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INDEX
INTERVIEWS
GUESTBOOK
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OLD
SCHOOL DEATH METAL/ GRIND
FROM
THE FINNISH MIST
1. Hello. What's up with GALVANIZER? Something nice to announce?
Greetings.
Things are good, thanks for asking. A lot of gigs and cool shit
coming up. We just recorded three new songs to be released likely
in the end of the year. More info on that later!
2. Your second album "Prying sight of imperception" was released some time ago. How do you see it with some distance? Still happy with the global outcome? Are you also satisfied with the feedbacks of the music fans, listeners, and the press?
We are still really happy with the outcome. As always though, you get little bored with the songs after a while as you keep playing and playing them over and over again. But I see that as a somewhat natural progression as time goes on. I personally rank it way higher on the list than our debut “Sanguine Vigil”. It is way more mature album, especially sound wise, but also the songwriting is more complex and includes more interesting hooks. We still are really amazed how good the reception was amongst fans and press. We sure got a lot of new fans since the release!
3. Is this album all composed of new songs? Were some of these composed during the pandemic and times of confinement? Did you notice if some of these strange moments we had to experience influenced your riffing incubation a way (Perhaps darker) or another (Maybe more putrid)?
Well, it was
kind of a mix of some new and some quite old songs. Oldest one of
course is the re-recording of our song “Ground Above”. That was
composed all the way back in 2014 when we did our first demo. I
think only one or two songs were composed in 2020 when all this
corona-shit started. Most of the songs have been made around 2018-2019.
I don't see a big correlation between the pandemic and the direction
where our songs have or haven't gone.
4. Compared to the previous one, I find the production of the new album to be a bit darker, perhaps "deafer" (More bass frequencies), with fewer crisps on guitars... Well, it gives a more "obscure" taste, which is cool. Was this only a matter of final mix, or you aimed to sound this way at the origin of the procreation process?
We purposefully toned down the guitars a bit. I just got pretty bored to use the HM-2 and I always hated the hazzle it made in the gigs. It was quite often pretty hard to find the perfect buzz sound so I just started to use my Peavey 6505 own distortion. It's the main sound on PSOI as well, although there's still some bits of the Swedish sound left, haha. But yeah, you got that quite on point; We wanted to make an album with darker atmosphere but still do it with a more clear sound so you can really hear some riffs too.
5. This is the second time your album is released by EVERLASTING SPEW Recs, so you must be happy with their (cadaver embalming) treatment? What is good for the bands released on this label? Is it more about the distribution, promotion, about the guys behind...? Did you meet the guys of the label in person, and do you have funny stories to tell perhaps? (Héhé)
Absolutely!
They are hard working dudes and overall funny Italians. Giorgio
and Tito have done so much for us and they're always promoting and
helping us out. They are also running our merch-webshop for us which
is great as it frees a lot of time for us to use in different things.
I think I met Giorgio in Kill-Town Deathfest 2018 or 2019. It was
awesome to meet the man behind Everlasting Spew himself. We can
recommend ESR for any death metal band out there looking for a great
label. Hit them up with some demos!
6. I guess you should enjoy DEAD INFECTION! Do you prefer their early bizarre death grind epoch (First album) or the later more brutal grinding recordings? (2nd and 3rd album... I didn't count the various Eps or it would be too complex AhAh)
Oh do we?!
What a sick band! We were quite heavy DI consumers in 2017-2018
and it had quite an impact on “Sanguine Vigil” too, for sure. I
guess we have always been more into the “A Chapter of Accidents”
and “Brain Corrosion”. When we played in Asakusa Deathfest, Tokyo
in 2018, we met the vocalist Jaro and the guitarist Tomasz. Such
great times! They played with their band Meat Spreader and many
nights we were out there drinking beer together! We even played
DI song “Rich Zombie” as a cover at the festival. It was a sad moment
to hear Cyjan's passing in 2020. It would have been great to meet
him as well. Rest in peace!
7. If you could see one of these bands live in their glory days, which would you choose? EXHUMED, IMPALED, DEAD INFECTION (Yes, again), HAEMORRHAGE, NECRONY... (Well if you prefer you can quote the top 3, it would make a very cool gig AhAh)
Exhumed, Dead
Infection and Necrony! That would be one hell of a gig to witness!
8. Every country has its taboos and forbidden subjects or behaviors... So, what shouldn't someone do in Finland if he doesn't want to get into troubles, legal matters, or simply doesn't want to be seen with a too brown eye by other inhabitants?
Do not talk to strangers in the streets. You are offending peoples personal space and that'll get you into jail! Just kidding. People here like to generally mind their own business in public and you often see memes about this personal space thing. It's somewhat true but on the other hand its not like every finnish people are socially awkward haha. I have witnessed a couple of times that foreign people get really awkward when we Finns just sit quietly and don't speak anything. That's something useful to get used to.
9. I read Finland is a country that "lives in the grip of winter", and the days are very, very short during the winter... It is even said there is a period of time when no sun can be seen during all the 24 hours of the day, for weeks... Can you describe us this dark period of the year? How many months does this totally-sunless-epoch last? And how are you doing to adapt and live in these all dark days?
Yes, that's
true. Fortunately, I live in the southern Finland, where it doesn't
get that bad. Here in the darkest part of the winter (around christmas)
it's like six hours of daylight and the rest is desolate darkness.
The norther you go, the longer the darkness everyday. Of course
we are somewhat used to this darkness and for many people it doesn't
affect them in any way. But, I personally see a drop in energy in
the winters and it can sometimes affect my mood as well. That's
why I am nowadays more of a summer guy myself, haha. In contrary
to all this, in the summer the sun doesn't go down at all, especially
up in the north. Land of the midnight sun...
