What is your musical collection the most composed of: Cds, vynils, tapes, CDrs... (No, I didn't say Mp3s... Not sure if one can really talk of "collection" in this case... Or if they really insist with their Mp3 collections, I’ll be able to answer I have a massive collection of temporary internet files and porno spywares on my computer! AhAh)
J.L.: I really like vinyl, but CDs are ok. And tapes. I don´t really care for mp3s that much. They can be useful though when checking out new bands or such. I guess my collection of music is 70% wax and 30% CDs, approximately.
7. It seems your new songs are becoming more brutal, faster, with more anger and a quite rawer sound that could remind of some Swedish Death metal from the past! Am I right and is this your goal to become more brutal and merciless than before? Or is it just a natural evolution that happens because: The more you play, the better you play... The more you play, the better the feeling comes... The better the feeling comes, the deeper it comes from the guts...? Was there a clear goal when you created the band, or was it "just" to play Death metal with the guts?
J.L.: Well, when we started playing, it was clear for us that the music was to be raw, simple old-style death metal. Some songs are faster, some slower. In fact the songs we have planned to release on the forthcoming split with Panzerium are both rather slow. I guess you could say that we play from the guts.
8. Do you think original/ different Death metal can be good? Since you're Finnish, I'm sure you got an overdose of melodic plastic metal with trolls and dancing tiny angels everywhere, so this would explain why your music is uncompromisingly brutal and rotting? Could AVOIMEN be seen as the response to 20 years of commercial Finnish metal?
J.L.: There is quite a lot of melodic plastic metal in Finland, you´re right there. There are probably hundreds of Nightwish clones here, one more “theatrical” than the other. Pure shit. Those bands have nothing to do with metal. Commercial pop music with a hint of distorted guitar, is what they are.
9. Is it easier for AVOIMEN HAUDAN LÖYHKÄ to spill the guts during rehearsals, concerts or studio moments? In what conditions have you got the more sensations and the bigger morbid feelings? How does an AVOIMEN gig generally occur and what kind of things can the spectators expect?
J.L.: Playing live is what we do best. We are usually too lazy to get anything done during rehearsals, they have tended to be more drinking and smoking sessions, with a few chords and beats in between. A typical Avoimen Haudan Löyhkä show is a semi-chaotic 25 minutes of pure metal mayhem.
10. The first recording of the band was a demo entitled “Raatomontun laidalla" released in 2007. Was it the same kind of music, and are you still happy with it? Or did it rather show the beginnings of a band whose songs weren't so good? Did you play in other bands worth of the morbid notice before AVOIMEN, or should the readers focus on your current graven activity if they want their morbid fix of grotesque death?
J.L.: Raatomontun laidalla (could roughly be translated to: At the edge of the pit of cadavers) was the same stuff that we play now, maybe we play a bit better and tighter together now, but otherwise nothing has changed. I am still quite happy with the demo. We have all been active in a pile of band before AHL. And still are. Our drummer plays d-beat in Kylmä Sota and sludge in Stumm, our lead guitarist plays bass in the hardcore outfit Kieltolaki, and our bass player is also pounding the bass in the mighty Torture Killer. Bands from the past in which we have played include such acts as Lehmien Vapautusrintama, Vauhtihirmu, The Stakeout and Knife Edge to name a few.
11. The Finnish underground Death metal scene seems to be in a quite nice health, with bands such as SLUGATHOR, STENCH OF DECAY, NERLICH, VORUM, LIE IN RUINS... Maybe BLOODSOUL, GARCHAROT and few others... Since you're living in this very hole, give us the opinion from the inside! Is your local underground quite good and is it possible to play nice gigs quite often? Are there quite a lot of supporters, fanzines, labels/ distros and grave robbers? What are the currently best finnish bands in your humble rotting opinion?
J.L.: There is a good underground DM scene here Finland. Lots of great bands and quite a lot of shows. Beside the bands you mention, local Turku bands Inimicality, Atretic Intestine and Cannibal Accident are brilliant.
12. What makes Finland so special on a grave-robbing point of view? Are there particularly a lot of ooold cemeteries, and teenagers love to exhume the old cadavers to play with it (You know, baby dolls lol) or is it simply because the nights are generally so long that the development of werewolves increases? Hmmm, this is a very intelligent and quite stupid question, isn't it? So we'll come back to serious for a minute: I noticed the word "Finland" is composed of two smaller words: So it should be the "land" of the "fin"? But what is the "fin" exactly? Maybe an old tribe who used to live in your country at the very beginnings?
J.L.: The long dark winter definately has an effect of what happens here in Finland. We drink a lot, and kill a lot. We also top the world statistics in the number of suicides per year. It gets crowded on them graveyards.
13. What's your current morbid playlist? And what about the not so morbid playlist?
J.L: Lately I´ve been listening a lot to Acid Witch, Ghoul, Slugathor, Asphyx, Cannabis Corpse, Banished, Archgoat, Demolition Hammer, Solstice (US) and old Sepultura. Records of the perhaps not-so-morbid kind that have been on my turntable lately include such bands as Angel Witch, Agent Steel, Kirka, Dio and Deep Purple. Great stuff!
A.P.: Morbid playlist: Banished - Deliver Me Unto Pain, Nominon - Diabolical Bloodlust, Torture Killer – Sewers, Asphyx - Death...The Brutal Way. Not-so morbid: Therapy? - Infernal Love, Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left, Bloodshot - Ultimate Hatred, St.Hood - For The Dead.
14. What are your future projects? Is there something special in line, or will you keep on molesting the victims and bury them alive in the forgotten Finnish cemeteries? Tell us all we need to know to decently rot in our little, cold and damp caskets... For the smell of death macerates as it should have always done! IN THE MORBID WE TRUST!
J.L: We plan to play lots of shows, release more records and play more shows. An occational visit to the cemetary every once in a while can also be rather refreshing, and keeps you in a good mood. A european tour of old graveyards, maybe playing some shows on the side, would be cool to do some day. We´ll see what the future brings. A big hand to G and Nihilistic Holocaust!
Web page: http://www.myspace.com/ahldeathmetal
