ITSEMURHA Interview!

1. Greetings Kadotus!
How are you on this suffocating summers day? (the questions was written some month ago...)

- Greetings from the Finnish darkness. The summer here has come to pass again and the autumn gloom is upon us. Things for me however today are most positive as there are big changes in my personal life and also just got the drums recorded for the second ITSEMURHA demo.

2. Your debut demo "All My Life for Satan" is out of the forest for what i
understand, how has the process of creating this piece of bleak art been?

- The process from the ideas and visions to a complete demo was quite smooth. Writing the lyrics was like the words just poured out of my soul and the music accompanied them perfectly. The vocals were a painful process as the agony and despair of the lyrics really pushed me to scream my lungs out and throat sore. But it was all worth it. Still, the final complete demo leaves some space for improvement but I see ”All my life for Satan” as a decent debut release for ITSEMURHA.

3. How has the reception been also? How many copies was made and was it only
released on tape?

- The demo was also released as a professional digipack CD-R with altered artwork. Both tape and CD-R version were made 100 copies so far. Actually there hasn't been much comments about the demo yet. A few of my close contacts have praised the demo but haven't seen reactions from the bigger audience. ITSEMURHA is a young entity and yet quite unknown. I'm sure it will catch the attention of a bigger audience at some point. But then again if not I'm not bothered. I'm not exactly aiming for the stars with ITSEMURHA. If a few tortured souls can relate to the art I create I'm more satisfied than being listened to by the brainless masses.

  

4. As your bandname Itsemurha which means suicide in finnish i can assume that
the sweet topics in the lyrics is somewhat centered around this subject?
And is the "use" of Satan here a destructive force for you or empowering?
Maybe Both?

- I chose the name ITSEMURHA because it's perfectly fitting to sum up the melancholy of this entity. Suicide is the utter peak of despair. It's the hopeless cry for help, often left unheard. To choose to end your life, to break the natural cycle of life.. It's a taboo in all religions, the ultimate sin. Suicide is also a Finnish phenomena. 

We are on the top of the highest suicide rates along with Japan. There's a lot of depression, anxiety and other mental problems here in Finland because of the extreme climate. And by this I mean the Finnish Darkness. The summers here are bright but short. The rest of the year it's more or less suffocating darkness. Finnish people are introverts, shy and suffer from low self esteem. Suicide is very common here and I'm sure that every Finn knows someone who has ended their life.

The topics of ITSEMURHA deal with suicide, despair, sadness and melancholy. But there's also the aspect of examining the subject of suicide from the angle of a sort of cosmic view. I do believe in the soul and that the soul doesn't die when the physical body dies. What happens to the soul when you strip your own life yourself? When you deny to exist in this world of suffering. Birth, death, rebirth... The cycle of existence and then you choose to break it, skip to the death part. What will happen then? Is there a karmic consequence?

Satan is both destructive and empowering yes. 

Satan will tear your life down and bring you misery but then you will rebuild your life to something better, from a new foundation. I feel Satan as a dark force that drives me to improve myself. Satan challenges me to overcome myself. Unlike the deities of the religions for the masses Satan does not redeem you or help you because you're weak. Satan is the painful slash of the whip that hurts you so that you will accomplish something bigger. 

I feel Him as a guiding fallen angel who has been watching me all my life. The debut demo is about giving all my life for Satan; living by His code of honour and strenght but also the title track describes the final offering for Him, to give your life for Satan. Personally I have still much to learn about His mysteries in this current life not to end it but there have been inviduals who have been ready to close this chapter of existence and pass on to the next in praise of Satan. Like Jon Nödtveidt of DISSECTION.

5. Do you have any prior band experience or are you current active in some
other band one should know of?

- I consider ITSEMURHA as its own, separate entity and it's hard to discuss about my other activities when talking about it but yes, I have been creating Black Metal since approx. 1996 or so. The main bands people know me of are CALVARIUM, ANAL BLASPHEMY, MUSTA KAPPELI and BLACK PRIEST OF SATAN. I've been participating in others as well but I'd consider these worth mentioning here.

6. One of the songs is named "Finnish Darkness", how would you in just words
describe that darkness?

- Finnish Darkness, here up in the north, can be a suffocating thing as I mentioned earlier. We have really bright but short summers but when the autumn arrives its darkness is quite overwhelming. The Finnish Darkness is truly pitch black and crushing. During the darkest of winter we only have sunlight for like 4 hours and that ”sunlight” is actually just grey sky making the day like dusk so no real daylight in winter time. It has even physical effects on people because the lack of vitamin D etc..

I consider the Finnish darkness in ITSEMURHA's theme as this unique kind of dark here that exists also in the souls of northern people. I see it as a concept of ITSEMURHA, full of crushing unlight, insanity and bleak hopelessness.  It's also the Darkness of Satan, His leathery wings across the horizon and the heart of a man.

7. As i understand you live in a town called Tampere in Finland? Compared to other
Finnish towns like Kuopio & Lappeenranta that has some prominent hordes what has
Tampere to offer? I think Hornas "HQ" was or is placed in your city which is mighty...

- Yes I live in Tampere. 

At some point most of the Finnish ”scene” seemed to immigrate here. We have some great hordes residing in the Tampere area like BEHEXEN, BAPTISM, HORNA + some a bit lesser known like FLAME, URN, DIABOLI, SACRIFICIUM CARMEN, RIIVAUS, SATURNIAN MIST etc.. Tampere is one of the biggest cities in Finland after Helsinki and is located quite in the middle so it's a natural choice for people to move to. HORNA's ”HQ” indeed is located in Tampere now since Shatraug moved here so eventhough the other Horna guys except Vainaja don't live here I'd consider HORNA and other projects of Shatraug to have their HQ in Tampere. Lappeenranta is of course home to SATANIC WARMASTER and GOATMOON which both are very big names now and the origin of HORNA as well. Kuopio is an important town too since the ”old school” bands originally hailed from there like BARATHRUM and URN. Also Holocausto/BEHERIT lived there for a while at some point. Other important cities for Finnish Black Metal are Jyväskylä (WARLOGHE, ALGHAZANTH), Lahti (CLANDESTINE BLAZE, SACRILEGIOUS IMPALEMENT) and Turku. The capital Helsinki has its own scene but I don't consider any that important bands to come from there.

8. So now you have the debut behind you are you working on new music already?

- Yes definitely. I've already composed 4 new songs for the second demo and the drums have been recorded already. Can't wait to start working on the second demo as I have many things I wish to improve since the first creation. Would be great to do a theme 7” EP as well if I find a label to release it.. 

The second demo will most likely be released by Spread Evil too and released also as a CD-R. 

4 tracks full of utter despair, melancholic rage, suffering and praise of Satan, all blessed by Finnish Darkness.

9. I saw the good looking t-shirt you had for sale, i guess they are sold out?
Other plans for the rest of this year?

- The shirt is so far limited to only 10 copies and still some sizes left. If I sell them will do a reprint maybe. Other plans I have is to finish the second demo and possibly get it released even. But we'll see. Recording something is a long and rough process for me as I play everything myself except the drums. But there's no rush. Nothing waits for me but death in the end.

10.Thanks for this interview. 

The final mourning is yours.

- Thank you for the interesting interview and interest for ITSEMURHA. Supports to your zine. Witness the reality of death as the eye of Satan burns through your soul.. 

All my life for SATAN! 

In His darkness I shall dwell..