1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Arctora started with me creating a solo-album as a side-project. I just wanted to write and record songs and practice mixing on them for fun basically.
For a long time I had no plans on forming a band around it, because getting a band together is usually such a pain with not only having to find good musicians, but good people you want to hang out and create music with.
But I ended up trying my luck anyway after the album was mostly finished, and I found all the members in a span of a week. I would have never believed that to happen!
2.Recently you have released a new album, can you tell us a little bit more about the musical style that you went for on the recording?
When I started the project, I had the intention of writing a “real” black metal album, but I quickly realized that’s not what I actually wanted to do.
After that I stopped worrying about musical style and just started writing whatever felt right.
There’s a ton of blast-beats, tremolo picking and nordic melodies, but also some progressive elements and technical riffing.
I’d say the albums genre is blackened melodic death metal, but everyone can decide for themselves.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band has explored so far with the music?
The lyrics are mostly introspection about stuff I’ve been dealing with wrapped in a theme or a story.
For example, in the song “Arbiter of Fate” I tell about personal feelings, how sometimes the pressure of wanting to achieve and succeed is the only thing driving you forward, even though you might feel exhausted and close to burning out.
And I combined those feelings with inspiration and themes from Berserk to tell the story.
Every song on the album has its own topic, some are more fantasized and some more grounded in reality.
4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Arctora'?
I came up with the name around a decade ago, when I was 15 or 16.
It was supposed to be the name of my first band, but we decided on a different one back then.
Simply put, it’s just a combination of “Arctic” and finnish word “Tora” or “Torahammas” which mean “altercation” or “fang” respectively.
No deeper meaning than that, just something that sounded cool for my teenage-self back then and for some reason stuck in the back of my mind for all these years.
5.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the new album cover?
I wanted the album art to portray what I see in my head when I think of the songs and albums feel overall.
In my mind the album feels lonely, cold and barren, but also beautiful and vast in a way.
The art was made by Heino Brand, you can find more of his work here: https://www.heinobrand.com/
He was great to work with and he nailed what I was going for!
6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
We have only played three shows so far, and all of them were an absolute blast to play, even the first show which was a bit of a nightmare scenario. Our gear had some weird technical issues all night, like in-ear monitors acting strange and even my guitar jack lost input connection as soon as I stepped on stage.
But we made it through and had an awesome time!
I’d say we are quite energetic live, with two guys doing the vocals and everyone constantly moving and moshing around! Not a lot of standing still and looking at your feet.
7.Do you have any touring or show plans for the new album?
We plan on gigging as much as we can in Finland at first and hopefully extending out abroad next year!
8.The new album was released on 'WormholeDeath' Records, are you happy with the support they have given you so far?
We’ve been very happy!
Communication between us and them is always quick and professional. If we have any questions or suggestions, they always answer real fast.
And they’ve been doing an awesome job getting us seen and heard globally.
9.On a worldwide level, how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black and death metal?
I have been surprised by the amount and how positive the feedback has been.
I’ve mostly just seen people praising the album.
I originally thought the feedback would be more lukewarm, since it is a home-produced album, but no. It has been great!
10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
This is a question for which I do not know the answer, since we now have five people involved in making the music instead of just me.
I know we will have real drums on the next record at least!
11.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?
I have to mention Jari Mäenpää and Alexi Laiho as the biggest influences for sure!
They are the reason I ever picked the guitar.
Amon Amarth and Insomnium are the two bands I really fell in love with also, and inspired me to start practicing vocals and writing songs of my own!
These days I listen to pretty much all metal genres and a ton of different bands, but a finnish band called Stam1na and the giant Mastodon have really grown on me the most these last few years.
Also, nowadays I listen to a lot of orchestral music and soundtracks.
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
We just released a music video for the track “I Am Human”, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ETrMDZreds
Thank you for the interview and the review!
And thank you reader for reading and listening to the music.
Hope to see you all live someday!
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