Today we're looking back at the first 3 Moonsorrow demos: "Thorns of Ice", "Metsä" and "Promo" (and if you thought they had only two demos, you should go back to the music-only episode we released back in February and listen to the first 5 minutes — then you'll understand. Spotify deleted it but it's on the other podcast platforms). Lots of stories about their formative years, when their roles in their own band weren't yet consolidated. Including words straight from the horse's mouth, taken from the interviews featured in the book "Home of the Waves: Conversations with Moonsorrow", now on preorder. We obviously couldn't go straight to the point and started the conversation discussing what we call a demo, how the concept has changed over the years and whether demos still matter. If you're interested in Moonsorrow demos and other rarities, stories and factoids, you should subscribe to the Moonsorrow fanzine Verisivut (in newsletter format). All the links you need are here: https://linktr.ee/moonsorrow.podcast Participants: Thomas from France, Sasan from the US, Francesco from Italy and Abel/Grilo do Demo from Hungary. Other song fragments used: Extremoduro - La hoguera. Emperor - Inno a Satana. Burzum - Tomhet. Emperor - Intro from Nightside. Immortal - Call of the Wintermoon. Amorphis - Castaway. Amorphis - Black Winter Day. Finntroll - Vätteanda. Mayhem - Silvester Anfang. And that Demoniac intro.
All the links you need are here: https://linktr.ee/moonsorrow.podcast The book "Home of the Waves: Conversations with Moonsorrow" can now be preordered at Cult Never Dies. The building blocks are interviews conducted shortly after the release of their latest album, "Jumalten aika", and covering everything you can imagine. Band history, of course, but also lyrical and visual themes, composition process (described in detail by Henri), ideological background, technical details about gear (Mitja loves these) and much more. You will even read what's probably the only interview you'll ever find with Markus! The book is divided into two parts. The first part is a choral narration of the band's biography, told by the members themselves. The second part contains everything else. Besides the band members, we also interviewed several other people who have worked with them through the years, including legendary mastering engineer Mika Jussila. The interviews were originally intended for a documentary that, due to a myriad of problems, hasn't yet been released. However, that documentary will only use 2 hours of material – but we filmed interviews for 13 days, several hours per day. You do the math! This book includes ALL of that material. In addition to the interviews, you will find out how everything worked behind the scenes. How we carried out the project, how we worked together with the Moonsorrow guys, the places they took us to and their significance, and much more. All of it accompanied by tons of photos from the sessions, both in black-and-white — and in full colour! Preorder it now at Cult Never Dies or Levykauppa Äx. Also available with a beautiful art print.
A quick update about the newly launched fanzine (verisivut.info), the upcoming Moonsorrow book and a few notes on the podcast. Find all our links on https://linktr.ee/moonsorrow.podcast
Lots of rare music today! In this bonus episode, you will hear all the demos: the released and the rare, the raw and the refined, the famous and the infamous — all of them in full. For two of them, there are two different mixes, so even if you are a lucky vinyl box set owner, you may not be familiar with the (in my opinion superior) remixes. Listen and judge yourself! There's a brief introductory explanation before each demo — you didn't really believe it would actually be music only, now did you? — to give context about when, who and why. However, those are short and it's just me talking; there's no discussion here. For that, you will need to wait for the next two episodes. Until then, familiarise yourself with this material, and if you are already familiar with it, enjoy it again! Below these lines you will find the timestamps for your convenience. We have also uploaded all the demos to YouTube, separately, with all the info written in the description. If you prefer that format, find the Moonsorrow Podcast channel and you will also find a playlist in chronological order of release. Lastly, if you wish to download the lossless files, google "Moonsorrow Bootleg and Demo Compilation" and you may find a treasure trove... 0:00:00 Introduction to the demos / 0:05:12 Thorns of Ice intro / 0:07:13 Thorns of Ice / 0:16:44 Metsä (remix) intro / 0:17:44 Metsä (remix) / 0:37:01 Promo '97 intro / 0:37:40 Promo '97 / 0:42:45 Tämä ikuinen talvi (remix) intro / 0:43:54 Tämä ikuinen talvi (remix) / 1:26:15 Vasaran viha intro / 1:27:07 Vasaran viha / 1:34:30 Metsä (original) intro / 1:34:51 Metsä (original) / 1:53:59 Tämä ikuinen talvi (original) intro / 1:54:19 Tämä ikuinen talvi (original) / 2:36:43 k thx bye
Today we're discussing "Tuleen ajettu maa", the second half of Hävitetty, an apocalyptic album which we couldn't agree if it's completely nihilistic or leaves space for hope, but Sasan described it best with the sentence: "it's like caressing the dog's head while you're putting it to sleep". You will discover lots of small details you never noticed before (it happened to all of us during the conversation) and you will find out which part of the song the guest is ACTUALLY on! Besides our silky voices, you will hear some little snippets from interviews with the band, as a teaser for the upcoming book Home of the Waves: Conversations with Moonsorrow. I can't believe that it's been 18 years since this album came out and I discovered Moonsorrow. I'm an adult fan now. Participants: Francesco from Italy, Abel from Hungary, Mikkel from Denmark, Sasan from the US, Thomas from France. Fragments from other songs: Jean Michel Jarre - Oxigène 1 Deep Purple - Highway Star Uriah Heep - Easy Living Marduk - Baptism by Fire Atlantean Kodex - The Innermost Light Tuleen ajettu maa live in Annecy, France, April 2007 All our links are here: https://linktr.ee/moonsorrow.podcast
I'm sure at this point nobody is surprised by the title and the length of this episode. That's right, we talk only about the first of the two songs of Hävitetty, and yes, for over two hours. Although, in fairness, we also spent a sizable amount of time discussing the album as a whole, because it turned out to be very special for all of us... except for one! Did you know there's a book about Moonsorrow coming up? You'll hear some information about it in the first few minutes of this episode. Participants: Sasan from the USA, Aleksi from Finland, Thomas from France, Mikkel from Denmark, Francesco from Italy, Abel from Hungary.
