Total Devastation
with Saku Hakuli, Harri Pikka and Pasi Hakuli on Jul 15, 2003
The Finnish death metal act Total Devastation recently released their debut album, “Roadmap Of Pain”, a piece of modern death metal that marks the highest priority release of the young Finnish label Firebox up to date. Time to meet the guys behind this relatively new underground band and find out more about “Roadmap Of Pain”, as well as reveal the people behind the music.


Your debut album “Roadmap Of Pain” is about to be released on Firebox Records. Since I haven’t heard the album yet, can you tell us what we can expect to hear?
Harri: The record is being marketed as modern death metal, so that gives you some idea of what to expect. Death metal songs with industrial vibes and some keyboards, roaring vocals, demonic riffs and atmospheres that vary from high speed chaos to ultra doom soundscapes.

Pasi: To me it’s mixture of slow and fast death metal with computer samples.

Since Total Devastation is totally unknown can you introduce the band to us and tell us a bit about the history of the band?
Harri: Our current line-up is Jaakko Heinonen on vocals, Saku Hakuli and myself on guitars, Pasi Hakuli plays bass, Jarmo Pikka on the drums, while Lauri Pikka handles the machinery stuff on the songs. Ville Heiskanen writes the lyrics and used his voice for backing vocals.

Saku: Total Devastation (TD) is founded in the summer of 1998 by Jaakko and Lauri. The original idea was to play all machines extreme music. Two summers later Harri joined the band. Around the same time Ville Heiskanen came along and later took all the responsibility for the lyrics. The fourth demo, "Divine-Ecstasy" (2001) was recorded at Lauri’s homestudio (Hellhole) and it was praised so much that TD received an invitation to play on the prestigious Down by the Laituri festival. For the live line-up they needed more people, so they invited me, Pasi and Jarmo to play. This was the easiest line-up to assemble.

The fairly new Finnish label Firebox signed you in 2002, how did the label discover you and how have things changed for the band since then?
Harri: After recording the demo “Left Hand Of The Devil” in summer 2002 we just sent our promo packages to record companies around the world and Firebox contacted us right away after receiving our package. It was truly great to get a deal from a Finnish label.

Saku: Things haven’t changed that much yet. We all go to work or school like before, except Pasi, who is currently in between jobs.

Pasi: Our debut album has just been released and that’s a big thing. Gigs are now easier to get and everything is going really well. Firebox is promoting the band a lot, and as far as I know, “Roadmap Of Pain” is Firebox’s top priority release to date.

We believe that there will always be a strong group of death metal fans bashing around.

 Firebox markets “Roadmap Of Pain” as modern death metal; to my knowledge death metal isn’t particularly popular in your home country, how do you think the scene will react to your release? Or do you think that your main market is outside of Finland?
Harri: Some will like it and some will not. I can’t really say anything more. People who follow what happens in the underground have probably heard of us, but for the bigger audience, we are newcomers. The bigger markets for metal music are outside of Finland I think.

Pasi: I hope people will like it and buy it, ‘because it’s a good album.

  How difficult is it to cope as a new and young death metal band in the Finnish metal scene; a scene that’s predominately power metal?
Harri: We have nothing to do with the Finnish power metal scene. There are lots of great bands and people who organize gigs and other happenings. So, in fact, even though it (power metal) is ‘predominate’ it isn’t the whole picture. Right now the power metal acts seem to be ‘hip’. But the death metal scene has always been vivid under the surface. It has always had a certain amount of fans and supporters. And this scene is not going anywhere. If you have followed what happened, for example, in the United States, death metal has lived even though the ‘glory Florida days’ are over. So, we believe that there will always be a strong group of death metal fans bashing around.


What do you think about the Finnish metal scene and what are the leading metal bands in your country?
Harri: Good and strong; lots of different kind of bands, new and old, good music and active people.

Saku: Most of the people know all the big metal bands from Finland: Amorphis, Stratovarius, Children of Bodom, etc.

What bands have influenced Total Devastation the most?
Harri: Diabolos Rising, Danzig, Morbid Angel, Neurosis, Entombed, Rotten Sound just to mention a few. We all listen to different kinds of music; not everything is this heavy.

Saku: Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse and Slayer.

Any hopes or fears for the future?
Harri: Hopefully the record finds its listeners (or the other way around), and people come to see us play. No fears concerning the band’s future.

Saku: We’ll see what the future brings.

We wouldn’t mind playing with Morbid Angel or Danzig.

 Firebox apparently has already planned a European tour for you, what countries will you be visiting and what other bands are accompanying you on this tour?
Harri: Hungary - Austria - Switzerland - Germany – Benelux. The tour is still under construction; few shows have already been confirmed. I think some local bands will join us on the tour.

  What bands (and why) would you like to tour with, if you could choose?
Saku: Doesn’t matter. Bands which have the same kind of down to earth attitude that we have.

Harri: We wouldn’t mind playing with Morbid Angel or Danzig… maybe just because their music has been such a big thing for us. But I know, these bands include some difficult personalities, so maybe that wouldn’t be so much fun after all. People in the band make the difference, not necessarily the music.


Since Metallica is such a big issue these days, what do you think of the new St. Anger album and Metallica in general; do you think that they still deserve to be called the dominant band in metal?
Pasi: I’m a big fan of Cliff Burton! Haven’t heard much of the new album yet but I hope it won’t suck like the couple albums they made before.

Harri: Commercially they’re dominant maybe. I do not think that Metallica is so remarkably influential anymore, like they were in the early years (“Ride The Lightning”, “Master Of Puppets”). By the way, Metallica seriously lost the sound of metal years ago. The nineties were a dull, boring and pompous era for them. Well, they are getting some edge on St. Anger. Good or bad…

Thanks for the interview! I wish you guys all the best with the release of “Roadmap Of Pain”. Is there anything you would like to add to this interview?
Hari: Thank you for the interview! Check out the album, it’s now released in Finland. For the rest of the world the release date will be July 14th, 2003. Have a nice summer everyone! Over and out.

http://www.totaldevastation.org

(Frank van de Voorde)

© Rockezine.com Jul 15, 2003, viewed 651 times since 666
back