Eternal Tears Of Sorrow pour l'album "Before The Bleeding Sun"

1. Hi! At first, I would like to talk about your story. In 2003, you decided to give an end to the band to finally respawn it in 2005. What happens to all the members of Eternal Tears Of Sorrow during these 2 years?

Hi! It’s great to talk with you. After we decided to split up the band, all members spent their time by doing other important things in their lives. We had worked very hard with ETOS for so long a time so there was finally time to concentrate on something else. Some of us were studying and working. Some members were also playing with other bands, like me and Petri with For My Pain….

Actually it was even longer time than those 2 years you mentioned. We started a break already in July 2001.


2. What were the reasons that make you stop the project and why did you decide to give it another chance?

We were just tired of everything. We also thought that we have already given everything we can with ETOS. We just wanted to have a break and rest a bit and think about the future of the band. After a year we started a break, it still felt that we are not going to work with this band anymore and decided to announce the final split-up news. We really thought that it’s the end of the story and we did not have any plans to come back after couple of years.

During those years we were not in contact with ex-band mates a lot. It took even many years that we didn’t see each other. One day we met by coincidence and had couple of beers together. Of course we started to talk about the past years and about the music. It appeared that all of us had got new fresh musical ideas during those years and they would suite only for ETOS. We started to flirt with the idea of coming back with the band and creating still the best ETOS album of all time. So, here we are today :)


3. How do you think the band has evolved during these 5 years in a musical way?

I guess that each of us has got wider look into the music. We’ve listened to very many kind of music during these years and got lots of new inspiration. We have had also time to rest and recharge the batteries of the bad for the new attack. Of course we are 5 years older as persons too and it has taught us to respect many new values in music and in life as well. I feel that all members are very relaxed and full of energy at the moment and playing music is fun and rewarding for us again.

And musically... We’re heavier and more melodic than ever. Like the 8th song of the album says “Tar still flows!”.


4. Now you're about to release your fifth album called "Before The Bleeding Sun". What can we expect from it and what do you like in it?

You can still expect the same familiar ETOS feeling in the new album but there are also lots of new things to hear. When you hear the album for the first time, you may think that “what the hell they have done now?! Is this the same band anymore?!”.. But I can say that more you listen to the new album, the more you can find similarities with our old material. It’s the very same band but the songs, production and everything else have risen many levels higher than before.


5. I found that this new album is very different from the previous one "A Virgin And A Whore" and sound much more heavy metal than before. What to you think about that and how would you define your music today?

I would not say that the album is so different from the AVAAW album. It’s more like combination of all best sides of AVAAW and albums before that. (see also the previous answer).


6. Can you tell us more about the lyrics of "Before The Bleeding Sun"? Is there a concept behind them?

It’s not actually a concept album or it at least was not mentioned to be. But after we had finished the new material and lyrics, we noticed that many songs contain references to the sun and the red dawn. Lyrics have also developed compared to our previous works and this time there can be found more stories than before. We’re still writing about things which are important to us and which belong to our interests.


7. How spent the writing process and how long did it last?

From the first song draft till the day when the album was ready, mixed and mastered, it took something like 15 to 16 months. So this was the first time when we have used so much time for composing, pre-producing, rehearsing, recording and finishing the material. And in my opinion it can be heard very clearly from the final result too.


8. Was it hard to lead this album to an end?

Altti: It took quite long a time to get the album ready but I would say that this has been one of the easiest sessions we have ever had. All members were very excited about the new songs and whole project proceed very smoothly and naturally. The whole atmosphere was very relaxed and refreshed during the whole session.


9. To record the album, you called some great people like Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica), Marco Hietala (Nightwish) and... Miriam "Sfinx" Renvag (Ram-Zet). I'm a fan of Ram-Zet and it was quite a good surprise to hear her voice all along the album. How was the collaboration with her and how did you think about her to do this job?

Yes, it was an honour to get such great musicians to cooperate with us on this album. We’ve learnt to know all those guys during past years and while we realized that new songs will require many different kind of clean vocals, we decided to ask the possibility of guest appearance from our friends. All they did really great job with those songs.

Oh yes, about Miriam. I got to know her while we recorded the “Fallen” album with For My Pain… She is very talented singer and really great person. When we started to think over suitable female singers for the album, Miriam was the first and the only one who came in our mind. I called her and told her about the upcoming ETOS album and asked if she would like to sing in couple of songs. She agreed right away.


10. The artwork of this new album is particularly careful. Who designed it? Is it important for you to have a nice artwork?

Thank you. It’s really great to hear that you like the artwork too. For us the album artwork has always been very important part of the whole package. We want the artwork reflect the feelings and the overall atmosphere of the album too. This time we worked with Travis Smith. He did really great job with the cover and the booklet. We told him our basic idea of the cover (dove, raven and blood red sun) and it turned out as a masterpiece in his hands.


11. Is there a tour planed to promote your new album?

There aren’t any touring plans made yet. We’re very busy with lots of different issues at the moment and it’s a bit hard to get all time schedules to match. For example Janne is working with Tarot’s new album and they’re going to have quite a big tour after new album. But I’m sure that we’re going to make couple of shows with ETOS too when the time is right and all our schedules will match together.


12. Now a difficult question: except the new one, what is your favorite album of your discography and why?

Hah, I almost wrote that “definitely the new one” :-) But because the question was that what’s my favourite in addition this latest one, I would say that Chaotic Beauty. I also like the Virgin and Whore album but it feels a bit too mid tempo and neutral nowadays. There is not enough variation between the songs. There are lots of great songs on that album, but they are too similar and there aren’t any real surprises.


13. What do you do for a living apart from the band?

All of us are also in daily job in addition to the band. We are working on many different areas like information technology, music and health care.


14. What are you listening to these days? Any good metal (or not metal) albums to recommend?

Latest albums I’ve been listening to are Kataonia’s and Amorphis’ new albums. Both are totally mindblowing works! And the third album that I’ve been playing lately is Verenn’s debut album called “The Game”. Verenn is a new and very talented atmospheric rock/metal band from Finland and they’re really worth checking.


15. Thanx for the interview. The last words are yours!

Thank you for the interview! It was great to talk with you.