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Interview with death metal band from Finland - SCYTHROW.
Answered Arttu (guitars) and Nuutti (bass), thank you!
Recenze/review - SCYTHROW - Blameless Severed Extremities (2024):
Ave SCYTHROW! Hello to the Finnish underground. I hope everything is okay with you. It should be, you have the third long-playing great album of your career this year. I have to admit that it literally put me up against the wall. It's dark, it's energetic, it cuts with a knife edge. It's very telling that you've done a great job and a great deal of talent too. How do you feel about the new record in relation to your first album "Paragon of Pain"? Where did you want to go and how do you think the recordings are different?
Arttu: Greetings, glad to hear our album has aroused interest and you've liked it. Compared to our first album, almost everything has changed. Our songs, sounds and atmosphere are very different, in a good way tho. Recordings were very different too, because we've had a drummer since our first record and recording drums takes its time. We knew what kind of sound we are looking for and I've learned a lot about producing a record since our first album so I knew how to implement the sound we wanted ''well''.
"Blameless Severed Extremities" contains all the attributes of good death metal. For me personally, it is a record that I love to come back to. How was it made? How do you compose new SCYTHROW material?
Arttu: Usually I or Nuutti composes a demo at home, then we take the demo to rehearsals for listen. Then we arrange the song together and Make writes lyrics on it. If the song turns out well, it will probably end up on some upcoming release. Sometimes we write songs in rehearsals, for example title track of ''Blameless Severed Extremities'' has been written in rehearsals together.
Who is signed under the sound? I have to confirm that the sound literally kills. It still makes me turn up the volume on the hi-fi tower. You have a sound that is harsh, raw and dark and animalistic at the same time, it feels analogue. What studio did you record in and how did everything go?
Arttu: I produced, mixed and mastered the album by my self. Everything went surprisingly well, although I've been behind the sound and production of every Scythrow release. We recorded the album at bombshelter and I mixed and mastered it at home. The sound isn't perfect, but is that necessary in death metal?
An integral part and a kind of extra bonus for fans today is the music CD (cassette, vinyl). You released it on Awakening Records and it comes with a deadpan cover. Who is the author? How did you choose the theme and how does it relate to the music on the release?
Nuutti: I had been put to the charge of getting us our album art. I thought that it should be based on our song ''Necrotic High'', because the song encapsulates how our album sounds like. Then I thought blue would be a good theme as our all other releases themes are red and something different would fit us. Then this artist called Apostle Ink did a great job on finishing the design of our album cover and eventually drawing it.
I've been roaming the underworld for over thirty years and I actually go to Finland's underground for music just in case. I think we have similar moods and tastes when it comes to metal. I like your bands a lot and I follow your scene very closely. I might even be a bit envious, we only have a few death metal packs here that are worthwhile. How do you perceive your scene, fans, labels?
Arttu: The Finnish underground death metal scene has been growing rapidly during this decade and is doing very well. There is a lot of death metal fans and bands consisting of young people keeps popping up all the time. But unfortunately there aren't many underground labels in Finland, only few.
You play death metal influenced by the old school. Nowadays a band can't really avoid comparisons, but I'm interested to know how the idea to start SCYTHROW came about, who was and is your role model and where do you want to take your band? Are you tempted by big festivals abroad, for example, are you willing to tour with a more famous pack?
Arttu: We started the band with Make and Nuutti when we were about 15-years olds and our influensers mostly consisted of classic thrash metal back then. Over the years we've listened and explored a lot of more metal music and we enjoy death metal most today. So naturally we ended up doing death metal with this same band we started from thrash metal roots. When writing and planning ''Blameless Severed Extremities'' our biggest influensers and inspirations have been Sotajumala, Tuokkanuotta, Galvanizer, Morbific, Cadaveric Incubator, Undergang, 200 Stab Wounds and Frozen Soul. In the future we want to keep doing this shit, playing live shows and releasing more music. And of course we want to tour with bigger bands some day!
When I started my site seven years ago, I had a vision of trying to support bands that I felt weren't as visible. Let the world know about them. I think I've been pretty successful at that, at least judging by the response. How do you approach promotion? Do you leave it up to the label or do you send out CDs yourself for various reviews? I buy albums that I really enjoy, for example. How are you? Are you also a fan who likes to support your colleagues often? Do you go to concerts? Do you party?
Arttu: We do both! Our label has been promoting our album and sending CDs to other labels and promoters for review, and we have sent some CDs for review too. About going to other bands live, yeah we do like to support other bands and see them live!
On the one hand, a band starting out today has a lot of opportunities to make their presence known, but on the other hand, there are a huge number of bands and fans get lost in them. A lot of people are just downloading mp3s from the internet and spitting venomous spittle on Facebook instead of going to a gig. How does modern technology affect you as SCYTHROW? What do you think about downloading music, google metal, streaming music etc.?
Arttu: We think that it's a good thing that people can find our music easily. Of course we do respect a lot people who are supporting us by buying our physical copies, but it's always good thing that people listens to our music, whether they listen to it from streaming service or physical copy.
I like to ask musicians what death metal means to them. How would they define it, is it more of a philosophy and lifestyle for them or "just" relaxation. What does it mean to you? How do you perceive and experience it?
Arttu: Me and Nuutti are the biggest fans of death metal in our band, so we do listen to death metal very often and we all like to perform death metal as a band of course, so I say it's at least important thing for all of us!
Finally, a classic but important question. What are SCYTHROW planning in the coming months? Where can we see you in concert and what about some tour in Europe, will there be?
Arttu: We will continue playing live shows to summer 2025. Then we will take a break, because we are going to mandatory military service. After that new music, more shows and hopefully the tour in Europe in some day.
Thank you very much for the interview. I wish not only the new album a lot of success and may the ranks of your fans expand as much as possible. I'll look forward to seeing you live somewhere and may you do well both musically and on a personal level. I'm gonna go shove "Blameless Severed Extremities" in my head again!
Arttu: Thank you for giving me an opportunity to spit out some things about our album, band and my other thoughts! Hopefully you'll get to see our show some day, cheers!
Recenze/review - SCYTHROW - Blameless Severed Extremities (2024):
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