Après la deception de certains fans lors de la sortie du dernier SIX FEET UNDER quoi de plus normal pour ces derniers que de se tourner vers un groupe qui s’active dans la lignée des meilleurs années de la bande à Barnes. VS a voulu en savoir plus sur les finlandais de TORTURE KILLER.

VS : At first could you introduce the band to our readers ?
"We are Torture Killer from Finland who has it´s first album "For Maggots to Devour" out through Karmageddon Media. The style is midpaced old-school death metal influenced by the florida death metal scene and bands such as SFU and Obituary. My name is Laine, the guitar player and I have another death metal band called Adramelech. Karppinen, guitars, is also playing in bands such as Torn and Funeral Feast. Latvala, the drummer, is the new drummer for Demigod and also plays in Torn and Deepred. Liuke, vocals, has had demo bands earlier and Hatakka, who played guitars on the album is no longer with us."

VS : Could you explain us how a friend’s project destined to play only covers turned into a real band ? Some members of the band are also playing with TORN, DEMIGOD or ADRAMELECH. Does it mean TORTURE KILLER is a side project and by the way what do you think about this actual tendencies with all these project bands ?
Laine : "Like You said we started out as a fun-weekend-boozing-project playing our old favourites. A friend of ours knew that we were hanging out during weekends playing covers so he asked if we would want to play a gig in a metal event he organised. We did that, it went really well and shortly after we started talking that maybe we should try writing similar kind of material of our own. We wrote a couple of songs and we were really excited how they turned out. The sound was perfect and we enjoyed ourselves doing it to the fullest. That was the point things developed from project-band to a real one. I have a really small death metal label myself called Severe Music and I suggested that we would go and record an album, and I would release it through my label. So we did. The final result was perfect in our opinion and after the studio we agreed that this material could actually get signed with a real label. So we sent a small number of copies VSto selected labels, we got lucky, and here! we are. Of course now the situation has changed, we have good label behind us and we are taking this much more serious but we are still having as much fun as we did when we started. Adramelech is on hold at the moment so this is my only active band right now. Theres no question about it that we are a real band, the thing that separates us from the rest of our bands is that we have a great relaxed vibe together. We feel very confident about our material, but at the same time we don´t fantasize about anything big. We have no expectations from anybody so we are just enjoying about all the positive things that comes out of it."

VS : You choose the band’s name from a song of SIX FEET UNDER and it seems you were very influenced by them. Don’t you think this kind of death metal isn’ t that much spectacular and what do you think about the musical evolution of SIX FEET UNDER ?
Laine : "Yes SFU and Obituary are our main influences with Torture Killer. We get to do the fast death metal stuff with our other bands so this is very "fresh" and new to us. To me it´s a surprise there aren´t more bands playing this style, most of the bands are into the fast and brutal type of death metal and that´s great. I like to listen to it a lot myself, we just didn´t want to do it with TK. I´m totally aware that we have 0% of originality in us, and that was the whole point all the time. We formed this band as a homage to the old-school masters. In general isn´t that the main reason why people start bands in the first place? They want play the same type of stuff they like listening to. That´s the cool thing about Torture Killer, our influences are so obvious that even a deaf could hear it and we don´t have a slightest problem with it...haha...SFU´s best albums are "Haunted" and "Maximum Violence" in my opinion. To me those are classics filled with g! reat tracks. "True Carnage" was a big disappointment for me but I think they´ve done better with "Bringer of Blood", I still believe they can deliver some seriously punishing death metal tracks."

VS : You had some problem to print the cover. I still wonder why exactly. What do you think about this kind of problem and what’s your opinion about these of bands who are using this kind of events for promotional use ?
Laine : "I really don´t know much more about it than You do. To me it´s kinda funny since I know hundreds of covers more shocking than this one, even though the picture and the idea are pretty fucking sick...haha...But then again, I guess "normal" people will find it a bit disgusting and may have a problem with track titles such as "Fuck them when they bleed". I really don´t think there are any bands choosing their album covers by thinking "this will be censored, let´s take it so we can have promotion out of it..." To me that sounds something that journalists have made up just to get something to blame the bands about. As a bandmember I pretty much know that bands choose their artwork because they like it and they fit to the image or vision about the music. Of course it gets Your name to the papers, but I don´t think anybody does it on purpose."

VS : You were supposed to sign on Severe Music when you’ve started recording. Why did you finally choose Hammerheart ?
Laine : "Well, like I said earlier Severe Music is my own very small death metal label/distro. It runs with my beer money so naturally I can´t afford to promote our releases, we don´t have a solid distribution, our pressings are 500 - 1000copies...It´s more like a hobby to me. We keep the prices low and it pretty much runs with the underground spirit. To me Hammerheart has the potential and the professionalism to grow bigger and this way we get the album to a lot wider audience."

VS : Yes of course but HAMMERHEART had some problems and they had to change their name. Do you still feel confident after this ? How do you feel as the very first band released of Kamageddon media ?
Laine : "I guess that´s one way to look at it, I understood that they were combining forces with Plastic Head Distribution and that was the main reason for the change. Also I think they had problems with other people related to their business, not actually amongst themselves. At the time we signed the contract the label was still called Hammerheart and this name changing thing happened few months afterwards, back then we didn´t know about this change was going to happen but despite that I still feel very confident and we would´ve signed with them even if we would´ve known about all of this. I think it´s pretty cool to be the first release under the new name, but I don´t feel it bringing any pressures or shit. I don´t worry myself too much about it and I have full faith in their work, everything is working like clockwork."