The second part of Verisäkeet is finally out! Here we analyze Pimeä, Jotunheim and Kaiku in more detail than anyone ever needed. You'll find out which song disappointed Mitja — in his own words, you'll hear very different versions of Kaiku and Pimeä and you'll discover the relation between Pimeä and grunge! We continued learning about Finnish folk instruments that are present in the album (in the previous episode we identified the jouhikko, now is the turn of the kantele) and realized that, even though Verisäkeet is less shiny than Kivenkantaja, it's not as raw as it may seem and there is no shortage of layers. If you want even more detail about Verisäkeet, we really recommend you to check out the Henri interview we released some episodes back, as he spoke in great detail about the songwriting for this album. We didn't reference that interview in this episode because we actually recorded it earlier than the interview — yeah, quite long ago, but hey, this podcast is TIMELESS! Guest star: Shiva from the US. Team members: Sasan from the US, Thomas from France, Mikkel from Denmark, Francesco from Italy, Aleksi from Finland, Grilo do Demo from Hungary. Follow us on all these social networks and podcast platforms: https://linktr.ee/moonsorrow.podcast Songs from other artists: Helheim - Jormundgand Pauliina Syrjälä - Church Bells Yömyssy - Moonsorrow medley Sebastian Penner - Pimeä (orchestral version)
We are back with the album episodes, this time talking about Verisäkeet. As usual, the conversation turned out very long and we split it into two parts, so this is 2h20' talking about Karhunkynsi and Haaska only. You know you wouldn't like it any other way! Guest star: Shiva from California, team members: Sasan from California, Thomas from France, Mikkel from Denmark, Francesco from Italy (who had to start late), Aleksi from Finland (who had to leave early), Grilo do Demo from Hungary. Songs from other artists: Mayhem - De Mysteriis dom. Sathanas; Enslaved - Vetrarnott; Finsterforst - Urquell; Helheim - Dualitet og ulver; Arkona - По сырой земле (Po syroi zemle); Antimony - Ending I.
The Epic Heathen Podcast is back, this time with an unusually short episode about an unusual topic: Moonsorrow live. Taking the recent special concert in Helsinki, on May 26th, 2023 as the starting point, we discuss Moonsorrow's approach to playing live and the choices they make in the face of the technology and the possibilities they have at their disposal. Although — not gonna lie — we also devote quite some time to the concert itself and the setlist they chose, because it was awesome. The participants are Aleksi from Finland, Thomas from France, Sasan from the USA and Grilo from Hungary. Find a complete recording of the show on YouTube!
