Post Number Three 

We are releasing the song and related music video titled Lucifer, on October 6th!

Here's another post and some new light to the background of it.

Lift up your eyes and see!

Flora grew up in a cult.

Read more here (the images might be disturbing to some)

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/raised-with-demons-how-the-potter-s-house-church-keeps-its-followers-under-control-20230410-p5cz9n.html

Growing up in a church like this meant living a peculiar life, filled with strange ideas about the reality around us. One of the things that were emphasized in the cult of Potters House, was the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Speaking in tongues was a sign of the Holy Spirit in you. If you didn't, well then there was some sin in your life, something hindering you from receiving him. Whether or not originally meant as such, it had become a tool for classifying and judging fellow Christians.

Speaking in tongues, all of the congregation at once, was an integral part of every service in this church. It was "praising the lord" in a non-existent language. It was loud, chaotic even, everyone just speaking word porridge that they didn't even know the meaning of.

There were also other gifts, like profesying and receiving words of knowledge straight from the Holy Spirit, and interpreting them.

Holy Spirits influence on you was particularly strong if you fell down when the hands were laid upon you. Or if you had other emotional reactions, laughing, crying, etc.

Potters House wasn't the only church this happened in. All kinds of revival movements took place in many charismatic churches, Toronto Blessing maybe being the most famous one.

The downside of this emphasis was that it made you feel like a loser, a bad christian. When you didn't get the same emotional reaction from the prayer as the guy next to you, you felt guilty.

When they touched your forehead and said "fire!" expecting you to fall down, and you didn't, you started wondering what was wrong with you. And you grew weary of all the expectations. Weary of the constant demand of being on fire for the Lord.

So, somewhere along the way, something started to break. Something inside you started rising...

And you'll hear all about it in our next release...

Photo by @jasual_audio_visual

New Release coming soon! And it's About Cult Life Again...

Before our next release is announced and the name revealed, some context and back ground is in order. I have done a series of posts on Instagram about this, specifically about growing up in a Charismatic Christian church, or as outsider definitely would call it, a cult. I'll share the posts here as well, and probably some more will come. 

Here you go!

Open Your Eyes to the Revelation!

Photo by @jasual_audio_visual

Did you know that Flora was raised in a cult?

"The church I grew up in was part of an American Evangelical Christian movement called The Christian Fellowship Ministries, or Potter's House Christian Fellowship. They emphasized obedience to your pastor, heavy commitment to the church, spreading the word/converting people," gifts of the spirit" like speaking in tongues, and giving your money to the church."

Read more here (the images might be disturbing to some)

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/raised-with-demons-how-the-potter-s-house-church-keeps-its-followers-under-control-20230410-p5cz9n.html

"Obedience was the first and foremost requirement in this church. They didn't even send their young pastor candidates to bible school, but thaught them themselves, pastor to pastor. This way the head of a new church was always subject to his 'mother church'.
Obedience was ensured by requiring heavy attendance from the church members: there were two services on Sunday, one on Wednesday, and there was Saturday 'outreach' and morning prayer meetings.

Shunning, cutting of contact to members who left or somehow rebelled, was also one of the methods of control. Questioning your pastor and things like academic education (which would teach you to question things) were frowned upon.

What I learned through the up-bringing inside this kind of church, was to be obedient in an unhealthy way, and not to question matters of faith.

Coming out of the cult mindset and the process of rejecting the lies was a long journey, taking several years, a few crisis and turning points. Rejecting the lies I was taught and the lies I told my self, was crucial."

And the story of that rejection is the subject of our next song and music video.

Flora

 Gigs and Video

Now that the darkness and cold is already upon us and soon Halloween will open the door the realm of death season, it's a perfect time to reflect on the past year. Useful for everyone, but in here, I'll just dwell on the events of the band. 

It's been quite a good year, especially with live events. Even when the epidemic was still holding us hostage and preventing gigging for many, there were more chances for us to play than any of the previous years. It's quite remarkable. I'll even go as far as saying that this year has been a defining one in that respect.

First, there was Turku Band Festival, which we were already chosen to the previous year, only that time it was a streamed event, as no live audience was allowed. Because of Covid, just as a reminder. So this year we were able to participate live, in a small venue near Turku. There was a reasonable amount of people, considering the circumstances: One band had had to cancel due to illness. 

