"Lantern" Interview

LANTERN

“Lantern” is a two­man black/death metal band from Finland where Cruciatus plays all the instruments, and Necrophilos shines on vocals. After the duo's debut EP “Subterranean Effulgence” back in 2011, they finally unleashed a full­length titled "Below" through “Dark Descent Records”, which incorporates elements of everything from old­school death to black.

Though they retain the signature traits of black metal, they don’t maintain a conventional attitude towards this genre, making their own waves and steering away from the norm. I got the chance to ask them about their debut album. See what they had to say in the interview below.

What events drove you to the point where you created “Lantern”?

The motive for forming “Lantern” came from me putting my old band “Cacodaemon” to rest yet still wanting to continue making music. I remember the day me and our vocalist­to­be Necrophilos (already a relatively old friend of mine back then) sat in the same group of people, just relaxing and having a few beers. We were discussing the past, the present and the chances of the future, and just somehow ended up deciding to create some metal music together... and here we are!

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Do you think it was a benefit for you to wait a bit of time before to get this album out? Did it help you to better refine your sound? How do you think “Lantern” has evolved in this span time?

It was a definite benefit, no doubt about it. If we would’ve made this album earlier, it could have become a solid death metal album for sure, but it would not have reached the same level of depth ­ and why not even innovativeness ­ it ended up possessing. And as “Lantern” is pretty much based on elements such as depth and atmosphere, elements that should February 2014 I Milfits 'zine

not be rushed or forced, it appears to be a necessity for us to let things take their sweet time anyway.

And how the band itself has evolved?

That’s actually a hard one for me to answer, as all our past works have been so diverse, and the same will go with our future material. Thus, the development and the transformation that has been taking place is still ongoing, although not as noticeably as between the previous releases. But I could say the process of putting this material together is more controlled nowadays, as we have started to realize how “Lantern” is supposed to sound, appear, manifest itself. Hence, we have become more stable with our creations; more distinct and maybe even more stubborn, haha.

It seems like different genres (e.g. progressive rock) have an influence on “Lantern” sound. What bands and albums are you personally listening to most often?

My musical palette has been expanding wildly throughout the years, even though I still find myself listening to mostly metal. Almost everything goes, well except for overly happy­sounding music, reggae, rap, plastic chart pop and such. Right now I’m listening to “Crumbsuckers”, just because I’m at the office... “Live to Work”, you know, haha. But to give you a better glimpse: Primordial (“To The Nameless Dead”),

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LANTERN

Morbid Angel (“Altars of Madness” and “Covenant”) and Carnivore are some of my so­called everyday favourites, mainly because of their high energy content. Some other faves include Mortuary Drape, Autopsy, Samael (first two albums), Darkthrone (first 3 albums), Mercyful Fate, Celtic Frost (“Monotheist” exclusively), Judas Priest (usually the slightly older end of their discography) etc... To balance things out, I have also found myself listening to a lot of funeral doom during the past years; Thergothon, Mournful Congregation, Unholy, Profetus and Esoteric are constantly on the menu. From the lighter side, I could mention Camel (the 70’s albums) and Yes (especially “Close to the Edge”, “Going for the One” and “Relayer”), Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Ennio Morricone, Joy Division, The Cure... the list would go on endlessly.

And as of late, I’ve been listening to a lot of Peter Gabriel era Genesis. Those compositions, stories and performances are simply masterful... unparalleled.

Other than that, I’m continuously checking out new metal / rock acts or older records I haven’t been paying enough attention to, and listing all of them here would a downright waste of time and space.

Who was an artist you admired growing up that directly influenced your songwriting and the way that you looked at music?

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LANTERN

I reckon the works of Quorthon and the “Venom” lads inspired me the most back then, as the masters behind acts such as “Darkthrone” and “Beherit” would follow. From death metal, “Possessed” was my first true love, whilst “Mercyful Fate” and “Judas Priest” lured me to the heavy metal / rock direction. Playing­wise, I could add Pete Walli (the guitarist of Finnish psych rock band “Kingston Wall”), Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore and Jimi Hendrix to the pool. I learnt to play guitar (and piano way earlier) before I got into metal, so I grew to appreciate such musicianship over nowadays silly hi­ speed shredding.

What is the most important ingredient for a Lantern's song?

Atmosphere. The riffs, the lyrics, the song title and all should support it.

Compose all music and playing all the instruments alone is quite a challenge in itself. How do you handle doing this? Have you been thinking about getting some help?

I am constantly thinking about getting help, haha. Seriously, it can be an immense burden to deal with composing and the entire instrumental repertoire singlehandedly, even though it does help you try to materialize your vision 1:1. Yet, a Each song on few rehearsals ago, “Below” moves in I asked our live an amorphous crew if they’d like to try to help us out fashion, casting brilliant moments with the next “Lantern” recordings. that soon fade into darkness and vice The guys seemed open for the idea, so versa. What I really like about this chances are we might actually be album is that you manage to write shaking this duo thing soon. Our pretty instinctive songs, with a rhythm guitarist might even contribute signature mix of old­school death with riffage; he’s a long line death / metal and creeping blacky pieces, black metal guitarist and sure knows instead of endless piles of guitar the score. But time will tell how all of riffs. How did you piece each part this goes! together in a sensible, flowing manner?

How important is it to you that Lantern’s music pours together into people pay attention to the lyrics this form in an immensely natural way. apart from listening to the music?

So it’s hard for me to analyze this The music itself should be able to do topic to pieces. To me, music as well the most of the talking, but in our case, as many other things ­ incl. life / I could say people would just miss a nature itself ­ appear as a cyclic, vital piece of the puzzle if they ignored rhythmic, flowing entities... constantly the lyrics. A treat, even? I’m saying changing, like the shadows cast by a this because I’m extremely satisfied lantern’s flame (lame pun, hah). with some of the texts I’ve written for

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“Lantern”, and if I were asked, you can unveil the songs’ true faces only by plunging into their lyrical content. The texts will change them almost fully.

Finland has got several seminal bands like “Impaled Nazarene”,“Sentenced”,“Amorphis”, “Thergothon”. In your opinion, what bands and what people were the most important to the Finnish metal scene in the early stages?

I am not the best expert regarding the early stages of the scene, as I got into metal in the mid 90’s or so. But, on top of those you mentioned, I could at least list some important names such as “Stone”, “A.R.G.”, “Sarcofagus”, “Tarot”, “Beherit”, “Barathrum”, “Demigod”, “Demilich”, “Xysma”...with all of them contributing to Finnish metal very differently from the 80’s to the early 90’s.

LANTERN

While planning the next release(s), a few live shows here and there would be optimal. Speaking of which, we are going to perform at Kill­Town Deathfest 2013 in Copenhagen a month from now, so that’s our next primary step, and one of the most interesting opportunities “Lantern” has been offered so far!

Is there anything you have/want to say?

Tons of thanks for this interview, and a grand hail to all supporters of “Lantern”!

I suppose you are currently writing new tracks for a new full length?

How's that going?

I have two new tracks ready and a couple of more in the making. We’ll see on what kind of formats each of the songs will eventually end up.

Nothing’s been decided yet. Otherwise, things are moving slow but steady...I don’t want to rush anything right now just to “stay afloat”. The material I have completed so far has – I dare say – evolved from the “Below” days, but it’ll be recognizable “Lantern” for sure. We try not to repeat ourselves, and we’re still on the right track regarding that.

What other important ideas “Lantern” hope to unleash next?

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