ADifferentShadeOfBlackMetalZine: A Lie Nation Interview

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

A Lie Nation Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

We are an extreme metal band of five from Finland. Musically we lie somewhere between black and death metal, with a touch of originality. There's a lot of influences from other genres as well, while black and death are certainly the most dominant ones. We have melodic elements to our songs, and often tend to be guitar riff oriented. Hooks should be present in our music. Lyrics often cover the negative mindscapes of a human being, from extreme aggression to humbling self-destruction.

2.So far you have released 2 ep's how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on both of the recordings and also how do they differ from each other?

The first ep, Human Waves, from 2015 had a strong melodic death metal sound to it. The songs on it have quite the similar structure, while also sounding somewhat different to each other. There are lots of mellow, atmospheric parts that progress into a more aggressive tone. The material on Human Waves span from the year 2009 to 2014, so it really was a compilation of the stuff produced since the conception of the band.

Second ep, Begin Hate, is more aggressive and is balanced more towards melodic black metal. There is rock-like straightforwardness and not that many mellow parts. All the songs were written after Human Waves, except the last song that was written in 2012. We wanted to sound organic, dark and rough and I think we achieved it quite well. There certainly is a misanthropic and aggressive theme to the ep.

Sounds wise a big difference between the two ep's is that Begin Hate is much more together and cohere than Human Waves. Begin Hate leans more towards black metal and Human Waves more towards death metal. Begin Hate presents a more evolved A Lie Nation. Both of these records have been fully produced, mixed and mastered by the band so there has been some technical progression as well.

3.The band has been around since 2009 but waited until 2015 to release any music, can you tell us a little bit more about the first 6 years?

We got formed by a fusion of two garage bands that played mostly cover songs. At first, that is what we did, we played cover songs for pastime. After a while it became evident that there was some songwriting skill to the band and original songs were taken to playlist. It took a long time for us to take it up to a more professional level and the Finnish mentality of belittling oneself and pessimism were very much present. There were a few internet-demos during those years, which are really not worth mentioning.

4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

Misanthropy in its different forms is what we are, while sometimes wondering into more social and political criticism. The negative aspects and phenomena dished out by the human species. Self-hatred and depression. Acts of violence. Occasionally just painting an apocalyptic picture whose meaning is left up for interpretation.

5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'A Lie Nation'?

It's a simple wordplay from alienation to a lie nation. It reflects the misanthropy and distrust to powers that be. We had to come up for a name for our first gig, and it was our vocalists suggestion to call us A Lie Nation.

6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

It is hard to point out a single best show, I don't think we have yet played a bad show. Sometimes it might start slow, but the crowd warms up towards the end. Last December we had a great gig at a two day festival called “Turpajuhulat”, which roughly translates to “fight party”. There were many other underground metal bands playing and it was fully organized by a local band. A good quote I overheard from some conversation “it’s great to come and see the smaller bands play, because they still look like they enjoy what they do”, and that pretty much summed up the whole atmosphere.

Our stage presence tends to be energetic, but honest. If the crowd is not in it, we're neither. We never use any backing tracks, and in that sense we’re maybe a bit old fashioned, but I think that it’s also part of the honest stage appearance. It is just us with nothing to cover our performance. Sometimes I see bands that have even clean guitar parts come out of a backing track and that is something we would never do. Fuck ups are a part of the whole live experience, you rehearse to minimize the amount, but there’s always going to be some.

7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

None of us does this for a living, so touring is out of the picture for now. We want to do as many shows as possible. A few should be coming along in Finland.

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of melodic black and death metal?

Mostly positive. We have been described as fresh and energetic and our arrangements have been called intriguing. Some had slight problems with the mellow parts on our first ep and the brief clean vocals, also on the first one, were not a success among others. It seems to be agreed that we are not an easy band to put in a category, but this has been seen as a positive thing. There’s some indication that the second ep might divide opinions more, because of the lyrics and increased aggressiveness in sound.

9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

There will probably be some higher tempos in the future and maybe just a hint more progressiveness. Of course we will try to evolve as much as possible, but we will stay in the domains of black and death metal. There’s already a lot of material for consideration for the next release.

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

A common influence for us all has been the first albums of Children Of Bodom and Kalmah, the late 90's stuff. That’s what we listened as teenagers. Although in lesser quantities, we are also no strangers to rock, blues or jazz. Nowadays, in the fields of metal music, anything goes from Insomnium to Arckanum. Few of us are more into death and the others much more into black metal. Batushka has been appearing a lot on our playlists lately.

11.What are some of your non musical interests?

Gym, nature, alcohol, nicotine.

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

The new ep “Begin Hate” is out 5th of April, check it out if you find us interesting. You can reach us through any of our pages, but the most active one is our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/alienationofficial/. Let us know what you thought of the ep, even if you think it sucks.

We stand behind what we do and every release is an expression of ourselves. If we were a company and would do this for profit we would be the shittiest business on the planet. There is nothing but will and yearning to do music that keeps us going.