At this time I had also started arranging a gig to Helsinki, at Hard Rock House, so I asked that band to join us. So, in March we had a live event at hard Rock House, with Grand Sorceress. It was their first appearance live. I had also asked a Turku/Helsinki based band, The UFO Cult to join us, but they were unable to, at such a short notice. But their lead singer dropped in anyway, and we had a nice little chat. The few people who were there, on a quiet Thursday night, seemed to like what they heard.

Even when we had a little problem with our lap top, and our synth tracks would not play... Unfortunately we were unable to arrange a more well known local band to the event, who would have attracted more people. But there are always some curious music lovers, who come to check out new bands just for the fun of it. I like to do that every now and then as well..

Turns out The UFO Cult were arranging a live event for the summer, at Bar Loose, and us and Grand Sorceress seemed to fit well with their stuff. So, there would be another Helsinki gig for Hateful Chains, this time in the center. But before that, there was Monsters of Turku. 

We've been arranging this event with our drummer for several times now during these past years, this time, we scheduled it for May 14th at Utopia Club, Turku. Again, getting bands to come wasn't easy, reason being maybe the after math of the epidemic, which meant many bands were not in shape to play live yet. But Ultra Noir, our trusted friends who've joined us several times already, agreed to come. Then, I contacted an Indie band from Turku and just asked them to come. Because that's what I apparently like to do, and I actually liked one of their songs. So, we had a Monsters of Turku-event with Ultra Noir and Tender Lakes. 

A successful event with the audience with us from start to finish. We tested a few new songs from  the up-coming album and they were received well. Like a hot knife in butter... The advertisement I decided to put into the vent seemed to work out as well: One person from the audience told me they came all the way from Tampere to see us, which really warmed my heart. 

Next stop, Helsinki: In July we had the event with Grand Sorceress and The UFO Cult, which actually started to feel like a normal live night. Like they used to be. A dark cellar packed with people, all three bands with incredible energy and drive. Now this was that something we'd been missing for these last two years! The only down side was that we had a half an hour playing time, which meant we played in a bit of a hurry. But, we rocked anyway!

These pictures by Arto Alho

After this successful night we agreed with the another bands that we would try to arrange a night with the same bands to Turku. That would be a first gig in hometown for both Grand Sorceress and The UFO Cult. That chance came by in last September. I asked the local club for a free date, and it just happened that there was one available on September third. So we quickly decided to take that chance and have a three-band night at Turkus Utopia Club. We organized the event all together and went through the trouble of contacting all the media we could think of, like the local papers who made a story about UFO Cult, and Imperiumi, who make gig reports. We also marketed the event the best we could. The result was quite satisfying: familiar audience, but also first-timers to see us,  media personnel, and Imperiumis reporter who wrote a totally great review about the happening! And this time we played last, so we took full advantage of the time we had..

So, not a bad year, and hopefully next one will be a whole lot better!

Next, as you may have noticed, Crimson Sun music video came out on October 13th. We were quite happy to have its first ensiesitys on Sonic Seducer magazines web page! And it has already received such positive feedback! It's all thanks to the people who participated in making of the video, it's their performance, dancing and art that gave the video its spirit and atmosphere. 

There were some set backs in the production of it, which in the end were the reason for its delay. Because of course we shot it already a year ago, in October, on a beautiful beach surrounded by formidable rocks and dark woods. The theme of the setting sun in the song was reflected in the video and continued with a fire and the fire arts. The continuation of the theme could be seen in the candles in the scenes of the woman bathing, which activity is also mentioned in the song. The bathing scenes were possible to shoot only in January, which delayed the video in the first place. But, having shot everything at the start of the year seemed to be decently in time. 

So, the fire elements combined with the element of water gave the video enough structure and coherence to make it a rather good one, but originally I had planned to add some 3d- after effects after all the scenes were in order. Turns out this was more complicated than I knew. The person who first had agreed to create the after effects suddenly backed out and we were on our own...

I couldn't find a professional who would have enough time to do the effects, not in my social circles, not among people who knew people, not on-line either. Maybe the reason was that I had somewhat unreasonable expectations on what could be done as after effects? I guess I'll never know. On-line they said it's possible, but after all, no body had time to do them. I later heard from a person in film industry that there is a lack of professionals in that field here in Finland. So that perhaps explains something.

