CRYPTIC HATRED - FINLAND
Internal Torment - 2024 - Time To Kill |
Members Vocals Disguised Malignance, Gorefixion, HappoSurma>>EEMIL LAJOMA>>Disguised Malignance, Gorefixion, HappoSurmaGuitar Gorefixion, HappoSurma>>EEMIL LAJOMA>>Gorefixion, HappoSurma - HappoSurma, Krusifoitu>>Jami Lamio>>HappoSurma, Krusifoitu, Demonic Torment - Stahlhelm, Gorekaust, Eradication Of The Unworthy Infants>>JOONAS HONKANEN>>Eradication Of The Unworthy InfantsBass MISKA HAGELBERGDrum TATU SAVES |
History & Biography The band appeared with its debut demo, entitled Free From The Grave, in 2020. Cryptic Hatred was founded by a group of four school friends in 2019. The gang was influenced by the Florida death metal sound.Nocturnal Sickness was released by The Other Records in Q1 2022. The group had already played Helsinki Death Fest in 2021. Guitarist Jami Lamio left in 2023. Cryptic Hatred used Joonas Honkanen for live work. Time To Kill Records signed Finland-based death metal band Cryptic Hatred. The band released a full-length album, entitled Internal Torment, in July 2024. In the meantime, there was a mini-tour with Azatoth in Finland in the spring, which was dubbed Blasphemous Torment Over Finland. The two had played a Halloween Party in 2023 as well. The act was also booked for the Helsinki Death Fest. The band announced a couple of concerts opening for October Tide and Shade Empire and then seemingly overlapping dates opening for Wolfheart in Finland for late summer/early autumn of 2024. In the meantime, there was an album release concert with Rats Will Feast and Kuvotus. The group called its music "Mesmerizing Cryptic Metal." Reviews CRYPTIC HATRED - INTERNAL TORMENT - TIME TO KILL Interviews Finland has a lot to answer for as far as heavy metal goes. Whether it is running a folk band masquerading as metal or a pop act pretending to be heavy; be it a band with a kantele, a sitar and a saxophone posing as being a serious proposition or recording the ever-cliched cover version of a chart-topping pop/dance tune and headbanging to it, the country has done more than any other to sully the name and identity of heavy metal. One would be forgiven for noticing a band’s Finnish origin and quickly flipping the page. That is the sort of damage this land has inflicted on itself, and the music of the gods, over the years. Nevertheless, Finland has always had a minority of bands that have both been serious and seriously metal. Albums like Slumber Of Sullen Eyes, Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz…, World Of Myths, The Winterlong… and Black Church are superlative and from that country, but for every such album there have been twenty kilos of pretender crud making the Metallian Towers knights crying with laughter. A sense for irony is not on the curriculum, whatever it is that they teach at elementary schools in Finland (triangles, synthesisers and flute?). This is why it would have been habitual to ignore Cryptic Hatred given how the press release betrayed the origin of the act as Finland. That, as it happens, would have been a mistake. Cryptic Hatred and its 2024 album Internal Torment has turned out more than fine. Ali “The Metallian” got hold of singer and guitarist Eemil Lajoma to investigate. - 01.07.2024 METALLIAN: Eemil, thank you for your time and giving us an interview. The band is still young so we should ask where you guys came from and how the band was founded. EEMIL: Thank you for having us. We founded the band back in high school and started by playing covers of songs we liked in our school’s music classroom in 2019. METALLIAN: Were you all school friends? EEMIL: The original line-up consisted of a friends’ group from school. Our school was called Urheilupuiston Koulu in Klaukkala, just north of Helsinki. METALLIAN: Cryptic Hatred is a serious band with seriously good metal. Finland, at Metallian Towers, is generally considered a wimpy country with barely any metal. Every 'metal' band has keyboards and sings about folk crap. How come you get it right? EEMIL: Folk metal doesn’t really resonate with anyone in the band. Our goal since the start has been to deliver punch-in-the-nuts death metal with some mesmerising twists. METALLIAN: What made you different from everybody else? EEMIL: I guess what makes us different is the fact that we're just being ourselves. We don't dress the typical "metal head" way and we don't have a full-on death metal aesthetic. We utilise samples, sound effects and synthesizers in our music, and also we have very rhythmic patterns almost like in hip-hop. We have our own style and we want to be different from the masses, I think that definitely has something to do with it. METALLIAN: The band's publicity emphasises the 'Florida' inspirations and