Hail Sova!

New up and coming black metal band Goathemy hails from Seinäjoki, Finland. Torre had the honour to interview them on the verge of finalizing of their debut album, 'Frostland'. Exceptionally he received answers for his inquiry from Mr. Thing (guitar) as the frontman, Goath, was unavailable due to reasons which can be found later on in this interview.

AM: Goathemy, what the hell is it?

Mr. Thing: Damn, next please.

AM: Well, where does the name originally come from?

MT: Goathemy was the alias used by Goath in early 90's with an experimental industrial/black metal project. It doesn't actually mean shit, but it "tastes good and looks evil". The project was, by the way, called The Gore Josefs.

AM: Early 90's, eh? So Goathemy is no newcomer, right?

MT: Hell no! The mastermind, Goath, is a black metal medium with over 15 years of experience and Goathemy itself is a bastard child of his.

AM: How about the rest of the band then? Who are they and how long have they been involved with Goathemy?

MT: Well, Goathemy started as a one-man project in 1993, slept a deep sleep in between, and finally revived in 2001 as Goath began planning a black metal band with me.
Soon afterwards we had an idea about asking Dark to join us, since I had my own project with her (CC-Dream)* and we both knew that the gal knows how to sing. Black metal and a female singer, hell yeah!

AM: And all you three are related to each other, right?

MT: Yup.

AM: Has it ever caused any problems inside the band?

MT: Personally I don't think it has much of an influence. I mean, in trainings we are Goathemy, not family Ruohoniemi plus others. But of course we have our own inside humour, which might not be so obvious to others. But basically, it's the same as in every band.

AM: And the rest of the band?

MT: Well, we recorded some demos at home as a trio, and in year 2002 we found the right guy to replace laconic drum-machines; Ghost. He and Goath had played together in those early 90's days. Ghost also has a long history in black/doom/death metal. Some might remember him from a band called Ater.
And at first we didn't even search for a bassist. At the time we were too busy working on those fucking cover-music thingies (Demo 'Under the Sign of the Black Cover')*. But finally in 2004 we began working on our own music, so it became obvious we needed someone to play bass. Studio had already been booked to record demo 'Year 666' as we finally found a player.

AM: Well, that brings us closer to the music then. In which genre would you put Goathemy's music?

MT: Well, most of it is black metal, but one can't really say "true black" in the Norwegian style. I guess it's melodic black metal, with respect to Scandinavian black metal, but without forgetting our roots.
I mean, if you say black metal, those southern latex-wearing clowns lose it and dig up their axes. Black metal as a genre isn't the most tolerant, you know.

AM: So I've heard. But you have just finished recordings of your debut album, which is to be released through a Dutch label, right?

MT: Right, Karmageddon Media spotted us.

AM: Has the music evolved a lot compared to the demo, 'Year 666'?

MT: I've tried hard to figure out what the record is going to be like. But it's bloody difficult to say as an insider. I really can't look at the band from an "outside" point of view. But if you liked the demo, then you sure as hell are not going to be disappointed listening to the album. You'll get blast-beat, growling vocals, skillsaw-guitars and fucking buoyant and lucid melodies. Basically, on the demo we showed what we had in store and now we mixed it all together for a delicious soup.

AM: Has the date been set for release?

MT: It's ready in a few weeks. Then we send it to the Netherlands and within six months of that it hits the stores! According to the contract, that is.

AM: We'll be waiting for it! Now, your homepage just informed us about an even more serious incident. The personal troubles your frontman has rehab centre for a month. Do you believe that the band will get over it without bigger problems?

MT: (Long silence) Well, these are always unpleasant things, but we've managed so far. Unfortunately this is not the first time. Not getting into further details, but they haven't had that much influence on this thing we have going on here. When we began making the demo, we were pretty screwed since nobody knew Goath's whereabouts. But everything turned out well, so...

AM: So it won't affect on finishing 'Frostland'?

MT: No, the rest of us will finish it. And I know pretty well what there's still to do as I've spent the same amount of time as Goath at the studio, at least. Small adjustments and mastering. And that's it.

AM: Well, it's about time to draw this chat to a close then. I sincerely thank you for this and if you have something else to say to our readers, please, now is the time.

MT: Hail Sova!

* editor's notice

Interviewed by Lane.

07/25/2005 14:55