Gravenkiss: Greetings from Obscuro! Your music is very energetic and you have created your specific style- wintermetal- it´s obvious that you are fascinated by winter and nature in general. Who´s the author of the lyrics and what are your main musical influences?
Esa: Hi, A.Särkioja, our bass player/singer, does all the lyrics for Immortal Souls. Winter themes have been our trademark for a very long time so we got the idea to do concept album full of winter and nature lyrics. Our band Immortal Souls was founded in 1991, so our musical influences are in old heavy metal.
G: Why is it that so many great metal bands come from Scandinavia? 🙂
Esa: We have unique music tradition in Finland. I think that the sense of music melody in Scandinavia is special compared to other countries, so people like that a lot. We don’t see the sun in 8 months and that affects our music and melody.
G: You released the album Wintermetal this year. Can you characterise it and compare it with your previous albums?
Esa: Wintermetal album has a lot of diversity and variations and it is a lot heavier than previous albums. There are many musical hooks and the album has more acoustic guitars and two songs with clean vocals.
G: Which of your albums is your favourite and which one would you recommend to people who are not familiar with your music?
Esa: I am very happy about the sound and tone in Wintermetal. I think this is the best sounding Immortal Souls album. Of course all Immortal Souls albums are good to check out!
G: We would like to see you on stage 🙂 Are you going to play at any summer metal festivals to promote your new album?
Esa: We did couple of gigs in Holland and Switzerland this spring. We have a new booking agent contract with a company from Holland, so I think we will soon have some gigs in Europe! We are planning gigs in Finland, too.
G: The video for the song Calm before the Snowstorm is really impressive. Who came up with the main idea for this video and how was it created?
Esa: The video is directed by Nicola Piovesan from Italy. A very cool guy and our friend. Nicola had an idea that we are playing in a dark place in the video and there is this monster lurking for us. The video is filmed in Estonia and we had a great time doing it.
G: You have changed the label recently. Why have you made such a fundamental decision?
Esa: Dark Balance released two albums for us. Dark Balance decided to quit the record label, so our new label is Rottweiler Records from USA. Rottweiler Records were very good choice to us. It is small, but growing record label. They are active in social media which is very important nowadays.
G: As far as I know, you have changed the drummer many times during the existence of your band. What was the reason for that and are you satisfied with the performance of your current drummer?
Esa: In Immortal Souls’ early days we did have many drummers. But our recent drummer Juha Kronqvist has been in the band for 10 years so he is not the new guy anymore. Juha has his aggressive style to play and it suits Immortal Souls very well.
G: In your profile on your official website you described your tour experience and one of your stops was the Czech Republic. Do you have any special memories connected with this country?
Esa: I love to play in the Czech, so crazy audience! We have always been treated very well there. It would be great to play there again!
G: Do you prefer writing music and the recording process or playing live?
Esa: Those are so different things that it is very hard to compare. Both are very good for me. I like this “cycle” of recording album, releasing it and then doing some gigs.
G: According to your experience, which country has the most enthusiastic metal fans?
Esa: I have to say the Czech and Switzerland. Mosh pits and stage diving people are awesome!
G: What are your future plans and ambitions?
Esa: To do gigs and albums! Especially it would be great to make tour in USA. Immortal Souls is a lifelong process to me. It is my and my brother’s band. We might stay in the shadows for a while, but when you least expect we will come to you and surprise everybody!
G: Thank you for your time and I wish you all the best 🙂
Esa: Thanks a lot! And remember to get new Immortal Souls album Wintermetal as soon as possible!
Regards, E.Särkioja
Foto:metal-archives.com, band´s archive
