One of the hottest releases of the year just took place and it's the 14th album of German thrash masters Kreator, entitled ''Gods Of Violence''. We took the chance to discuss with guitarist Sami Yli-Sirnio, who was in a great mood due to the upcoming tour, we talked about his other bands, Waltari and Barren Earth and his newest work with Jimson Weed. Last but not least, he praised the Greek fans and promised to come back soon enough!
Rock Overdose: Welcome to Rock Overdose Sami. It's your 5th album with the band and the 14th for Kreator.How do you feel about this album? Give us some more details about it.
Sami Yli-Sirnio: Of course. Like you said, it's our 14th studio album and the mood is very good within the band, couldn't be better , the mood is on the ceiling I could say. And right now I'm here in Essen, I've been here for a couple of weeks already, we've been rehearsing the setlist for the upcoming
tour, it's been a nice time, and next Thursday we are going to play a little warm-up show in a little club in Berkley. Then the real tour starts from France, at the beginning of February and everybody's excited.
Rock Overdose: Is Greece on your touring list?
Sami Yli-Sirnio: This tour that was booked by Rock The Nations, is kind of short for a European tour, it's only a month, yet there are a lot of places we don't go to on that tour, so I suspect that we will be doing another tour, at last we are going to do some more shows in Europe, but I have to say that we will be doing another tour also in Europe at some point, but it's not for sure yet.First we're doing the small European tour and then we have one week off, then we go for the United States and then there are some festivals and then after that, probably some other shows. We have to come to Greece, of course, it's obvious , we always do with every album and we will do so this time as well.
Rock Overdose: From the tracks we've listened to so far, your new album sounds a lot faster and heavier than your latest two albums.
Sami Yli-Sirnio: Yes, I think so too. Especially when you think about songs like ''Totalitarian Terror'' or something like that. It's meant like that to show people that we're not getting old. There's a thrashing mayhem going on for sure! That was also the idea from the beginning. We cut any signs of mellowing down at this age yet.
Rock Overdose: What about your guitar influences? What has inspired you the most all these years?
Sami Yli-Sirnio: Well, I was around 13 or 14 years old and I got a guitar as a present, back when I was a kid from my grandfather, who was an artist , not a musician actually but a painter. At first , I just looked at it , what a beautiful instrument it is ,but I applied to the Helsinki Conservatory back then when I was around 14 or so, I got in and I studied classical music for a while when I was there. Of course, at some point when you are a teenager , especially leading at the end of the 80's you naturally become interested in metal also, in metal guitarists and classic rock like Zeppelin, Purple, Sabbath and all that stuff. Then I got more interested in the electric guitar, that's pretty much how it went and still be doing it after all these years.
Rock Overdose: Are there any guitarists or bands that got your attention?
Sami Yli-Sirnio: Well, of course. The world is full of amazing guitarists , especially the younger generation. When you see how they play their guitars sometimes you think ''wow! It's like the standards are getting higher and higher all the time''. But when I think of guitarists who I appreciate and look up to this , first comes to mind people who I've been touring with, like Jeff Loomis -Arch Enemy's guitarist- at the last tour.When I saw him warming up backstage I thought he was an amazing guitarist. And that guy from Opeth, Fredrik, is an amazing guitarist , absolutely brilliant!
But there are so many...
Rock Overdose: Are there going to be any new video clips for the album?
Sami Yli-Sirnio: Yes, actually next Friday (3/2). There is going to be a third video clip, like a third single from the album, called ''Totalitarian Terror'' and it's a kind of video trilogy and the last part will kind of explain the first two videos a little bit so wait until you see it. The idea behind all of the three videos is to show how the evil in men lives through times.
Rock Overdose: Are there any more news that you would like us to share concerning the band at the current moment?
Sami Yli-Sirnio: Well, the new album has 11 songs. We recorded 14 so three of them were left over, but we are going to release them somehow. Actually, one of them got released in the United States as a flexi disc, inside a magazine, that's probably on YouTube already, by now. But right now the main conceνtration is on the ongoing tour and we still have a pre-production day coming up like special FX for the live show and stuff like that.
Rock Overdose: What about your other bands, Barren Earth and Waltari?
Sami Yli-Sirnio: I'm not in the Waltari live line-up anymore. We played a show together last October because there was a kind of 30th anniversary gig going on. We had a lot of guests there, we had Dregen from Hellacopters, we had a classical string sextet and an opera singer so it was kind of bombastic, nostalgic evening , but I'm not going on tour with them always. But there's another band that I have released an album with , on October as well, the band is called Jimson Weed, you can find the album on Spotify, it's called ''Ghosts Of Kopli''. That's also a more or less a thing of the past, we did a kind of one-off show, because the album got finally released after 15 years. It was lost in the studio. And with Barren Earth, we're planning to do a new album as well , we're signed to Century Media right now and they gave us an option to do another album and we're still gonna try and find time during this year to record it and we already have the material there, so this is something to check out.
Rock Overdose: You seem to be so busy!
Sami Yli-Sirnio: Well, I'm a musician I don't know how to do anything else, so that takes the most of my time as always. It's what I like doing. Doing my best, being creative and try to put out new albums. If those people say it doesn't make any sense anymore in the world today, I think it does for me, because it gives me a kind of spiritual release. Music is a kind of friend for me. I don't know what else to do.
Rock Overdose: What about the thrash metal scene nowadays?
Sami Yli-Sirnio: There's so many good stuff happening everywhere all around. One funny thing about these days are all these young bands playing thrash metal, playing that kind of music that we do as well.
Almost feels like a retro movement to me, I mean from my own perspective, but what the hell! It's great, if it brings younger and younger kids to our shows as well , that are interested in our music too. So that's kind of nice about the metal scene. There are huge quantities of albums and even more shows happening all the time. I always see it as a good thing. I don't see any kind of competition or anything like that. It's a positive thing. It's a good way for people to use their talent. What could be better!
Rock Overdose: The last time you visited our country was for a festival in Chania. Many people travelled from all over the country to see you. What do you remember about it? Did you meet any extreme fans there?
Sami Yli-Sirnio: Yeah, I remember that show in Creta. The harbor over there is really beautiful. We had to wake up pretty early in the next day , but I didn't care, there was a nice bar where I met some people. But the show itself was the best part about it, I remember it was very windy , but it didn't matter, we gave it all we got. It was an old fortress next to the harbour, so the wind was even more extreme there. But it was a very nice experience. I would go back there any day!
Rock Overdose: Would you like to leave a message for the Greek fans?
Sami Yli-Sirnio: My message would be that I don't know the exact day that we are going to play in your beautiful country, but it will happen this year , in 2017 for sure. It'll have to . Last summer we've played in Creta but we haven't played in Athens and Thessaloniki for a really long time and we really want to do so, as soon as we can. And other than that..thank you for the inspiration!
https://youtu.be/1l6gsOrVL2c
For Rock Overdose
Zisis Petkanas
Tapescript
Dimitris Aloras
