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N A Z A R E N E W
I T H A F A X M A C H I N E
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CoC chats with Impaled Nazarene's Mika Luttinen
by:
Steve Hoeltzel
Imagine my surprise when I
tried to fax a set of questions to
Mika
Luttinen, owner of the
deranged throat which fronts this craziest
of
bands - and got his voice
coming out of my modem instead,
"Hello?...
Hello?" It's a
surprisingly deep voice, too,
especially when you
consider Mika's
throat-ripping high-end performance on
_Latex Cult_
(reviewed in CoC
#11), not to
mention the band's
three prior
full-length releases. Anyway,
we exchanged pleasantries for a (very
expensive) minute or two,
then fired up the faxes. And now, thanks to
the miracle of modern
communications technology, all you
Karmakeddon
Warriors out there can
check out what transpired
and read Mika's
report on current Impaled
activities.
CoC: What's new with the
band? How has the recent touring gone?
Mika Luttinen: Not much
happening; writing new songs. Touring's
been
okay. It has been great to play with Cannibal Corpse,
Immolation, Angel Corpse, and Gehennah.
CoC: What kind of
activities have you got planned for 1997?
ML: We will tour South
America in March. We'll do Chile,
Columbia,
Argentina, and Brazil. After that, no plans, except we'll
try to
get to Mexico before summer as well. Late 97: studio!
CoC: The latest update from
Osmose says that one of your concerts
in
Paris was sabotaged. What is the story there? Do you
know who
committed the sabotage, and why?
ML: Believe it or not,
until today I thought that we had
a normal
power break during the gig in Paris, but as I
just spoke with
Herve of Osmose,
it indeed was
caused by some
anti-Impaled
Nazarene people... My guess goes for some black metal nerds.
CoC: After _Suomi Finland
Perkele_, I was somewhat surprised
to see
the band return to the all-out aggression of earlier
releases.
What prompted this return? And how do you answer people
who say
that you were simply "playing it safe" by sounding
so extreme on
_Latex Cult_?
ML: The bottom line is that
Kimmo [Luttinen - Mika's brother and
the
band's former drummer] changed our style pretty much
after the
release of _Ugra-Karma_. It was his vision of
how we should
sound, and the rest of us weren't happy at all. It is useless
for
a band like us to try to be a copy of Danzig or fucking Paradise
Lost. So, after Kimmo was replaced, it was normal for us
to go
back to what we do best, i.e. play aggressive and fast metal.
I
guess you're referring to Metal Maniacs, where they said
we just
wanted to play it safe. If we wanted to play it safe, we would
be
doing fucking gothic metal or whatever, in the line of
"Blood Is
Thicker Than Water" from _Suomi Finland Perkele_. It was
one guy
who wanted to go a different way, and the rest
did not agree.
Nobody expected such a release as _Latex Cult_ from us
anymore,
but we fucking proved that we are still here, doing our thing
our
way. We can get only nastier.
CoC: You seem to approach
your band's lyrics and image with
a sense
of humour. Is that a fair assessment? What is your
opinion of
those who are (or claim to be) one hundred percent serious
about
all this black metal stuff?
ML: If somebody is one
hundred percent serious about
black metal,
then so what? It does
not bother us. Certainly there's
some
humour on our first three CDs, but on _Latex Cult_ there's none.
We were pissed off when we wrote it, and I think it shows.
Lots
of shit went down two months before we entered the studio, and
it
fucking shows.
CoC: I have read interviews
in which you describe yourself
as a
"cynical individualist." For the benefit
of readers who
may
think of Impaled Nazarene as a bunch of
devil-worshippers, or
whatever, could you please explain what you mean
by cynical
individualism?
ML: A better term would
actually be "fucking asshole", but anyway, I
see the whole band as individualists, as we do not belong to
or
support any political or religious movement or organization. We
have come this far by being ourselves, and that's what I'm proud
of! We never
kissed ass or
jumped the next
trend or sold
ourselves out. For sure, we would have a way bigger
following if
we had been into "evil guys and their doings", but
we did not
fucking care about them.
CoC: The year 2000 will
soon arrive. How does the future
look, from
your own perspective?
ML: Things are starting to
boil up, I guess.
CoC: What would the next
hundred years look like, if
Sir Luttinen
were in charge?
ML: Sir Luttinen is
actually a name my brother (our ex-drummer) uses.
[Oops! My mistake. - Steve] If I were in charge, it would
be the
end of Greenpeace and all things green. Cement or nothing.
CoC: If you could be born
again during any past period of
history,
what period would you choose, and why?
ML: I prefer present over
past, so I am just happy here, thank you.
CoC: What sort of thing
have you been listening to lately?
ML: Nothing but my own
guitar playing, as the last three weeks I have
been composing new songs - speaking of which, everybody check
out
the forthcoming _World Domination II_ CD by Osmose, as it has
a
brand new Impaled Nazarene track on it.
CoC: When all is said and
done, how would you like Impaled Nazarene
to be remembered?
ML: As a cult band - but I
do hope this won't happen for a long, long
time.