Interview with death grind band from Finland - GOATBURNER.
Answered Keijo Niinimaa, thank you!
https://www.deadlystormzine.com/2023/10/recenzereview-goatburner-fatal-2023.html
Ave GOATBURNER! Greetings to the Finnish underground. Before we look at your album, I have to thank you. I first heard the news "Fatal" once on Friday, when I left totally upset from work. You know, everything fell on me. The people around me seemed dumb and stupid. I had a hundred appetites to put the speakers against them and put your music out loud. You made an album which breaks bones! How and where did you want to move against the previous album "Extreme Conditions"? The new album seems rawer, wilder to me.
Happy to help haha… I suppose we just wanted to move forward with bit more tempo, less sludge and more tempo changes. Probably our touring has also made some difference to how we play together. Just cool to hear, that it worked out since we are pretty happy with the result too. These new songs are also really fun to play live.
Not to forget, could you please introduce your band to us? Honest fans of death metal and grind probably know you, but for others. Please guide us through the history of GOATBURNER? How did you get together and why did you choose this style of music?
We started on 2017 to create a touring band to fill the schedules when our other bands are not able to go out. Spider is also a freelancer and plays in bunch of other bands like me, but usually other members have trouble with getting time off from work and/or families. We both like death metal very much and have also some history with dm bands (me with Vomiturition, Spider is still doing Skulmagot), so it felt good to have that as our corner stone for music. I wanted to use my amps and pedals from doomier Morbid Evils and that low tuning to have bit more dirty sound than more technical dm-bands. We also wanted to remain as duo also live, which made me play through 2 gtr amps and one bass amp (with octaver) to match the studio sound.
Let's get to the news. Probably everyone who discovers some new music, even I put a lot on the cover, they say the cover sells. Who did the cover art for the new “Fatal” album? It's a very interesting, morbid collage!
Spider painted the cover, which also became one of the lyrics (Pool of Blood) and part of it is in the Danger- EP, which we recorded in the same session. So, since I recorded and mixed the album, we are even more DIY than on the debut. My good friend Scott Hull from Pig Destroyer did great job with keeping the master dirty and mean.
As I mentioned, the songs literally crush my bones. Sound contributes a lot to that. It's dirty, raw, reminiscent of a bulldozer in office in a cemetery. Tell us where you recorded, who is signed to mastering and mixing? I always remember listening to old CARCASS, AUTOPSY, MORTICIAN. Did you plan to sound "similar"?
Whoops, answered that already partially. We rented a big room for drum and live gtr recording from Turku where I live. I wanted to have enough space for drums and guitar to blend in the room mics. After that I did some more guitar tracking at my own rehearsal room / studio (Chaotic Doom Cave Studios) and finally added vocals in the same place. I did think about asking someone else to mix, but when I had done Danger EP already from same session, it felt more natural to do it myself. We didn't plan to sound similar to anything, but just wanted to sound like what we want to sound live. Guitars are dubbed, but even "bass" is this time recorded with guitar & octaver, which is my live rig. Very nice to hear those references since all of them are killer!
What are the lyrics at "Fatal" about? Is it a death grind classic - graves, bones, skulls, cemeteries? Or are you trying to convey something with them - a message? Who is the author?
There's nine grim stories about fatal domestic accidents, with pretty graphical detail. Danger is an intro, leading to intro of Pool of Blood. I can open up that one: someone cleans a swimming pool, slips, falls and hits the head and gets pierced by the cleaning rod. The song ends with drowning and bleeding to death.
My favourite question and I think readers too. How do GOATBURNER create new songs? Who is the author of the basic motifs? Is everything created in the rehearsal room? I would be interested in the process of composing new songs.
