Norther – When Melodies Become Aggressive

A bit more than a decade ago, Finland produced one melodic, pretty fast and bad-ass band called Children Of Bodom. Since their breakthrough, the band has strayed to other metal areas, and paved the way for long-time neighborhood buddies, Norther, to take control of the genre they kind of left behind. With 4 albums displaying the finest melodic death metal around and a vocalist that take shifts with folk merchants Ensiferum, Norther has managed to conquer big stages throughout their career and even participated in a (Finnish) movie while doing all kinds of other shit along the way.

Now the time has come for "N", the band's fifth studio album, which shows once more the strength of this group. But in order for us to fully understand what was going on inside their heads, we kidnapped Norther's guitar player and clean vocalist, Kristian Ranta, who provided us with more information… and this is what came out.

Hey Krisitan, Let's start with your new album. What's the idea behind the simple title "N"?

We didn't have that many good ideas for a name, we were thinking about it for a month or two but we couldn't come up with any really good names… [Laughs]… Then we noticed that we have this compass theme where "N" is in the middle on our logo, and we thought that "N" could be a good symbol for our music so we decided to use the letter "N" as the album title.

Why did you decide re-record the song "Frozen Angel" which was released not long ago on your "No Way Back" EP and how is it different from the original version?

We wanted to re-record it because on the EP we added some vocals and some other stuff, but it has the same guitar sound as on the "N" album. The EP was only released in Japan and Finland so we wanted to put "Frozen Angel" on this album which will be released world wide.

I understand you also shot a video clip for the song "We Rock". What can you tell us about that?

We shot the video with Helsinki-based Production Company called "Tunne Productions", they have been doing videos for mainly rap and hip hop artists like Bomfunk MC's or some other R&B groups, and they also worked with some techno artist. So basically we chose this company because we didn't want to make a basic heavy metal video with barbwire and chains in a cellar / warehouse or something, we wanted to have something totally different and bring this popular culture world perspective to the video.

I actually remember the Bomfunk MC's video (for the song "Freestyler")… Did you also shot it in a train?

Our video is actually shot inside, in front of a big light wall – a lot of blinking lights… It's something bit different then what heavy metal bands usually do, and that's exactly what we wanted to do.

Some time ago Norther band members also took part in a Finnish movie, what can you tell me about the movie and your role in it?

It was very nice experience. The movie was about a crime investigator, called Vares (the title of the film is coming from his name), and he is a private detector that tries to find out what happened to a girl who got murdered… [Spoilers ahead] But at the end, the truth comes out and they girl was actually not murdered [End spoilers]… Anyway, one of the suspects in the film is the singer of our band, which is not Petri in this case but a Finnish actor, and we played the instruments while he did the singing. It was a big budget movie so it was nice experience for us, it was quite funny and we had a lot of fun.

Back to your new album, from first impression it seems that it is much mellower than what you have done before. What can you tell us of the direction you took with "N"?

When we started composing the songs, and then at the pre-production with Anssi Kippo, we thought that we need something new, and this time we wanted combination from two worlds – the aggressive side and also the melodic side – those were really the basic principles. Then as the work went on, we got some ideas from Anssi, the producer, and we also got ideas in the studio while recording. The whole process started in the autumn of 2006, but most of the songs were born and composed in 2007, while later we made some adjustments in the studio during August and September of 2007. So basically there's more melodic stuff but we keep the ass kicking riffs as well.

Also on the album you can hear some new elements, like this electronic beginning in "Always and Never" among other stuff. How did you come up with those ideas?

Anssi came with some ideas, and so did us, and we combined everything together – it was one big pool of ideas. Actually, many good ideas came from Anssi, I think that also include the beginning of "Always and Never" if I'm not mistaken.

It seems that on the new record there are a lot more clean vocals than before… Why did you decide on using more of this combination and how did it come up in the first place?

We have been using clean vocals since "Death Unlimited" already, and since that we also used them on an EP which was released in Europe called "Solution 7", where there are quite a lot of clean vocals. So we started to like it and also our record company (Spinefarm) thought it was good at the time and many fans gave us good feedback. Then we thought why not use them in the future as well, so we used it also on "Till Death Unites Us" on songs like "Omen" and then on the new EP, "No Way Back", with "Frozen Angel" and "Close Your Eyes". We used it quite a lot but of course Petri's vocals have always been the number one thing and will be in the future as well. I think its good mixture; it brings something new and dynamic to our music.

Some say this combination fits today's trend of Metalcore… What do you think of this genre and do you listen or take some influences from it?

Well I listen to this stuff but I really like many kinds of music, I'm really versatile in that sense – I like classical music, Metalcore, Slayer and everything. I guess our influences come from inside the group – for example, when we thought about clean vocals during the process of composing the new album we never gave it a thought that if some other bands are doing this we should do it as well, we just did what felt was right and that's always how we've been doing things. I don't know if it's a trend or not but if we like clean vocals we'll sing clean vocals. Sometimes our ideas might come and go with the trend, and maybe it influences us without us even thinking about it that much – so it might be something sub-conscious.

You mentioned earlier the song "Omen" and I've read somewhere that you gave it this name because it reminds you of the song "Nemo" by Nightwish. Is it true?

