Sunday, January 8, 2017

Interview with Unhoped done on 1-8-17

Here  is   a   new  interview  with  Finland's   thrash/death  metal  band  "Unhoped"  who  is  getting  ready to release their  fourth  cd  titled  "Sonic  Violence".So  anyone  who  is  into  death/thrashing  metal  should  defintly  look  this  band  up  today.
Regards
Patrick
fiendformetal@live.com









Interview  with   Aku  Paasu    guitarist  of  Unhoped   done   by  Patrick

1.Hello      Aku    how  are  things  with you?  Please  introduce  yourself  to  the  readers.

I'm Aku, half of Unhopeds guitars, coffee-overdosed and stoked by this years first warm days here in Finland! Lets go!





2.When  did  you  first  get  into  metal  music and  who   were  some  of the  first  bands  you  listened  to?


I was maybe 12 when i heard Ozzy's Blizzard of Ozz. Still one of my favourites.. Sabbath of course! Couple of years later we had a band called Warsova and our bassist got me into Cavalera-times Sepultura and that was it! Those tempos and energy got me for good. All Pantera-related stuff hit me then and still does. Exodus, Slayer and all the violent side of thrash!

 

3.When  did  you  first   meet  the  other   members  of  Unhoped?How  did you  all decide  to  use the  name  Unhoped   for the  band?

 
Kale, Huisko and Samu had broke up with their band at the time and they got a new rehearsal place next to Warsovas place. They needed another guitarist and I sneaked in! I had to practise my ass off cos these guys were couple of years older and a lot faster than me with my sloppyfest playing hahah! Huisko came up with the name and it sounded simple and easy to memorize so that was it.
 
 
 
 
4.What   is  the   current  line-up  of  Unhoped ? And  for  the  readers  who  have  never  heard  Unhoped's  music  how  would  you  best  describe  it?

Since 2008 its been Kalle Laanto and me in guitars, Mikko Huisko in drums and Samu Parviainen in the bass. We recorded First Blood in 2010 with Lauri Viertola and after Jyri joined in for the Die Harder in 2011, lineup have been this. Our music is fast riff-based, straight forward pounding and violent mix of old school death and that evil side of thrash. We really dont want you to catch your breath playing live! 



5.Unhoped is   getting  ready  to  release  the  bands second  cd  "Sonic  Violence" how  long  did  it  take   the  band to  write the  music  for  this  release? And  does  the   whole  band  work  on  writing  the   music  or  does  one  member   usually  write  everything?

This is acually our fourth physical release! I think Sonic Violence was written in bit over a year. I have part of songs and riffs here and there but Kale takes a big role in writing and coming up with raw-versions of Unhoped songs where everybody adds their stuff in. Demo versions gets tweaked up together but it often starts with Kales idea of the song. 
 
 
 
6.Who   usually  takes  care   of   writing  the  lyrics  and  what  are  some  subjects  you  all  write   about? 
Jyri writes the lyrics and fits them in to place. He comes up with lyrics that we can relate and stand behind to so its kinda natural way to us to do it. They're about politicians, wars, murderers, religions and assholes in general haha! Theres cool stories in his stuff! 


7.In  your  opinion    what  does  underground   metal   mean  to  you?
 

Best venues to play or hang out! Everybody is there for the love of same kind of music and the fellowship in those situations is huge. But I think its the same thing with every smaller genre of music too right? It happens to be that I like bands that are quite far from that radio and tv stations bullshit but I really listen to the music, not the ug-status you know? I dont really think these things too much haha!

 

8.Does   the  band  play  "live"  very   often  or  do  you   prefer  to  work  in  the  studio?What   have   been  some  of the  bands  most  memorable  shows  to  date?

This kind of music to us is allways as its best at live and we write and record our music with that in mind. Studio working is great too, we record our stuff by ourselves in our own Studio Murakka. We can lay things down whenever the feeling is good and theres no pressures from studio-time spent just scraching balls or something. So lots of scraching there is haha..!  What comes to shows, we got slot from Steelfest Open Air couple of years ago, that was killer to play before Sodom and Destruction. Month ago we were playing first time in Estonia and that was good trip! Guys from band called Thrashless were great hosts! My guitar snapped in half and we lost Jyri in the darkness of Tallinn... Fucking amateurs right?!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9.Are  their   any   small tours  or  shows  coming  up  and  if  so   where  will the  band  b e  playing?