influences. Quizzically, my ears found a lot more than the Florida sound going on with Cryptic Hatred. Thoughts? EEMIL: We love the classic ‘90s’ death metal sound and you can probably hear it on our first demo, which was called Free From The Grave from 2020. After the demo came out people started comparing us to Cannibal Corpse. It was exciting to hear people compare us to our heroes, but we also wanted to create our own sound and be known for something original. Our influences come from our own taste in music. We listen to anything from rap to metal and anything in-between. METALLIAN: Could you compare your new album, Internal Torment, with your 2022 debut, Nocturnal Sickness? Would you describe the two albums as similar? EEMIL: I think you can compare the two, but our sound has definitely changed since then. I feel like we’ve taken huge strides forward in terms of songwriting, which in my opinion is responsible for the new depth our music has. The lyrics on Internal Torment have a much deeper meaning, as it focuses a lot on self-reflection and personal development through hardship. Nocturnal Sickness on the other hand is more themed around murder, zombies and all the ‘nice’ death metal stuff. METALLIAN: It looks like the band deliberately and consciously has inserted at least one medley or extraneous element into each and every song. Whether a keyboard part or a whisper, etc. each song gets at least one. Did we get this right? EEMIL: You got that right! We wanted to add some spice to the songs with all kinds of cool atmospheric effects. It goes very well with our live shows, since we use all kinds of ambient sounds to make our live experience feel and sound better than ever. METALLIAN: There are a few tasteful and adept leads on the album. The question becomes why so few and why are the few so short if you are so capable? Is it you or Joonas who delivers the guitar leads? EEMIL: Our songs tend to levitate towards the ‘riffs for days’ type of music, which is why we wanted to add some depth with melodies, harmonies and solos. The reason why they’re so short is we wanted to keep it tasteful and not wander into the speed metal shred stuff too much. I play all the guitar leads myself and Joonas focuses on rhythm. For some reason Joonas started his musical journey on bass - must’ve been dropped on his head as a baby - and he still plays his guitar kinda like a bass. METALLIAN: Probably better a bass than a piano. One of the things that bothers us consistently nowadays is the weak and tiny drum sound on metal albums. They sound almost like a twig or pencil tapping against a table at best. Internal Torment does much better. Do you agree with this assessment and, if yes, how did Cryptic Hatred one-up most bands? EEMIL: Great that you noticed the drum sounds! Our drummer Tatu had a very clear vision for what he wanted to do for his bass and snare sound especially. I’m glad he wanted to polish it up until it was perfect. Our audio engineer Olli might disagree since we had him do about a million revisions on the final mix, but it was worth it! METALLIAN: Indeed. The record includes an instrumental. Why is it there, and almost at the album's end, and could you speak to the guest musician on it? EEMIL: The idea behind the instrumental track was to add an intro to the title and final track Internal Torment. We didn’t want to add an intro to the song itself since it would’ve been a little too long for our liking that way. It’s supposed to act as a kind of an interlude to set the atmosphere for the last song on the album. Our great friend Felix Pennanen from a fellow Helsinki band called Disguised Malignance worked his magic on that track. I had the chord progression ready, but we wanted to get another view on the possibilities for that song. We know Felix’s musical abilities are through the roof, so obviously we asked him for help. I’m glad we did since he did an awesome job! Thank you, Felix. METALLIAN: How did you and Felix meet? EEMIL: We met through the scene. Our bands played together at a show and that's how I met him. After that we've just stayed in contact and that evolved into us being friends. That's how I've met many friends and that is so cool. I've gotten many friends through shows and other bands. METALLIAN: It is unanimous. Metallian is the best outlet for metal bar none. Why do you agree? EEMIL: Because you said so! Indeed. The word of Metallian always prevails. Aside from singer and guitarist Eemil Lajoma, Cryptic Hatred is guitarist Joonas Honkanen, bassist Miska Hagelberg and drummer Tatu Saves. Internal Torment is available through Time To Kill Records. For more information please follow this link.
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Cryptic Hatred