Exactly… [Laughs]… I think that I composed the melody at the beginning of the song and the chorus at home with my piano like I quite often do, and then [Laughs] after I played it for the guys at the rehearsal they said that it sounds just like Nightwish's Nemo" – not exactly the same, but the piano stuff… Then we were laughing our asses off and thought that we have to keep something from this [joke], so we decided to name it "Omen" [Which is "Nemo" spelled backward – O.M.] and its also a good word.

The band's lyrics seem to vary from serious matters to some humorous ones… how do you come up with ideas that combine both of these in a song or a record?

I think it's because different guys do different lyrics – I do lyrics, Jukka [Bass] do lyrics and Petri do lyrics – so basically the ideas come from different people and it brings a lot of variation into our music as well… I think we have even more varied lyrics now, there are some heavy stuff, and then also some softer stuff (feelings, emotions, love related and things like that) but then there's also lyrics about some common ideas and common thoughts – when you don't like someone, when you don't like what people are thinking or when you disagree with something.

Speaking of your humorous side, I happened to see you start a show at the Wacken festival with the "Not Gonna Get Us" song by the lesbian pop act Tatu… What the fuck where you thinking? Is it something you often do?

As you said we have humorous side as well, we usually have a lot of fun with each other and we're laughing all the time… [Laughs]… I think the Tatu thing was something… we just thought it's a good song and it's a funny intro. Heavy metal bands always have too serious intros' with orchestra, and once you play that kind of intro from a PA on a festival, then all your music will sound like crap after that. If you make a record of course its different but basically symphonic music will always sound so much bigger then what heavy metal can sound from outside… So we thought that we don't want to do that anymore, we defiantly don't want to do what all the other bands do with their massive intros' – we wanted to do something funny and personal.

How was it, doing the show in one of the biggest metal festivals in the world?

Very nice, we had a lot of fun, and there were a lot of people watching us, which was a nice surprise.

On the same time of your show in Wacken, you competed against Turisas, who's going on tour with you pretty soon. Did you made bets about who will get the biggest crowd or you actually didn't know you're going against each other?

I didn't even know that we were going against each other… But now its nice to be touring with Turisas, since they are nice guys. Of course they have their own audience, because they do more folk / battle metal or whatever, and our music is more like melodic death metal … But I think that we're good partners in crime and now when we play on tour together we can attract as many people from both genres. Maybe some people like Turisas more, or Norther more, but I don't see it as competition, I see it as beneficial for both bands.

A day after you're finishing up touring with Turisas, Petri will join them as part of Ensiferum for another long tour. I was wondering if you can explain, as someone who watches him from the side, how he can keep up with 2 full active bands and still remember to play the right tunes during Norther shows.

[Laughs]… Well yeah, Norhter is not like a full day job and I don't think that Ensiferum either, they have sometimes a lot of tours but then they have a lot of time when they don't do anything. Basically it's just about scheduling our schedules and Petri as been doing fine at least so far. Now it will be his longest tour in a row, he's going to be on road for 3 months or more… So let's see how he's going to feel after that, and if he still likes playing through that… [Laughs]

On the band's official website it says you tried to do a Van Halen jump but fell and lost your conscious… Have you tried any other extreme moves that went wrong?

[Laughs]… Nothing recently… so no… I jump around the stage quite a lot but I haven't done that Van Halen jump off the stage for a while.

I guess you have been asked about my next subject many times, but back in the days when Norther started, many compared you to Children of Bodom… Did the changes you have made over the years have to do with this comparison or was it the natural progress of the band or both?

It was defiantly and only a natural progression – we never felt in the first place that we sound the same as Children of Bodom. We discussed about it many times with Alexi Laiho [vocalist of C.O.B.] for example and the other Bodom guys and they didn't think we sound like them, and we didn't think that we sound like them so much. But of course we are the musicians so maybe we feel a bit different then what the fans and people who listen to this music do.

Anyway, we developed in our way, because of our guys and our influences and yes, Children of Bodom was an influence on us before we even started Norther and maybe also after that, but I wouldn't say they were that big influence – I think that "Mirror of Madness" was already quite different than what C.O.B. did at that time at least. But that's a good question, it's hard to answer since it was a long time ago but I can only say that we always done what we really liked and we didn't try to be different than Bodom, we just did what we felt right.

Ok, but something you do have in common with Children of Bodom these days, is the constant use of the word "Fuck"… Is this because it's the first word they teach during English classes in Finland's schools or is it just your manly need to get laid?

[Laughs]… Well, in Finnish language there's this word "Vittu" which means "Fuck", and I think it's used quite often in the Finnish language… [Laughs]… So because we're Finnish guys, we may use the word "Vittu" sometimes at home or at rehearsals, and then the word also comes to our songs because it's not just a curse word you know – we feel it's a power word. I don't know if C.O.B. uses it as well but it's only a word.

What is coming next for Norther besides touring? Any plans for a full official DVD?

Not this year, there already been plans last year, but we need to get a good concept together. We still need to work on that, to figure out a good place to play and to record it, or what's going to be on that DVD… But we're not ready yet, maybe next year.

Last but not least, any last bad-ass words to share with your Israeli fans?

Maybe it's not too bad-ass, but I would like to thank everyone in Israel and a lot of greetings to your HOT country. Maybe we can play there one day, it would be nice.