VS : I know your own band is hold for the moment but how is it possible to run a band in a very serious way when you actually play in several ones ? How do you guys find some time to do any other things than reheasing ?
Laine : "Latvala (drums) is maybe the only on having troubles of finding the time for all the bands but he is ok with it. He´s the youngest of us and has a huge will to play as much as he can. Playing different styles definetily has made him a better drummer and he keeps on developing. It´s actually easiest to Torture Killer since we all live in the same town, I think the other bands suffer a bit more since they live elsewhere. Also we have a good dialog with our other bands so if some band has gigs or recordings, the other bands and are cool with it and understand that. Since the vocalist and myself are the main writers in Torture Killer, we use that time creating new stuff...works out perfectly, and then when everybody is available we´ll rehearse it. We are not in a position where we would have to play/rehearse every day."

VS : How do you imagine the evolution TK could have in the futur. Do you plan to keep recording the same kind of stuff as you did for "Maggots." or are you already thinking about some little change ?
Laine : " There is definetily not going to be a drastic change. This is what we enjoy doing so why change it? Of course it will have a bit more variation since now we pay more attention to the structures and the riffs but the style will stay pretty much the same. I know we are making better songs at the moment and the basic material is almost written for the next one. After all, "For maggots.." was recorded in January, so we´ve had all this year time to write new stuff. It still needs a lot of work but the main material is written and it sounds fucking great...haha...I guess that´s what every band says right? hahaha...."

VS : You told me Hatakka is not longer playing with you. Why did he left the band ? Do you plan to keep going with only one guitar player are you searching a new one for your upcoming live performance ?
Laine : "Hatakka left basically because he didn´t find it as fun anymore. Simple as that, I guess he knew that things would be different when we signed the contract with a label like Karmageddon Media so he just didn´t want to continue anymore. He is still one of my best friends and I talk with him almost everyday so there´s no bad karma between us. Actually Karppinen (bass on the album) is now playing guitar and we have a new guy trying out for bass, but we want to be sure he is the right person for Torture Killer before announcing it."

VS : I guess that's not easy to admit "I´m totally aware that we have 0% of originality in us" like you just said. Even if that's not the goal with TK don't you feel sometimes frustrating and a little trapped in this kindda old school death métal ? Even if some of you guys play more brutal stuff in their other bands, didn't you have this desire to turn TK more brutal when you've recorded the album ? It's well known "take away the natural and it'll come back more stronger..."
Laine : "Haha...I have no problems saying it since it´s the truth...hahaha...we don´t feel trapped in this yet because this is a new thing to us like I told You. We haven´t done this kind of death metal before so I can only see possibilities in front of us... I think the fast bands can be brutal in a way we can´t, but then again we can have something in our brutality that the fast ones can´t achieve. I think there is a lot for us to improve in this style and we are very excited about the new stuff, so we´ll start worrying about the style when we feel we can´t do it anymore...hahaha..."

VS : There’s actually a strange evolution in metal. Music was running faster and more butal during the last years and suddenly some bands (like yours) are turning back to some old kindda death metal. Does it mean there’s no possible evolution anymore or is that because musicians need to come back to the roots sometimes ?
Laine : "I guess that´s one way to look at it yes...makes sense to me. You are absolutely right that this is the direction at the moment. Believe me, if I could write stuff like Monstrosity or Suffocation, believe me I would. But the fact is that the more the style is getting faster and technical, there will be less people able to perform it. I don´t have the skills to play technical riff with 400 bpm. The same with originality, how many bands are trying to be original and how many actually ARE original? I definetily don´t have the artistic vision, skills or abilities to create original death metal without making it sound gay...hahaha...and I don´t want to do that...hahaha..."

VS : There’s actually more and more bands coming from Finland. In your opinion what’s the main reason for that ? I guess that wasn’t easy to emerge from this big scene. What’s make the difference in a case like this one ?
Laine : "Yes there are a lot of bands doing well in here but most of them are not my style at all. Majority of the bands are playing melodic stuff and such, so actually doing this kind of death metal is VERY different and unique in Finland. I think we are the only ones doing it at the moment. We do have small number of really good death metal bands doing the fast stuff, but Torture Killer is the only one doing old-school-mid-tempo."

VS : You told us about the second album you’re gonna release but are you gonna support "Maggots" on stage, do you plan to have a european tour soon ? Any other futur plans ?
Laine : "I really hope we get on somekind of tour in early 2004, nothing is scheduled yet but that´s our next goal. This is the without a doubt the best live band I´ve been in and I know we will convince a lot of people by playing live."

VS : what’s your actual playlist (not especially metal bands) ?
Laine : " (Not especially metal bands???) It´s the only playlist I have man...hahaha...
Monstrosity "Rise to power", Dying Fetus "Stop at nothing", Obituary "Dead", Cannibal Corpse "Live cannibalism", Deicide "Serpents of the light", Strapping Young Lad "City", Devin Townsend Band "Accelerated evolution" and Demigod "Slumber of sullen eyes".