Interview

Morbid Vomit Preaches The "Doctrine Of Violence"

Late last month we discovered the up and coming Finnish death metal outfit Morbid Vomit - a band originally created to have an absurd name and a lo-fi sound that quickly evolved into something much more ambitious.

After getting scooped up by Spinefarm Records founder Riku Pääkkönen's new label Ranka Kustannus, the band is now about to release debut full-length "Doctrine of Violence" (with music from the album and previous releases available below).

While we took a look at the band in our latest edition of Unearthing the Metal Underground, we also got in touch with vocalist Ryöti and guitarist Löndgren for a deeper look at what went into the band's creation and upcoming album "Doctrine of Violence."

xFiruath: So to start off, a question about the discography of Morbid Vomit. I saw that earlier this year “Return to the Crypts” came out, but that's not actually considered the “debut” album from the band, which is instead the upcoming “Doctrine of Violence.” What's included on “Return to the Crypts” and how has the sound of the band changed on “Doctrine of Violence?”

"Return To The Crypts" is a compilation album released by Canadian label Blast Head Records. It includes our first demo from 2012 and "I Breathe Hell" EP from 2013. Paul from Blast Head felt that both two short releases must stitch together with our Ghost B.C. cover song "Prime Mover" to be our North American overture. Of course, it worked for us more than well.

"Doctrine Of Violence" is our first full length album. The sound has changed a bit I think. One immediately noticeable change is the average length of the songs. On "Demo 2012" we were clocking something around two minutes, where with these new songs we've past far beyond three minutes. I think it only demonstrates that we have been focusing more on the overall atmosphere. We tried to capture even more sick and oppressive feeling to every song than before and I think we've succeeded quite well.

xFiruath: When were these new tracks for “Doctrine of Violence” written and what is the writing and rehearsal process like for Morbid Vomit?

The songs were written between 2014 and 2015 excluding two older songs, one taken from the "Demo 2012" and one from "I Breathe Hell" EP. Writing process in general is painstakingly slow for us. We don't have drawers full of finished songs because every idea, riff, or even somewhat fully finished songs are shorlisted immediately and we only pursue with those which are unanimously selected by the three of us. Typically ideas and riffs are refined into a completed frames of a songs by our guitarist Löndgren which are then arranged together. Because we try to avoid compromises 'till the end, the songs tend to take quite some time to finish. Rehearsals usually starts after Löndgren sends the home recorded demo songs for everyone to practice them first each alone. After everyone is familiar with the songs we gather to arrange and rehearse them together. If there's no new songs to try out we don't rehearse that often, but before every gig we play the seltlist through a couple of times. That's mandatory.

xFiruath: Where did recording take place and who did you work with for this album?

Drums for this album were recorded at Let/Go/Studios in Helsinki, guitars and bass in a rehearsal room in our hometown, Lahti and vocals in a friend's apartment. Recording was taken care by Mika Ojala and mixing by Paavo Härkönen. The same duo of friends which had helped us in the past with our demo and EP. All in all the method, almost identical as before, was a decision we took because nowadays you can get really good sounding output very cost-effectively. Drums being the hardest instrument to get perfect and to sound as brutal as we wanted, it was the only thing we recorded in an actual recording studio. Nevertheless, we are very pleased with the result.

xFiruath: Tell me a bit about the lyrical content of this album – is it meant to be a traightforward death metal experience about gore or is there something else going on there?

It is quite straightforward yes, but there are some deeper thoughts of my own. We used to bash religions and also praise darker entities in our lyrics but that's in the past. I don't get anything out of it. We still hate religions and I write about that too but now I concentrate in reality, instead of hailing Satan and other fantasy creatures. The world is a dark and grim place and when there is no meaning for life, I reflect that to my lyrics. The themes are mostly about things that humans are capable and willing of doing to each other and in my opinion that is way sicker and evil when comparing to satanic lyrics, for example.

xFiruath: The artwork definitely gets the theme across and evokes an old school death metal feel – who handled the art and what did you think of the finished product?