THE LONGEST MOONSORROW INTERVIEW EVER MADE Today’s episode is an interview with Henri Sorvali, a 3-hour-long conversation about how he makes music, his beginnings doing home demos with Ville, how the process evolved, his most and least liked Moonsorrow albums and moments, his inspiration, his approach through the years, and we even have time to talk about video game music. It was done over two days, both are put together here. It’s available in two formats: AUDIO ONLY (this one). Cleaned up, nicely edited, more comfortable to listen to, and with lots of music fragments illustrating what we’re talking about. The version you should listen to (I mean, it’s 3 hours). VIDEO ( https://youtu.be/JKjpFukDge4). Raw, with all the problems and none of the extras, but you can verify that it’s actually Henri and not a voice actor! Interviewers: Thomas & Alexis from France, Mikkel from Denmark, Sasan from the USA, Francesco from Italy and Grilo do Demo from Hungary. “Kuin ikuinen” cover by Francesco. Kuolleiden Maa 2015 - Breathing Blood Remix available here: https://soundcloud.com/trollhouseaudio/kuolleiden-maa-breathing-blood-remix Music fragments: - Hades - Pagan Prayer - Satyricon - Black Winds - Satyricon - Taakeslottet - Jethro Tull - Aqualung - Obtained Enslavement - From Times In Kingdoms... - Amorphis - Black Winter Day - Joel Goldsmith - Kull the Conqueror - Ahti - Soittajapaimen - Joe Pesci in “Casino” (1995) - Several Moonsorrow songs that you already knew
The war in Ukraine had the side effect of delaying Kivenkantaja part 2, but it's finally here, and 50% longer than part 1! These songs certainly have a lot to be said about — and we didn't even say everything we wanted about Matkan Lopussa. On the other hand, we took a detour to try and define folk metal. Not sure we succeeded, but we had a jolly good time! Stay tuned for the next episode because it's going to be something very different and not about Verisäkeet. Participants: Leo from England, Thomas from France, Sasan from the USA, Aleksi from Finland (only the first half of the show), Mikkel from Denmark and Abel from Hungary. The live fragments from the song Kivenkantaja are taken from the performance at Kilkim Žaibu 2014. Raunioilla cover mixed by Sasan (opening the episode) and by me (the one at the end), with contributions from both of us, Alexis from France and two people from outside the team: a different Aleksi from Finland and Vica from Hungary. Other musical fragments by Francesco.
The Kivenkantaja episode is finally here, even if only the first half. For the first time we have a guest, no other than Leo Aragón, director of the documentary “Home of the Wind: A History of Moonsorrow”. He brought lots of quotations from the documentary interviews with the band members. In other, not-so-happy news, French Alexis has left the team and only appears in the intro song, but I can assure you that this isn’t the last you’ll hear of him! The second half should come out later this month, so don’t worry, you won’t have time to forget the beginning before you hear the end! The whole thing would be around 5 hours so maybe it’s better this way, after all. The paintings we mention during Raunioilla are: Wilhelm Steuerwaldt - The Ruins of Heisterbach Abbey Thomas Cole - The Course of Empire Participants: Leo from England, Thomas from France, Sasan from the USA, Aleksi from Finland, Francesco from Italy, Mikkel from Denmark and Abel from Hungary. Raunioilla cover mixed by Sasan, with contributions from himself, Alexis, Abel and two people from outside the team: a different Aleksi from Finland and Vica from Hungary. Other musical fragments by Francesco.
Check out our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLPa53rLLl8HUPf2aY1x0cA Unboxing every single release: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGd0f8jU-tQ Check out Antimony, Sasan's one-man band: https://antimoney.bandcamp.com/
We take a deep dive into Voimasta ja Kunniasta, probably their most warrior-battle-epic effort, or as we have labeled it, Dude On Horse Metal. Besides the regular song analysis, we try our best to make sense of the story it tells, we speak about Marko's qualities as a drummer, about Bathory copying Bathory, about Sankarihauta resembling Mega Man, etcetera. All spiced up with some audio clips with different levels of rarity. Intro music by Francesco and Sasan, editing by Grilo, additional foreign accents by Aleksi, Thomas and Mikkel. The live clips are from Annecy 2007 (Sankarihauta), Wacken 2011 (Kylän päässä), and the third one is a surprise.
Today's episode about Suden Uni is great, really proud of the result! Some very interesting insights about lots of aspects, from song structures to lyrical content, and we discovered there is a story being told from the first song to the last. In our previous upload we discussed the album in general and the first two songs, now we talk about the rest of the songs, the artwork and the different editions. The live audio snippets are taken from Leeds 2016 and York 2015. The interview snippet is also from York. Participants: Mikkel from Denmark, Francesco from Italy, Alexis from France, Sasan from the USA, Aleksi from Finland, Thomas from France and Abel from Spain. Intro and outro music by Sasan.
Today’s episode is a discussion about Moonsorrow’s debut album Suden Uni, with our thoughts on the album as a whole and a close look at the first two songs. Due to family-related circumstances (happy ones!), the rest couldn’t be edited in time, but next month you will hear it! The speakers are Aleksi, Sasan, Alexis, Thomas, Mikkel, Francesco and myself. The intro music, recorded by Sasan, is the most awesome cover of “Suden uni” that will ever be made.
In this short pilot episode you will get to know who we are and how we discovered Moonsorrow. Meet the team: Sasan, Aleksi, Mikkel, Thomas, Alexis, Francesco and Abel (aka Grilo do Demo). A little appetizer for what's to come. The opening music is a cover of "1065: Aika" recorded by Sasan (guitars), Francesco (flutes) and Alexis (synths).