Rasane: Thanks! Yes, without a doubt, media’s warm welcome helped us to gain that position underestimate the impact of massive pre-listening campaign we had. I think that affected it even more.

LH: It seems that there are more metal acts making it into the charts these days, particularly in Finland. Do you think it’s a positive thing, or do you not really care too much about the charts?

Rasane: Well, I don’t “stalk” charts normally, but of course it’s awesome to see your own album swinging there among all those mainstream (shit) acts. It’s all positive thing to bands and labels, it just shows that your work bears something. It’s some kind of advertising sign (and achievement to band), but nothing more IMO.

LH: Reading through the lyrics to Zero Nexus it looks like the concept is about nine individuals who each must carry out a task in order to open the gates of hell, or something along those lines. Am I close with this interpretation?

Rasane: You’re pretty close yes. The story has been written the way the reader can use his own imagination a little bit. Different people can find different thoughts and human destinies. And yet, each story is “camouflaged” so let your visions flow while reading the lyrics!

LH: I was wondering where the inspiration came from for the concept, and also what exactly is the “Zero Nexus”?

Rasane: Original father of the idea is Itse Ruoja Suruntuoja (ex-Amorphis, Ajattara). At their mystical meetings Harju got excited the story and thus how it got into Shade Empire album. Naturally Harju edited Ruoja’s version a bit just to gave the story more “Shade Empirish” –style.

Zero Nexus is some sort of Void. Or the Beginning. “What is end to others is total victory for some!”

LH: You have recorded two videos for ‘9in1’ and ‘Serpent Angel’. The obvious thing that I notice from watching the videos is how the second video seems to follow on from ‘9 in 1’. How did you go about recording the videos – did you record both together?

Rasane: Yeah, both videos were filmed during the same, long-lasting, exhausting and painfull session. Ari Reinikainen (director) was given the Zero Nexus idea, which he illustrated with a fantastic result. Ari is a old school mate with Sirkkiä (our guitarist) so that’s why we ended up him. He also made Chemical God from our previous, Intoxicate O.S album.

LH: How did you choose which songs from the album to record videos for?

Rasane: I don’t remember exactly how we picked up those songs. Maybe they’re the “easiest” ones on the album. Or the most straight-forwarding ones and shows certain development since the previous album.

LH: I commented in my review of the album that the music sounds to get a bit darker in the second half of the album from around the track “Serpent Angel”, and on reading the lyrics this seems to fit the darker mood. Was this intentional?

Rasane: Hmm, nope I guess. It just went the way it went.

LH: I was reading that the lyrics were not written until after you had written the music. Even though the lyrics were written last, did you already have the concept mapped out before you began writing the music, and how important was this concept when it came to composing the music?

Rasane: The idea of concept album came after all music or at least the most of the music were composed and hence it affected only to song order. We had to think very accurately which story fits the certain song the best and in which part that song fits the album best.

LH: You make use of the saxophone on one of the tracks on the album and also, for the first time as far as I’m aware, female vocals. What made you decide to incorporate these elements - was this something you originally set out to do, or was it something you experimented with later and decided it sounded good?

Rasane: Guys have always wanted to do something special with Shade Empire, and is there a better instrument existing than a saxophone? No there aren’t. Luckily our producer, Tero, knew one guy who was able to play that and even wanted to play on our record. He came in and nailed his part in 10 minutes. Result is fantastic!

What comes to female vocals, Petra’s abilities are being known for several years as she’s our bassist’s (Mantere) wife! We made some demo recordings with her and immediately decided she’s going to sing at the actual album also!

LH: You recorded Harju’s vocals in Perkele, as opposed to the music which you recorded at Studio 33. I was reading some of the reasons for laying down the vocals in a different location were because it was in the middle of nowhere and there were less distractions and time constraints, is this right? Do you think using a different studio had any impact on how they came out on record?

Rasane: You’re right. I think it’s obvious to hear that Harju nailed his parts in somewhere he could concentrate to his tasks with 100 % performance. I know that place as I’ve recorded there also. There’s something totally unique. If you’re tired to record there, just go and get into the Palju (outdoor bathtube) for a nice relaxing moment and continue your job when you are willing to do it. You can record your parts for example during midnight if you want so. And that’s customer service at its best!

LH: You have a very unique sound, and one that isn’t particularly easy to categorise – the press release I got with the CD labelled you as “Hybrid Metal” so clearly the label aren’t too comfortable putting one particular tag to your sound, though Dimmu Borgir seem to be one comparison that gets thrown around a lot. I was wondering where you take most of your influence from?

Rasane: Hard to say. We all listen a quite different music. Some listens metal at most and some doesn’t. Apparently we just tear our influences from different sources. I personally like very much latino-drumming, somebody in SE may like latino-arses, but I’m not so sure about that…

LH: You’ve previously worked with Sami Jamsen, and with this album you had Tero Holopainen as producer. What made you want to work with a different producer for this album?

Rasane: Nowadays Sami doesn’t live in same town with us, so it would have gone into remote work at least with some parts. After talking with Tero we knew he would have some nice ideas and visions so we decided to try. And as the result is what it is, I think that wasn’t the last time to us by using Tero’s services. He really had some refreshing and wicked ideas into our songs!

LH: From what I understand, you recorded at Studio 33 because it was nearer to where you live. Were there any other reasons, and do you think the recording experience was any different to previous ones?

Rasane: Studio 33 is located just about 3 km from my home. The main reason was that – we had to go to work at the same time so it was above all practical thing to choice Studio 33.

Experince itself was pretty weird. Normally I lose my ability to play at recording sessions, but in those sessions that didn’t happen…

LH: Your tours seem to rarely venture outside of Finland. Do you have any plans to change that?

Rasane: Of course there’s plans. Lot of plans actually. But so far these plans has come crashing down. It would be great thing to get well-known in Europe and thus to get play there. Unfortunately these aren’t depending on the band itself so I guess waiting and kneeing is the only things we can do now.

LH: That’s all the questions I’ve got for now. Thanks for the interview and feel free to leave our readers with a final comment.

Rasane: Thank you! If somebody haven’t bought Zero Nexus yet, do it NOW! Spread the word and hopefully we’ll be able to see you in UK someday.

For more on the band check out http://www.shadeempire.com/
http://www.myspace.com/shadeempireband

Interviewed by Luci Herbert

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