Let me at first welcome you for that interview for the Rising Darkness Magazine! Thank you for the time you are taking!

As I started listening to your forthcoming album "Winternight Tragedies" I came up very fast to the opinion that this is in a way the most aggressive but also the most melodic album you brought out! So would you agree with me?

Riku:
Yeah, I can easily agree on that, cause we surely do think so. The O.J.'s voice makes it even more and aggressive. His voice fits prefectly on Catamenia's melodies.

O.J. :
Catameniaīs music has always been melodic, but the new album is definitely the most aggressive one so far.


So as I read the recordings for that album used to be different combined to the past ones. The atmosphere used to be much better, so what was the reason for that?

O.J. :
This was my first recording session with Catamenia, and the athmosphere in the studio was great. No stress etc. whatsoever although we were pretty short on time.

Riku:
Thou we had greatly of time in the studio, the line-up changements ate quite a lot of it. When O.J. came to sing to the studio, there were only few days left before we had to start the mixing and mastering the album. But O.J. sang so damn great, so we held our schedule in time.


There are two songs in your native language Finnish on "Winternight Tragedies". So one song more than on your last album. So are these songs something special for you so that you used to write them in your native language?

O.J. :
I donīt think that the lyrics of "Verikansa" would work so good in English or some other language due to the theme of the lyrics. Itīs about Finlands Winter war and the men who fought there.

Riku:
Both of those songs are about Winter War and especially 'Verikansa', which means by the way 'Blood Nation', 'Blood People', is a tribute for the soldiers and veterans who fought in that war and kept our land independent.

In my opinion Finnish fits perfectly to your music, so have you ever thought about writing a whole album in this language?

O.J. :
Most likely there will be atleast one song in finnish on every album, seems itīs become a some sort of tradition for Catamenia. But I donīt think that there ever will be a full album sung in finnish.

Riku:
But let's knock on the wood on this case, cause you never know what happens on next Catamenia album. There's been lot of asking for whole Finnish album, but at this point we haven't even discussed about if we would do whole Finnish album. To be honest, I doubt the possibility of that.


There is also a great cover version from Satyricon`s "Fuer For Hatred" on "Winternight Tragedies". How did you come on that great song?

O.J. :
The other guys played it with their sideproject, Unwrap, before I joined the band and they decided to put it on "Winternight Tragedies". And Satyricon is a great band and "Fuel for Hatred" is a great song.

Riku:
We decided to record the drum tracks of 'Fuel For Hatred' in the studio just in case. It was good that we made that decision, cause when adding the guitars on the tracks, it sounded already great. O.J.'s raw and aggressive voice fits in it so good.


There is every time a Wolf on your cover. What's the reason for this?

Riku:
It was during the debut album's recordings when our label's CEO came to the studio to see us and discuss about the future things. We wanted to have something where to recognize Catamenia albums in the future and somehow we came up to use the wolf. Maybe the debut album's name, 'Halls of Frozen North', just brought the wolf to our minds.

Have you ever seen a Wolf in out of doors in the hunting-ground?

Riku:
Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to see it in the nature.

O.J. :
I havenīt seen one except in a zoo. They are a bit shy animals and afraid of humans. But I saw a squirrel last night.


There is a place with lots of fan art on your website. Who's idea has it been to do such a section and how did you come upon that?

Riku:
It was our previous webmaster's idea and we thought it was a great suggestion. So everyone who has done some wallpapers, skins, etc., just send them to webmaster@catamenia.net and we'll add them to our site.


If I would go over to Finland which place of interest or which part of Finland's nature would I really have to visit in your opinion?

O.J. :
Lapland. Thereīs nothing much to see in Finland besides that. If youīll ever visit Finland, I recommend doing it on summer so youīll see the "nightless nights".

Riku:
I think it's adventure to see the thousand lakes, fresh air, and of course as O.J. said Lapland. Also you should come here when it's Mid-Summer fest. Everyone's drunk!


On festivals I was able to learn some "very important" words in Finnish like for example: kippis, haista vittu, perkele. As I want my vocabulary grow, which other important words would I have to know in your opinion?

O.J. :
"Haluatko turpaas?" is "Can I buy you a beer?". Also "Anna huora pillua" wich means "You have the most beautiful eyes that Iīve ever seen" is good to know if you wanna get laid when visiting here.

Riku:
Fjorddis, käppyrä and huru-ukko.


So thank you very much again for your time, Kiitoksia ajastasi, voi hyvin, kippis !


martin