No bigger tour plans sure yet, we continue to do shows as much we can. We keep people informed when the shit is about happen!


10.Other  then   the  new  cd  "Sonic  Violence"   does  the  band  have  any  other   merchandise   available   for  the  readers?  And  if  yes  where  can  the  readers   buy  the merchandise?

Our first release 'First Blood' we just run out but first full-lenght 'Die Harder', and 'Nuclear Death'-EP theres boxes to go! We have 2 kinds of t-shirts, both designed by Andrei Bouzikov and they look killer! Patches we have lest too and the summer is coming so trucker-caps or something cool is on the way. First round of 'Sonic Violence' just arrived so go for it! You can take contact  via contact@unhopedband.com or buy allmost all of our merch from www.recordshopX.com.


 
11.  Aku  you    handle  the   guitars  for the  band  when  did you  first  become  interested  in  playing  the  guitars? Are  you  self taught  or  did you  take  lessons  when  first  starting  out?
 
I was maybe 10 old when i had my grandpa's old russian mandolin. He taught me Finnish old school tunes like Hiski Salomaa's Iitin Tiltu and stuff like that. I tried to play rock songs with it but i realized kinda fast that mandolin isnt that heavy! I learned vocal melodies from Crazy Train and War Pigs with the mandolin and stated I can play all these songs hahah! I am self-taught but when we formed Unhoped I learned lots of good stuff from Kale, that guy had and has crazy-tight picking hand. Its fun to change licks and riffs together and aim to the point where it sounds like theres only one big guitar. But since we are egoistic dummies we fuck it all up with "cool stuff and sounds"= sloppyfest ha! I think you learn to play by jamming, not reading books but everyone got their own thing.
 
 
 
 
12.Who   are   some  of your   influences/favorite   guitarists? Besides  the  guitars  do  you   play  any  other   instruments?

Randy Rhoads blew my mind and still does. Dime, Gary Holt and Wolf Hoffman are big thing to me, all three are diamond-accurate rhythym-players, they can shred like hell and same time keeping things interesting instead of playing book-learned scales up and down as fast you can. Nothing wrong with that, just not my thing. I'm a fan of dirty old stuff too so Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons etc. No dude, guitar only. 



13.Unhoped   comes  out  of  Finland's  thrash  metal  scene  what  is  your   opinion  of  Finland's  metal   scene?

I have to admit that I should keep my ears open a bit more to keep up whats happening, I tend to be stuck with my old favourites haha! I hear lots of bands first time in live situation and I like it that way! Melo-death thing is strong here but here is lots of good metal bands too to check. Ranger and Speedtrap for those old-school heavymetalheads etc. 
 
 

14.Who  are  your  all-time  favorite Finnish  bands?  Are  their   any  new  bands  you  feel  the  readers   should  watch  out  for?

Deathchain made two fucking great deaththrash albums, Sotajumalas death grooves are killer, Torture Killers Swarm-album with Chris Barnes is diamond, Nuclear Omnicide guys are doing killer thrash and I just heard our friends Aratic guys new demo and that was great! Band called Wolfshed is rising its head from our hometown, be prepared for that. Fast and tricky deaththrash. Lots of good metal stuff! Outside of metal, a friend of mine, bassist of Flailing got me into Kingston Wall. Its this psychedelic rock band from 90's and I really dig it. 
 
 
 
 
15.Are   any  of  the  members  of   Unhoped   currently   working  with  other  bands  or  projects and  if  yes  please tell the readers  about  them?

Jyri is in a band called Wanhat Ajat, playing bass and singing some parts. They got this rock/grunge thing going. Kale plays in the old school deathmetal band called Cryptborn, very crushing shit. Samu and I spend time jamming Zz Top/Zeppelin/Sabbath style stuff with Pate from stoner/grunge-band Flailing. 


16.Thank  you  for  taking  the  time  to  fill  this   interview   out  do  you   have  any  final  words  for the   readers?

No problem, glad to do this. Take contact, buy merchandise, spread our sonic violence out there and take it easy! Thank you sir. 


                                                      Band    Contact
                                                    http://www.unhopedband.com/
                                           https://www.facebook.com/unhoped/?fref=ts