The artwork was done by a good friend of ours, Mikko Metso. We gave him the songs with all the lyrics, along with some ideas we had in mind and before we knew it, we had the first draft to rest our eyes on. It was that very first draft with which we continued because Mikko really captured the feeling of the overall sound and lyrical themes. We are more than happy about the result and we'll definitely use Mikko's skills again in the future.

xFiruath: How long has Morbid Vomit been together and how did the band originally form?

The band was formed early 2012 by Ryöti, Löndgren and our previous drummer, Ristölä. It was a late-night drunken idea to record really primitive lo-fi buzzy death metal with one microphone hanging from the ceiling. With the original idea we named our band Mörbid Vomit, to go hand in hand with the upcoming music back then. We had booked our first gig before we had any material ready so the first bunch of songs were written in a hurry. Four of which ended to our "Demo 2012." Somewhere after two or three songs fully written, it was clear for us that the original concept will not be the direction with which we will continue. We felt that the songs were too "good" to be recorded as originally planned and things evolved from there.

xFiruath: I hadn't heard of Ranka Kustannus before, can you give me a little history on the label and how you got hooked up with Riku?

Ranka Kustannus is a Finnish indie music label formed by Spinefarm Records founder Riku Pääkkönen. Same guy behind the company who signed bands like Nightwish, Children Of Bodom and Sonata Arctica back in the day. We got hinted that Riku had heard our music as well as our plans to record a full length. Needless to say he was digging it and a deal with Ranka Kustannus was a no-brainer for us. As soon as we heard that Riku was interested to release the album, we contacted him and here we are now.

xFiruath: What formats will the album be coming out in and will there be any bonus tracks, or are there any left over tracks from recording that didn't make it to the album?

The album will be released as a CD for now. We really wish we could get a chance to release it on vinyl as well, but that's something only time will tell. We didn't record anything extra this time so unfortunately no bonus tracks. We wanted to keep the album as a tight compact package, but if we would have recorded one or two more songs they would have very likely still ended up on the record.

xFiruath: Are any of you guys currently active with other projects that have recent or upcoming releases?

Only our bass player, Hönski. He's active in a project called Less Than Three which released their second self financed uproar on October 2014. Ryöti and Löndgren are semi-active in a band called The Zombi which has been on hiatus for several year now, but there's plans to release new songs somewhere in the future. One of the reasons of Mörbid Vomit's birth was actually all the spare time that The Zombis hiatus gave.

xFiruath: What's going on in your local metal scene these days and are there any particular venues really supportive of metal?

Speaking locally of the Lahti scene, there are many metal bands here and also the local venues do support metal. I recommend people checking out Inferia and Necropsy, both of them being great bands from Lahti. In general, Finland is great country to live when you are into metal music. We have great metal festivals here, lots of great bands and lots of great events.

xFiruath: Will Morbid Vomit be out performing live in support of this album?

Definitely. We're working hard to get something bigger organized for the beginning of next year in Finland and of course we are looking forward to conquer other countries too. Playing live is the essence of this band so naturally we try to play shows as much as possible. There's couple of confirmed gigs for the last three remaining months of this year, but let's see what 2016 brings along.

xFiruath: Other than your own album, what's coming out soon you are looking forward to and what albums have you been digging most lately?

To name a couple, the new Cattle Decapitation' "The Anthropoce Extinction" and Ghost's "Meliora" was highly anticipated. Safe to say now both of them kicks ass. Other than those, three of us personally listen everything from 70's and 80's metal and rock, bands like Judas Priest and Rainbow to more modern metal bands like Meshuggah and Nile, all the way to noise and experimental, dark ambient music, bands like Ulver and Sunn O))). We have been too busy working with our own album to know any future releases from other bands.

xFiruath: Anything else you'd like to add?

Thank you for the interview! You can pre-order "Doctrine Of Violence" from Record Shop X. They ship worldwide. By following us at Facebook you'll get the latest news, updates of upcoming gigs and new merchandise. Huge thanks goes to everyone who has supported us along the road, we really appreciate it!