I N T E R V I E W (Pete Ahonen - guitars and vocals)

Hello Pete and thank you for this interview for the French metal webzine http://www.auxportesdumetal.com. Well, first of all can you introduce the band?

Hello to you too and this is purely my pleasure : ) The band is Pekka Kolivuori / guitars, Jukka Jokikokko / bass, Jussi Ontero / keyboards, Jari Kaiponen / drums and me Pete Ahonen / vocals & guitars.

"Burned down the enemy" is your third release and the first one with Metal Heaven. What happened with your former label Limb Music?

Label manager ( from the label that initially licenced us to the Limb music ) tried to fuck us up big time. He tried to claim us a huge sums of money, he lied to others about us and talked trash behind our backs etc. Real motherfucker if you ask me! Thats why there is so many years between our releases, god knows how many albums we would have been released without that incident. Anyway, in the end we were force to make a new deal with LMP but they wanted to chance some clauses on this new contract and we didn't accepted that and we decided to left from the label.

I didn't know your band before writing the review of "Burned down the enemy" and it's great pleasure for me to discover your music. Can you describe it for the French metal fans ?

Oh, i'm glad that you've finally discovered us ! I think that the best and maybe only way to describe our music is, Melodic Heavy Metal.

Who did produce it? And where did you record it?

We produced it as a band. We record the album in Hellgate studios, mixing was done in Tonebox studios and the mastering in the famous Finnvox studios.

On this album, you do not hide your influences from the 80's. Helloween's "Walls of Jericho" and some Manowar stuff seem to be a reference for you, am I true?

Well, you know i'm a "kid of the 80's" so i think i can't hide them , even if i wanted to..which i don't ;=) Helloween and Manowar are great bands and if somebody hear their influences in our music thats great ! Although, there are many more to that list, Accept, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, Europe, Bon Jovi, Queensryche etc.

In my opinion, I think that your voice reminds me Roland Grapow on his first solo album. Who are your favourite singers ?

Ronnie J. Dio, Geoff Tate, Rob Halford, Oliver Hartmann, Tony Martin just to name a few...

Can you make a short song by song description?

1. Parasite / Great track that combines Symphony X, Yngwie and Judas Priest. I love that very "nasty " singing in the verses. Also huge refrain with lots of choir vocals. This is our opening song at the stage.
2. Heart of gold / Our most melodic track ever. Very 80's influenced guitar/keyboard riff and very sing-a-long chorus. We just made our new video from this song, i hope you will be able to see it. Are there any tv channels in there that shows metal videos...
3. Dawn of the ancient war / One of the new songs. Funny thing was that i planned this for a different band, but one of the guys said that this is a Burning Point track so, here it is : ) You can hear influences from Dio, Manowar and Bruce Dickinson in this one. Very "epic" sounding chorus and lots of harmony vocals.
4. Hell awaits / Fastest track we have ever done. I love those rhythmic changes in the verses so, it's not just a doublebass drum attack.
5. From the beginning of it all / I think this is our first "real" power ballad. Very 80's influenced with beautiful keyboards and harmony vocals in the chorus. Solo part gives this song a little harder edge which is very cool.
6. Icebound / Very heavy track with a epic and symphonic refrain. Again lots of harmony vocals in the chorus!
7. Deceiver / Little bit of Judas Priest and Yngwie Malmsteen in this one. Semi fast song. This is also a type of song we haven't done before. Great to play live...
8. Eye for an eye / I remember in one of the reviews someone said that: ..." A song that Iron Maiden would die for.." heh heh I think it sums this one up greatly :)
9. To hell and back / This is kind of Into the fire ( a song from our previous album Feeding the Flames ) part.2.
Also very cool "classical" piece in the beginning of the solo.
10. Against the madness of time / This is also one of the new tracks. In some review they said that this reminds Tarot, another Finnish band? I've always been a big Tarot fan so, maybe...?
11. Burned down the enemy / My opinion this is one of the "masterpieces" on the album. Also our longest and most progressive songs ever. Lots of different influences here, Yngwie, Helloween. Gamma Ray, King Diamond etc And what a great way to end this "fiery" saga, Salvation By Fire, Feeding The Flames and Burned Down The Enemy! Also one of the 2 tracks where i play bass : )

Lyrics are mixture of facts and fiction. I really don't want to explain them because i want that everybody could find their own stories behind them :)

You got some great heavy songs like "Heart of gold" and "Dawn of the ancient war" which are made for the stage. Did the audience better react with this kind of songs or with more speedy songs like "Parasite" and "Hell awaits"?

It depends on the audience, but usually of course those mid tempo songs are much easier to throw your fist in the air heh heh

Until now, what were the reactions of the fans and the medias?

It has been awesome. They still remember us : ) and we have gained a lots of new fans too!!

Do you have some touring plans?

Gigs in Finland yes, but as you know it is very expensive to travel etc i think we'll have to see...If the sales figures are good in Europe of course we're trying to organize some gigs...Unfortunately in this business it depends on the money. We would love to play all over the world !!

What do you think of the Internet ?

Basically a great thing, problem is that illegal downloading...But what can you do ?

Do you have any other hobbies except playing music ?

Reading books, watching movies, play with my dogs ;=)

I let you the final words...

First of all thank you for this interview ; =) And all the fans out there thanks for your support. All the metalheads that haven't heard us before, rush to the nearest record store and demand your copy of the new album !! Melodic Heavy Metal at it's best !!!