Finnish death/doom metal masters are causing quite a stir in the metal world with their debut release, "The Morning Never Came". Formed from the ashes of various other bands, Swallow The Sun have recently been picked up here in the states by Olympic Recordings. The Band are currently working on a new album as we speak. A follow up that will be a tough one to follow. Although, Aleksi and Juha assured me that it would be no problem.  

Okay, here's the interview, answered by Juha and me. Sorry for the delay.
Aleksi

JH: Give us a brief history of the band.

Juha: I had few songs that didn't fit my other band's style, so I asked our drummer to try them out with me. Everything sounded so good that we started to get more people to join the band so we could do a real demo.
Aleksi: After we completed our line-up we recorded our demo 'Out of This Gloomy Light' in January 2003. With the demo we got a record deal from Firebox, and our first album was released in November 2003.

JH: A lot of you play in other bands. Is Swallow The Sun just a side project or is it the main focus of the players?

Juha: Swallow the Sun takes so much time today that it has become the main band, but there is still time for other bands too.
Aleksi: Though Swallow the Sun started as a side project, it's certainly the main focus for me now. My other bands don't take that much time anyway.

JH: 'The Morning Never Came' was released back in November of '03 on your side of the globe and is just now getting a proper release here in the U.S. How well has it been perceived in Europe and other countries?

Juha: We never believed that 'Morning Never Came' could sell so much in Europe because this is still underground music. Well, people are just starting to understand again that you don’t have to only play fast and sing about dragons :)
Aleksi: Yeah, the reviews we got with that album were way beyond our expectations. Of course we knew that we had recorded a good album, but the amount of appraising reviews was still a surprise. Actually, we just released a single in Finland called 'Forgive Her...', and it went straight to 4th place on the official Finnish Top 20 Singles chart on it's first week. That’s rather unusual for this kind of music.

JH: It's my understanding the demo versions of some of the tracks on this release had a bit of a faster tempo to them. What led you to slow up the songs?

Juha: We had so little time in studio that we had to play those songs faster to get them done, HAH!! No, the first album is too fast anyway, but that has been fixed on our second album.
Aleksi: The demo was played without metronome, so the tempos lived a lot there. The songs were intended to be slow, and now, looking back, the first album could have been somewhat slower.

JH: A lot of people are saying 'The Morning Never Came' was one of the best doom metal releases of 2003. To me, and now I'm no doom metal expert, but
I'd say your sound would led towards more of the melodic death metal genre. I suppose they could as well be one in the same? How do you classify your sound?

Juha: It's really same to me if people say we are doom or death or whatever. As long as music is written from the heart then it's original.
Munter: In some reviews we have been compared to Dark Tranquillity, so I guess there’s some elements of melodic death metal on our music, even though none of us is a big fan of that particular genre. I prefer calling us melodic doom/death-metal.

JH: 'The Morning Never Came' is truly an amazing album. Be it doom, melodic death, or what not. I know I've been playing it to death. Being that it's now 2005, is there a new album in the works? A tentative title? Or will you wait to see how it does here in the states?

Juha: Thank you. The second album is already done and it will come out in Europe at September 2005.
Aleksi: Thank you very much. The new album is coming later, but there’s no title for it yet, not even a tentative. We'll be also making a video of one the songs on the new album.

JH: Have there been very many live shows?

Juha: Yeah, we did lots of gigs last year and this year there will be even more when the new album comes out.
Aleksi: We did some 20+ shows in Finland last year, and there will be at least a Finnish tour at autumn, and hopefully a European tour also.

JH: Does Swallow The Sun sound as amazing live as they do on disk?

Juha: It's been said that we sound even better in live than in the album, maybe it's because the audience is in the state of full drunken madness :)
Aleksi: We have been told that we sound even heavier when playing live, and though the sound is very heavy and overwhelming, it is still very clear and you can hear all the instruments in the mix.

JH: Any touring plans for the coming year?

Juha: Yeah, there are plans to do a full European tour but we’ll just have to see what our promoter does with it...
Aleksi: Hopefully something comes up, as I love playing live and getting drunk in different places.

JH: With everyone playing in other bands, have there been any conflicts with the schedules?

Juha: No, not yet.
Aleksi: I think that only one time we would have had a gig, but I had to be somewhere else playing, even though I'm not sure about that. So, not really.

JH: What are some of Swallow The Sun's short term goals?

Juha: To start touring outside Finland. Also we’ll have to start thinking about a new record deal because our second album is the last one in our current contract.
Aleksi: And to get the new album out, I'm anxiously waiting for that.

JH: Long term?

Juha: To take this music further and being one of the leading bands in this genre.

JH: What can we expect from a new Swallow The Sun album?

Juha: It's long and haunting. Full of gloom, beauty and despair.
Aleksi: It extends our sound further from both ends . It has some really heavy and crushing parts, as some extremely delicate and atmospheric parts. It's a more thought out album, I'd say.

JH: Do you feel it will be a challenge to try and top 'The Morning Never Came'? Or is that even an issue?

Juha: I know that bands have to face the truth that they are being compared to their first album for the rest of their lives, but it's just fine with me because we did just amazing second album too!
Aleksi: I wouldn't have wanted to do an album that wasn't at least on the same level as the first one, and I think we succeeded in that. The second album is fucking awesome.

JH: Well I look forward to hearing a future release from Swallow The Sun. and if you're ever here in the states, I'll be the first in line for tickets. Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer a few questions. Is there anything you would like to add?

Juha: Thank you for the interview. I hope that we play there soon and we see about your ticket then... :)
Aleksi: Thanks for the interview!