MOUTHY ISSUE TWO
May 2003
EVEMASTER
interview by Ian C Stewart

Finnish melodic dark metal duo Evemaster made its recorded debut with the 1997 demo In Thine Majesty, which sold around two thousand copies. They followed that with their first full-length album Lacrimae Mundi in 1998.

The duo is recording its new album Wither (Low Frequency Records) with help from a few friends on the sessions, like Jaska Raatikainen (Children of Bodom) on drums, Anssi Kippo (Astia Studio owner) on synths, Mika Lindberg (Cradle Of Filth, Mortiis, Colonian) on clean vocals and Satanic Warmaster (SW, ex-Horna) on guest vocals.

Evemaster formed in 1996 when Tomi Mykkänen asked Jarno Taskula to provide vocals to the instrumentals he wrote. "I had the idea for melodic yet dark metal band for some time but in autumn 1996 I really started doing songs in that vein. I asked Jarno to lend his vocal cords for the project."

The name Evemaster came "somehow from the Entombed song "Eyemaster." I read that kinda wrong and thought it said Evemaster. Then I realized that a was pretty good and original band name."

Songwriting-wise, Mykkänen does the music and Taskula does the vocals. "I make all the music myself. I compose most of the stuff on guitar and then I do the drums and all the other instruments on my computer. This is the way I demo the songs and usually I make them so definitive that the album versions are pretty much the same as the demos."

Mykkänen still hails the classics of metal. "My first album was Iron Maiden the Number of the Beast, and they've been my favorites since then. Dio has also been a favorite. Ronnie is the man and Vivian was awesome back then. At The Gates and Katatonia have both been favorites in metal. Katatonia's Dance Of December Souls and a bottle of vodka was the way to go when I was seventeen! King Diamond was also very cool when Abigail, Conspiracy and the Eye came out."

Evemaster is still a new live act though. "We played two gigs so far and they were in Poland. Now it seems that Low Frequency is going to make us gig so I have to start finding session musicians. The biggest show so far has been Metal Mania Festival in Poland in May 1999. The headliner was supposed to be Death but due to Chuck's condition back then they were unable to do it. But there were other big names like Samael, Grip Inc, Anathema, Lacuna Coil, and Vader."

How about a Finnish band story to finish with? "Hah! Kan jag ha toilet?"


www.evemaster.net


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