That's a good one actually. On first album, I did all the riffs as song demos, which we then finalized together with Spider. They did change quite a bit sometimes and I never wanted to do drum programming, but let the drummer do his own thing with them. Anyway, that was "Extreme Conditions" except for Scorched and Blown Away, which we wrote and recorded in studio. Now, on this new album, some songs were done in a similar way, but more than half were based on riffing sessions we had together. Basically both of us we playing guitar and throwing ideas at rehearsal place and then we just recorded the individual riffs to work on. I usually did the guitars on the song at home later on and finally we finished the song structure with drums. Pool of Blood and Morbid Angle were done in a different way though: basically jamming and writing as we played. Danger was again written in studio and recorded right after. And then, there's Dismemberment, which I finalized from riffing sessions and Spider did drum arrangements on his own alone. The songs were done during fairly long time, but somehow we ended up using quite similar themes in the songs (which I didn't even notice until later), which ties the album together pretty well IMO. As for lyrics and vocals, all of them were done later on when I recorded them. We will probably change that next time and create also vox before entering studio.
One thing bothers me a little. You're from Finland and I'm watching your scene in pretty close detail. Most young underground death metal bands play very darkly, coldly and at the same time their music has a certain melancholy in it. For me, it's a hallmark of Finnish bands (at least that's how I perceive it). But you are completely different! Raw, uncompromising. Your colleagues INFERIA used to play at our festival and they had a very similar feeling. Do you feel music differently? Did you have other patterns?
I don't know how come we don't sound that Finnish… probably because both of us have grown up with American and UK (and Swedish) DM. Also, since I'm in Morbid Evils with more doom and melancholy, it feels better to have something more raw for Goatburner, but be still different from Rotten Sound, Ratface or Skulmagot.
Everyone somehow started, learned, discovered. GOATBURNER are a band of experienced musicians. But what were your beginnings? What was the first impulse to pick up an instrument, what bands did you listen to as a young man?
I started as singer and did some guitar playing too for Vomiturition, which spawned Rotten Sound, where I've done only vocals. There has been also other bands like Medeia (vox) and Age of Woe (guitar), but currently Morbid Evils, RS and GB are the active bands I'm and all tour too. Spider has been in Ratface, Skulmagot, Bloodlands and M.O.R.A., but I really know his history that well.
You have released your second album on the excellent Time to Kill Records. Great choice! The novelty came out as a cassette, CD and digitally. But what about vinyl? What is your relationship to music media? Are you a collector? Do you support bands?
There is a vinyl available too, actually through TTK. Personally I don't collect anymore, because I travel too much and noticed that every move is quite heavy. So, I ended up selling my collection some years ago, which sounds heretic. I do miss listening to vinyls at times, but like said, moves are easier and since most of stuff is available online and in my phone too, I'm not totally bummed.
I'm always interested in what the underground is like in the country where the band comes from. How are Finland and death metal? Do people go to concerts a lot? Do they buy albums, merchandise? How can you describe concert in Finland, for example, which you consider very successful?
We have very vital new wave of Finnish DM now, also with young bands instead of us old farts. Bands like Galvanizer and Morbific are already quite international, but there a lot more bubbling under, like Cryptic Hatred, Ashen Tomb, Mädätys, Azatoth, Unholy Rites and more and more.
What about you and the concerts? How important are they to you? Do you enjoy big festivals or small clubs? What about some tour? For example, Obscene Extreme would be an ideal festival for you!
We like all concerts a lot actually and have played OEF last year already. Touring is always the best and that time we were doing 2 weeks around OEF. Right now we are getting ready to go to Brazil for 3 weeks with NervoChaos, Test and Sodoma, which is the first tour with Fatal and we also work on doing an extensive Finnish tour & long European run early next year.
By the end... let me one slightly philosophical question. What does music mean to you? How would you define death metal, grindcore. Is it a relaxation or lifestyle for you?
Music is my life style, touring, writing, listening, playing. I would not be the same person without this.
Please tell us what GOATBURNER are planning in the coming months?
So, the Brazilian tour is coming, then Finland and Europe and probably another European tour in autumn around some festivals we will play. I also hope we manage get something in Asia and Australia/NZ for next year. One important thing though is to start to write the next album, because it will again take some time to finish and release. We want to keep this machine running and evolving.
Thank you so much for the interview. When they piss me off at work again or when I look at the news and I need to clear my head, I know what I'm going to listen to - clearly "Fatal"! It's a great album, thanks a lot for it! Good luck!
Thank you so much!!!! This was a lot of fun and hope to see you at some show(s).
Recenze/review - GOATBURNER - Fatal (2023):
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