1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
Plaguebreeder is a symphonic extreme metal band from Finland. Current line up is a trio: Ardeath (vocals/bass/orchestras), Klaath (guitars) and Kalmisto (drums).
2.Recently you have released a new ep, musically how does it differ from the previous demos?
I think it’s more diverse and ruthless. We spent more time on planning and recording the guitars and vocals than before, so we could get most out of them. Also adding the orchestras makes a big difference to the previous recordings.
3.This is also the first release in 7 years, can you tell us a little bit more about what has been going on during that time span?
During the 7 years the line-up has changed a couple of times. Two previous guitarists, Hornthrone and Mr. Bleedy, left and Klaath joined the band. There was a different bass player, Azagrath, for a while but things didn’t work quite well, so I decided to take the bass again. Also my personal life has been quite busy these years, so I had to re-schedule a lot of band related things.
4.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects you explore with the newer music and also how would you describe your progress as songwriters over the years?
The new EP deals with topics like war, nuclear destruction and ecocatastrophe. I’d say that war in different perspectives is the binding theme in all of the songs.
Our songwriting process has been quite the same all these years: I write basic skeleton at home and we all add some meat and blood on it at our rehearsal place. It usually takes 3-5 different variations to get the track good enough. On this EP the most straightforward track was I Believe in Misanthropy, which I wrote entirely at one session. The Arrival of Fire took 8 different versions to get it right if I remember correctly. The writing process always starts with a killer guitar riff or a kick ass melody. When the track has been tested enough at rehearsal’s I start composing the orchestras and writing the lyrics.
5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Plaguebreeder'?
When I came up with the name, I wanted to create music that would be as brutal and vile as the black death back in 1347-1351. So breeding the plague is breeding our music.
6.Can you tell us a little bit more about the artwork that is presented on the ep cover?
I’ve always made the covers myself. This time I wanted to create a symbol that you can recognize instantly as the symbol of Plaguebreeder. The symbol consists of nuclear and chaos symbols and it has 12 spikes which symbolize time. Since most of the lyrics were ready and their theme was quite violent, I came up with the idea of making our symbol as the Earth itself in the breaking point. In the cover Earth’s seas have turned to blood, rivers to fire and continents as ash. Total annihilation that is.
7.What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
On stage we try to be as ruthless as possible. You can get an idea of what we are about live if you watch our music video The Root of Extinction on youtube. It was filmed at our rehearsal place on live like situation. We have done quite a few good gigs. I think you can get a really good show even with a small audience (in this Covid-19 time especially) if the crowd is fully with you in the music. I always get a real energy boost when the crowd is screaming. Our biggest gig was at Steelfest Open Air which was also pretty awesome.
8.On a worldwide level how has the reaction been to your music by fans of black, death and symphonic metal?
I think we have reached the global audience better than before. Big thanks goes of course to our record label Inverse Records since they have done quite good job with the marketing. I can’t really say how black, death and symphonic metal fans have reacted to our music since our stuff is a mixture of all of these genres, but all in all, the feedback has been very positive.
9.What is going on with some of the other bands or musical styles these days that some of the band members are a part of?
I’m currently writing lyrics to MMD which is an old band. Years ago, I was a bass player in the band but Abyss (guitarist) asked me to rejoin the group as a vocalist. We released a single Seeds of Evil last summer and we are currently working on our debut album. I’m working with Plaguebreeder’s Klaath on Northern Genocide, an industrial melodic death metal band, and we are also writing a new album. We released our debut album Genesis vol. 666 over a year ago and got a really good response from the audience. Kalmisto is also working on a new album with his pornogrind band Inferia, which is one of the oldest, if not the oldest grind band in Finland. So we are quite busy all the time.
10.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
We have been working on new tracks quite some time already and we have 4 songs completely ready. Also there’s roughly 3 good skeletons on the way. I hope we can start recording next Summer or Autumn maybe. Musically we are going towards more diverse, orchestral and melodic direction. In general we have slowed the tempo a bit but we still have some really vicious things coming up.
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?
We as a trio, listen to variety of material from black metal to power metal and even ebm and synthpop. But the stuff that influence our music and have always influenced are such bands as Immortal, Vader, Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir, Anaal Nathrakh and Marduk.
12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Check out our music videos on youtube, our Spotify and keep listening to metal and spread the plague!
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