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Interview
Deutsche VersionInterview mit Torture Killer (16.02.2006)
HH: Hi Jari, Torture Killer started as a Coverband doing mainly songs of Six Feet Under who still have great influence on your sound. What do you think when people compare your sound to Six Feet Under or Obituary? Is it a compliment for you or are you bored of this?
Jari: No I'm not bored because it is the truth, we take it as a compliment and at the same time that has been our goal from the start to tribute their style of playing. I'd be pretty disappointed if nobody would think that way coz that's the thing we're after.
HH: The sound on Swarm! is very good, brutal and heavy and everything is good to hear. Are you pleased with it or would you change something on it.
Jari: It's ok, it's up-to-date kind of sound - clear and distinctive but I think we are going for the uglier direction with the next one. Overall I'm pretty satisfied, but it does sound like a modern day metal album and I think we need to head for more dirtier and darker sound in the future, at least that's how we feel at the moment. Glad you like the sound tough.
HH: Is there a song on Swarm! people like best? I like "Obsessed With Homicide" because it has a good groove and it has a good chorus.
Jari: I think "Forever Dead" is one of the favourites with people I've been talking with, also "Multiple Counts Of Murder". I think the common thing with those are the lead melody passage at the end of those songs and they're pretty good and people seem to take notice with those.
HH: Which song do you like best?
Jari: My fave ones are also "Obsessed With Homicide", "Heading Towards The Butchery", "Forever Dead" and "Multiple Counts Of Murder". I like the fast ones a lot, they are my favourite tracks to play live but also to "flow" on "Forever Dead" is pretty good in my opinion. "Funeral For The Masses" has awesome vocal lines on the verse.
HH: Your first album For Maggots To Devour was released by Karmageddon Media. For the new album you signed a contract with famous Metal Blade label. How did this cooperation arise?
Jari: It was when it became necessary to use two different studios to record this album with Chris, with all the different schedules with Six Feet Under and us didn't allow us to work in one consistant place so that naturally meant a huge rise on the recording budget and Karmageddon wasn't up to taking part. I fully understand them, and they were always very good to us so we have nothing bad to say about them. Metal Blade is obviously closely connected with Barnes as he has been recording with them for all his career, luckily the Metal Blade staff liked the demo material Chris played to them and they were ready to sign us.
HH: How do you feel being part of the big Metal Blade family?
Jari: Honoured. I mean who wouldn't want to be on the same label with Cannibal Corpse, Bolt Thrower and Six Feet Under? It is propably the most legendary metal label ever, at least in my books. It does feel a bit "unreal" but things just happen, we are very honoured to be appearing on their roster.
HH: Are you pleased with the effort Metal Blade puts in Torture Killer?
Jari: Yes totally, everything has been working like clockwork so far.
HH: How hard did the departure of your former singer Matti Luke hit you back in 2004?
Jari: It was inevitable and would've happened in any case, the only propblem for us was the timing. We saw it coming so it didn't hit us apart from the concern for our upcoming tour. Still we prevailed and as it has turned out, were not doing that bad without him.
HH: After his depature you played on the so called Blast Your Violence Tour also back in 2004 together with Cropment and Poppy Seed Grinder where Sallinen of Funeral Feast did the job on the mic. Was it ever an option for him to stay in Torture Killer as full time singer?
Jari: Barnes contacted us during the tour, and at that point Sallinen was only going to help us with that, so even if all this TK meets CB thing is relatively new to public, we have in fact been working on it for over a year now total. After the tour we represented the situation to Sallinen and asked if he was willing to continue his help under these pretty special circumstances. Luckily for us he was up to it, we still want to do those random shows here in Finland and we feel it wouldn't be right just to sit and wait for the possible tour coming up, or even never to come with Chris. Having someone to do those shows keeps us motivated to practise and I think he proved his skills with Sotajumala/Torture Killer split 7-inch we released late last year. I'm aware that this isn't exactly a normal band, but then again neither are the circumstances and it seems to work out for us like this.
HH: As your new singer you gained Chris Barnes. How did this arise?
Jari: Chris had heard about us somewhere, people had kept bringing it up asking if he knew there was a band from Finland that call themselves Torture Killer and they play this and this kind of stuff. He was interested to check us out, and found out about the recent split and the line-up problem. He felt very appreciated with the stuff we were doing and I guess us openly admitting our influences and then just offered his help if we ever needed it.
HH: Is Chris the full-time singer of Torture Killer now or is it just a side-project where he contributed the vocals?
Jari: He is as full time as anyone living on the other side of the atlantic can be, we have collectively signed for a multiple album deal with metal blade and both us and him have strongly decided that this will not be a one-off-project for him. Obviously Six Feet Under is his main band, naturally - all those guys are professional musicians and that means constant touring and constant releases and that's the way it should be. I consider him a full member without any doubts at this moment.
HH: Will Chris be on tour with Torture Killer? When will you hit the road?
Jari: For now all we can do is just wait and see if people like the album, if they do we'll start working on it - like I said earlier, there are a lot of schedules that have to match before it can happen not only with Six Feet Under but for us as well. Were just totally normal working class guys and have our obligations as well, we just can't leave whenever we want for how long we want and just simply expect to have a job to return to and that is what brings the food to the table - not Torture Killer and it would be very stupid not to be aware of that.
HH: Who did the lyrics for Swarm!? Did Chris contribute some?
Jari: Chris had a major role in the song writing, and the coolest thing for us was having him actually participating in the song writing, not just doing vocals on some pre-written stuff. The lyrics are the thing we have to struggle with the most, the music was there but we just couldn't get the songs finished lyricwise so Chris ended up writing six songs out of the ten and we think his work was perfect.
HH: How did the name recognition of Torture Killer change with Chris on vocals? Did the interest in Torture Killer grow?
Jari: Are you serious:)? hahaha... no, we think we are not that popular anymore with him! :) Seriously, we knew we would get a lot more attention with this band obviosly, meaning both good and bad.
HH: Do you fear that Torture Killer will be reduced just on Chris because he's quite a famous person?
Jari: Not quite sure what you mean by reduced (?) but I think we will get a lot more interested people to take note with this band, but also are aware that we will end up on some hate lists just because Chris is in the band. Concerning our history we can't avoid reactions like that, but we're cool with it.
HH: How important do you think is a website for a band nowadays?
Jari: It's important, I wish I could do more with it you know designing it more be able to add and update it myself but I haven't got into it so we need to use a webmaster, that always limits the things you'd like to do with it and it should contain some special stuff for the fans, that's what I'd like to get when I go to see my fave bands websites.
HH: How important is the Torture Killer website for Torture Killer?
Jari: We need to have one, but like I said above, we should have more stuff in there - hopefully we will be able to update it with more special stuff in the future.
HH: Imagine Swarm! is a weapon. What weapon would it be?
Jari: An axe with flies covering it?
HH: That's it, you made it! Thanks for you time! Any last words?
Jari: Thanks a lot for the interview, hope you guys will enjoy the album. Cheers!