interview_torture

» Jari Laine - Torture Killer

Finnish metal is more than H.I.M., Nightwish and Stratovarius. Torture Killer live up to their name with their really groovy, brutal and aggressive death metal. They have already sold a lot of records in thir home country. Now they stand on the edge of an international breakthrough, with a little help from a new partner. Front man and producer is no less than the death metal legend Chris Barnes, famous from Cannibal Corpse and Six Feet Under. How has this affected the band? We asked guitarist Jari Laine about this and other things.

David: How do you feel about working with a legend like Chris Barnes?

Jari: Honoured, that´s pretty much all i can describe it with. He´s been an influence not only to us but the whole death metal genre so obviously working someone with that status feels a bit unreal, surprising, honoured and unexpected.

David: What impact has he had on the sound?

Jari: He wrote more than half of the songs for the album lyrically and in this kind of music all those vocal patterns have a big role how the music ends up sounding. Also his vocal sound is very distinctive and recognisable so overall his impact on the sound has been major.

David: What can you learn from him?

Jari: Song writing in general, he comes up with these cool vocal patterns all the time and that should be a big help for us in the future when we start arranging the new songs. He has a perfect vision for the rhythm and the flow/drive which the song needs and we are definetily going to use that to our advantage in the future.

David: What can you learn him?

Jari: I don´t see it that way and i couldn´t give you an answer for this one. I think he feels this as a breath of fresh air, giving him new drive with his main band SFU - and if this is the way to help it, awesome.

David: Is he going to be a permanent member of the band? -on record? -as a songwriter? -on tour?

Jari: Permanent as much as a guy living on the different continent can be. We are going to work with him in the future aswell with a record and songwriting and hopefully on tour aswell. As for now he is a full-time full-member of Torture Killer but in the limits that this special situtation puts us in.

David: Your split record with Sotajumala reached top ten on the Finnish charts. Why do you think that metal, including even the more extreme subgenres, has become so popular in Finland?

Jari: That was a surprise, not that it would take too many copies to reach that singles chart but still. Metal is doing pretty well in here, but it´s the more modern style of melodic stuff usually. Death metal has never been too big in here so that´s why it was a bit of surprise, then again labels use that in here all the time - release singles that cost half of the price of a "regular" single just to get it on the charts, that´s kind of a trend in here these days. But still i´m sure this was the first time a band singing about raping a corpse does it. But you can´t deny that even we are a small country, there are a lot of people into metal. I guess bands like Nightwish are more acceptable for even normal people and through that they might come interested in the aggressive stuff aswell. Not that i would expect any death metal fans to appear that way.

David: Are you afraid of becoming too mainstream?

Jari: No.

David: What are your expectations on "Swarm!"?

Jari: You know, i think we´ve exceeded all our goals with this band already so were just going to take everything that comes out of this as a positive experience. Of course i hope that people will enjoy the album but at the same time i know some people will not. I care what people think, but i don´t worry myself too much with it.

David: Have you got a lot of extra attention in media because of Barnes?

Jari: So far things are looking good, but we expected it when Chris joined in so it´s only natural. That´s what i would feel if he had joined another band instead of us. But like i mentioned above, it will also put us on some peoples hatelist - so it´s not all positive. So far so good anyways.

David: Which are the most important ingredients when writing a good death metal song?

Jari: It needs to have a good meaty riff in it. Brutal vocals and a catchy vocal rhythm - i´d say that´s about it, put a speedy part there aswell and then get back to the juicy main riff.

David: Where do you find inspiration to your lyrics?

Jari: It´s just regular death metal topics really, no message, no statements - just plain gore/horror/violence short story, it´s what i like about death metal - it goes with the music and all you need is a bit imagination, i watch a gore flick every now and then but i don´t see that as an inspiration that much.