„Action, drama, excitement. Rocking metal music challenged to the limit, and beyond!“ – we present you the finnish quartet For The Imperium. It’s safety to say that they are one of the most interesting and unique bands on the scene today. Right after releasing their second album „Hail the monsters“, they were chosen for support act to Devin Townsend and WBTBWB, which speaks for itself. If you want to hear something different and awesome – give them a try! Meanwhile you can read what the guitarist Ville Suorsa had to say for the readers of MetalHangar18.

MH18: Hello! First of all I want to thank you for your time and interest to answer to our questions. Could you please introduce the band shortly – where are you from, how did you meet and get together?

Ville Suorsa: We’re from the rural, dark parts of Finland. We met right here in Helsinki and started a band out of necessity to make something new for ourselves.

MH18: You’re probably tired of this question, but – how would you describe your musical style?

Ville Suorsa: We are very tired of that question but at the same time understand it has to be asked. There’s no straight answer to that but one of the best characterizations we’ve heard is ‘avantgarde metal’.

MH18: How do you manage to mix successfully so different kind of genres?

Ville Suorsa: I’m happy to hear you think we’ve succeeded at mixing genres. Basically we love all these different kind of bands and artists and don’t want to be stuck in any particular genre when we make our own music. I guess the ‘mixing successfully’- part comes from practice?

MH18: Have you ever had a big fight during the writing process?

Ville Suorsa: Not that much but couple of times, yeah. I think that’s just normal when you have a super tight community like a band. If you’re in a real band, you see your bandmates more than ANYONE else including wives, girlfriends, family, other friends. In that scenario you’re bound to explode some times.

I think the last time was in 2011 when we were in the studio recording our debut album. Our singer Hakim left the studio while I and our co-producer John Huikka continued to work on a track called ‘Elisa’. 15 minutes after leaving, Hakim called and said the track felt off and we should re-record everything but drums. “Do something”, the guy said. I’m happy that he had a 15 minute advance so I couldn’t kick his ass. Ultimately he was right. It didn’t work and I stepped up and created the chaotic guitar scenery that exists on the track today. After that the guys did a beautiful job with the basses, programming and vocal tracks so that fight was worthwhile.

MH18: What are your musical backgrounds and inspirations? Do the band members listen to different types of music?

Ville Suorsa: We have quite different musical tastes but there’s also some similarities. The bass player Jyri is the biggest metalhead I guess, though he listens to so many other styles as well. Drummer Tuomas is a big movie score fanatic and digs the shit out of jazz/fusion stuff as well, although his favorite band of all time is probably either Pantera or Death. Singer Hakim is into hardcore, punk and different types of r&b to name a few. Nowadays I, myself, like new rock and metal like Kvelertak and I love the old pop, rock and r&b like Clapton, Collins, Michael Jackson and I’m very drawn to the sounds of Nine Inch Nails, Manson and other industrial stuff as well. We all love Brad Paisley as well!

MH18: Do you guys have some other jobs or you’re a full-time musicians?

Ville Suorsa: Some of us have part time jobs but music is what we mostly do. We also teach music here and there and work as freelancer musicians from time to time

MH18: You recently released your second album „Hail the monsters“. What is the general idea behind it, the message that you want to send to your fans?

Ville Suorsa: I don’t wanna dig too deep into that cause I don’t write the lyrics but think about what/who are today’s monsters? What are you afraid of when you go to sleep? Last night when I went to sleep, my thoughts were with the people of Boston AND the people in Middle East whom also get killed everyday but don’t get the media coverage they deserve. The monsters are the people behind these on-going wars. The monsters are those who let bad things happen to other people.

MH18: You already got a lot of reviews, most of them with very high ratings. But you also got ratings like 3/10. Do you think that they are reasonable, or just the regular „hating“, which is kind of unavoidable? Will you keep those critics in mind when you’ll write your next album?

Ville Suorsa: I don’t like reviews, neither good or bad. It’s usually somebody fast-forwarding the album for 15 minutes and concentrating more about their own “excellent” writing than the album. You’re talking about things that are matter of taste, how do you put a score on that? We would never re-adjust our music based on what some critic wrote.

MH18: Do you feel that you’re going in the „right direction“? Or maybe you think you need to change something in order to be more successful?

Ville Suorsa: I feel that with this band there are a lot of directions to go to. All of them could be right or wrong, only time will tell. I wouldn’t mind being successful but if it happens, I want to happen with my own terms.

MH18: What are your plans from now on? You did a promo tour of „Hail The Monsters“ in UK, do you plan a bigger tour in some other countries?

Ville Suorsa: The rest of Europe is in the crosshairs next but let’s do this Devin/WBTBWB- tour first and see what happens after that.

MH18: Is there a song that you like to play live the most and if yes, which one?

Ville Suorsa: The new ones, I guess. We tend to drop off songs we don’t like to play. I can’t name one particular song.

MH18: Have you ever thought of recording songs in Finnish?

Ville Suorsa: A lot of British people asked that from us as well, since the Finnish language sounds so fun to them. Never say never, I guess. Not in the near future though.

MH18: What band do you „dream“ to tour with and why?

Ville Suorsa: I would love to tour with Pantera and Queen but since Dime and Freddie were taken from far too soon, that’s not going to happen. To be able to support Devin Townsend is actually a little dream come true.

MH18: What are the best and most memorable concerts that you’ve attended as a fan?

Ville Suorsa: Dillinger Escape Plan in Helsinki, 2008 was one of the best I’ve ever seen. Also Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro and Michael Monroe band in 2011 was a blast.

MH18: Thanks again you for your time, we hope to see you soon! Would you like to say something else to the readers of MetalHangar18?

Ville Suorsa: “The best activities for your health are humping and pumping” – Arnold Schwarzenegger