10. I read all kinds of moderate comments and extreme opinions about the last CARCASS album ("Torn arteries"). So I might ask your thoughts about it...
Well, of course it is not something like the classic albums from the 80s and 90s, but I like it! Jeff Walkers voice has not changed a bit. I really like his voice, it's quite one of a kind! There's a lot of cool things happening with the guitars as well. Lots of chunky riffs and beautiful melodies/harmonies. Just good ol' Carcass to me.
11. You guys seem to be about 25 years old, so I imagine you didn't know the 80's/ 90's and the pre-internet era first hand... This time when peoples used to write a lot of letters, when fanzines were legions, when computers weren't so numerous and staid offline (For most), when the only portable phones were (very) few (And weren't too "smart")... Well, how do you view this epoch of time? Are you somewhat nostalgic, or perhaps a little balanced? (I know for living it, that the 90's also had its defects...)
Yeah, we're
all 25-30 years old so we haven't lived the era like you older folks.
When Vili and I started to play together and made our first demo
in 2014, we were around 16-17 years old and all we cared about during
those days was mainly Finnish and Swedish old school death metal
and grindcore, haha. At least it seems now, looking back years after.
We were totally obsessed about the years 1989-1993 haha. We were
finding most bands from Youtube and by investigating Encyclopaedia
Metallum. All the artwork, logos and promopictures from that era
just had so obscure and mystical aesthetics and the music had this
amazing gloomy atmosphere. I still get goosebumbs when I recall
those days when I heard for the first time songs like “Demigod
– Slumber of the Sullen Eyes” or “Convulse – Incantation of Restoration”.
This overwhelmingly heavy sound was something from beyond and it
totally captured me. We were so into it that we wanted to live it,
haha. During that time we didn't even realize that tapes were still
a big thing in the underground, but we still wanted to make a cassette
demo. There we were, copying tapes all days and suddenly somebody
had found us on Youtube and wanted to trade with us. Then we realized
that there still was a tapetrading culture alive in the underground.
So to be honest, we kinda have lived through some of the same things
than a typical 90s death metal teenager.
12. What do you think would be the harder to accept, and live with, when you'll become ooold metallic grandfathers? Perhaps hand arthrosis (No guitar playing), deafness (No music listening), sexual impotence (Well, no Fxxx)...
Deafness easily.
I could live without playing guitar but not being able to listen
music and hear anything, is quite horrible to think about...
13. If you were forced by a billionaire tyrant, to compose a (very) melodic symphonic black metal Ep, and perform a gig of these songs... If you had no other choices than to AGREE, and fulfil the job, what would be your reaction? Would you be able to compose a decent very symphonic Ep in this tyle, taking some of your (most "melodic") 90's death metal influences, and readapting the riffs into a more black metal realm? Or perhaps you would hijack the keyboards with fucked up distortion pedals, plug the guitars on other weird effects, and offer a special industrial harsh noise show? AhAh (Hmm, maybe you have another idea?)
Hahaha, I like
this story! Well, I think it would be pretty easy to do something
like that, since I like black metal a lot and I love melodic stuff
as well. It should be no problem. Firstly I would suggest to the
billionaire hijacker to turn his gun away from my head and to give
me some time and space for my creativity. Then I would start with
some synth leads and add some machine(gun) drums on top. Then some
raw black metal riffing and shrieking vocals. Oh shit, I almost
forgot the bass.. Well in this genre you don't need to be Steve
Digiorgio anyway. This would really be a masterpiece! All the ingredients
for that are there. Somebody just needs to force it out from me,
haha!
14. I turned
the letters of your band named inside out, just for fun, and it
gives: REZINAVLAG.
REZINAV-LAG! This almost sounds like a Scandinavian
black metal band from the forest! Or perhaps a dark folk project...
(Or maybe a crust punk band)... Well, do you have other musical
projects besides GALVANIZER?
I will use
that for the project mentioned above. God damn this is hilarious,
just reminds me about the Finnish Youtube sensation called “The
Black Satans”. If you haven't heard about them, you have to check
them out. They are a parody group that has made like four music
videos and its quite damn hilarious, haha. Then back to the “serious
business”. I am the only one in this band who does not have any
other active projects. I have tons of ideas and song demos in different
genres but right now there's no band like activity with those. Rest
of the guys on the other hand have a lot of projects together and
separate. Osmo has a black metal project “Axiom Numen” in which
Nico and Vili plays as well. Then Nico and Vili together have a
war metal/crust punk hybrid “Naillung”. Vili also plays in death
metal band “Wrathrone”. Vili and I have ideas which hopefully will
see daylight some day.
15. What are your next plans with the band? Something to announce to the readers?
We have a lot
of cool shows coming up and we're really grateful for those after
the two Covid shaken years.
Keep your eyes open for festivals
such as TUSKA (Helsinki, Finland), PITFEST (Emmen, Netherlands)
and CHIMPYFEST (London, UK). We are also touring Europe with Morbific
in May. Check out the dates on our social media! So yeah, for now
we will focus on those and gradually rehearse new stuff for the
third record.
Thanks a lot for having this interview with us
and thank you for the readers as well. I hope you had great time
with us. If anybody would like to contact us, it's done the easiest
by sending email to: galvanizerband@gmail.com. If you are interested
in our
merch, you can find it at: www.everlastingspew.com/34-galvanizer
Web
pages:
https://galvanizer.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/GalvanizerBand
https://www.instagram.com/galvanizer_official
