altFinnish party metal troupe have regrouped with a new lead singer and a brand new record which will have you sing along until the wee hours on any festival this summer. Lead guitar player Anton Kabanen shouts it out loud with us.

Things have gone really fast for you ever since you won the Metal Battle at Wacken. Has it been one hell of a rollercoaster ride?
Yeah, none of us expected that kind of a beginning for our career. It's always the combination of things that gets you to your destination. Metal Battle alone wouldn't have been enough but anyway it was a big step forward. Many great experiences followed soon after that.

You’ve been on 2 rather high profile tours already, first with Nightwish and then with Sonata Arctica. What were your experiencces there? Any interesting stories?

Both tours were pure dynamite! We love living on the road and playing live. It's hard to highlight any specific moments because both tours were filled with fun and good moments. The overall flow was great. You can get a glimpse of our tour with Nightwish on our tour blogs. Here's the first part :

It gets only better and better when you get to the third part!


What’s the next big goal for you: a headlining tour of your own?

Indeed, that would be something we want to do. At the moment we have one European tour coming up as a support act for Powerwolf. The tour begins September 26th and it includes 18 shows.


What happened to your original lead singer Nitte Valo?

It was solely her decision to leave the band. I had no idea of her intentions of leaving. She just sent me an e-mail out of the blue and that was it. After that we never saw her. Basically she just ran away from the band so we don't care what the reason for her departure is, even if there's a super good reason. The point is that if you wanna leave a band you should do it in a respectful manner towards the remaining members of the band. But luckily things turned out to be even better than before after we found Noora.


How did you hook up with the new vocalist Noora Louhimo?
I found Noora through YouTube just by sheer luck. She was singing a Janis Joplin cover and I was pleasantly surprised. I was looking for a singer who could sing everything that I write for her/him and after I heard Noora I knew I could stop the search. We had a short but straight-to-the-point conversation on the phone and the next morning she calls me back to tell that she's willing to fill the boots of the lead singer. And before we knew she was already recording the new Battle Beast songs in the studio and getting ready for the European tour we had coming up as a support act for Sonata Arctica.


You’ve essentially recorded yourselves without the help of an outside producer. Are you well at home of all the technical aspects of a recording studio?

Yes, I was the main producer and Janne was the co-producer. On our previous album we didn't have the chance to concentrate on getting only the best results and we simply didn't have enough time. This time we could do anything we wanted and we made the album sound closer to what we want it to sound like, unlike on the first one. So we're definitely happier with the results of "Battle Beast". But it was a hard way because we learned a lot through constant trial and error. We have never produced an album before. Now we are well prepared for the making of the third album.


In my opinion your music works out best live on stage with one beer in your hand and the other fist in the air. What do you prefer, recording songs or playing them live?

I love to play live. Studio work can be so boring and slow. So definitely live is more fun. But listening to a record is always cool, too. It's just that I've heard all of the new songs in the studio about a million times.


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