But what I've learned from this, is that everything must be planned better.  The video material must be good enough to not need any after effects. That is location, costumes, make-up and lights and first and foremost, a skillfull person behind the camera. Which I think we've had in both previous videos. Yeah, all that eats money. If not money, then time. Usually both! That's why it'll take some time before the next video will be shot. I'm already planning it and preparing costumes, already have one of two or three locations, have a make-up artist...and we have the next track ready. Just you wait

Here's Crimson Sun, if you haven't seen it yet :)

https://youtu.be/qWvO4zpkbsM

All the love and candle light for the rest of your year, Flora

 New Song and Video

We've been silently but relentlessly working on a new track and a musicvideo. The video is now on Youtube and the track on Bandcamp, probably soon on other platforms as well. It's been another unique journey with the music, recording and the process of video making.

Witnesses popped as a mocking, children's tune-like melody into my head, singing "We are God's organisation..." and developed from there, first into lyrics, then on a music sheet. I didn't have a clear picture of the guitars, like I usually do, just the vocals, chords and that it had to have this "tribal" beat, like in many punkish songs. So we processed the structure and basic elements with Kimmo until we had something to present to others, and the whole band took it from there. So the music is made by the whole band rather than just me alone, which is what I'm keen to develop further.

"Witnesses" continues the themes heard in "Crimson Sun". It's about Jehovah's witnessess, pretty directly so. The lyrics and ideas to this and many other songs were formed after my encounter and discussions with the Witnesses, and it was part of my own journey out of religion and faith. These discussions were eye opening, they helped me to see the problems of my own belief system, the religion I had been brought up with, and how cult-like that environment had actually been.

Jehovah's Witnesses are widely recognised as a cult, an organisation formed around an ideology, that attempts to control the lives of it's members on multiple levels. This is nowadays recognised in psychology as well, as more and more cult survivors are speaking out and bringing out their knowledge and experience to that field. If you have ever wondered why e g. Jehovah's Witnesses do what they do, why they dress certain way (they do have rules for that too...) why they make certain life choices other people wouldn't necessarily do, well, it's all because of the control of the ideology they follow. And, I would argue, also peer pressure. How ever peaceful and loving these people are, they are in a cult and in a mental prison. 

You can find out more about in here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP-tuAT9_3khttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP-tuAT9_3k

It's a great channel if you want to find out about more about Jehovah's Witnesses through an ex-member.

"Witnesses" is an attempt to describe the cult mentality and cognitive dissonance the people inside cults have. It's about Jehovah's Witnesses but it really could be about any cult, or anyone under the heavy veil of propaganda, like people in certain states, for example... The thought patters are very similar in any fringe religion and cult. The idea of being the only group that has the truth, that there is no salvation outside that group, the idea that you should give up your time to the organisation, that this life is not important anyway, only the next... 

Another level in the lyrics, which we also incorporated in the video, is the mental gymnastics people in cults constantly have to do to keep their world view and themselves together. All the information from outside, that questions their idelogy, have to be kept at bay or worked around. All the questions that rise up from within have to be locked away and twisted into something that fits the tight box of that ideology. This is why, in cults, outside influence, like TV, social media etc are frowned upon, and regular attendance to the groups meetings is encouraged, even forced. 

And, one more thing, it can be forced. The thought and behaviour control can be enforced. Although cults will love bomb you to get you in, and embrace you and welcome you in their midst, they are also prepared to turn their backs to you, if you don't behave. They will leave you to starve for the love they withheld from you, and die of loneliness. It's not always in the rulebook to shun misbehaving members, but in the case of Jehovah's Witnesses, it's a practice they base on the Bible itself.

Of course, there are people that are happy in these kinds of groups, those that really believe in the cause, some of them maybe seeing the opportunity for power. Others are not happy, and they are the ones leaving. They would rather suffer the shutting out of the group than be in that mental prison. I haven't personally been shut out from a group, (my church was, but that's another story) but I do count myself in as a cult survivor. As that, it is not my intention to just mock cult people, rather, I hope that through this process of making songs about this subject, I'll be able to understand them better and have more compassion. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xqpl3I8HWU

The video was shot  a while ago at a studio after a regular work day, where we recorded most of the instruments too. There are even some additional guitars of mine in there! We also used archive material from Finnish tv archives. They were free to use and we found some material about dancing and women's gymnastics in unison, which really fit to the theme. There are a couple of bits from a women's self defense course. The archive material is from the fifties and sixties, so our final artistic desicion was to turn everything into black and white and add some graininess to the studio bits as well, to fit it with the archive ones. The end result is quite satisfying, in my opinion. Hopefully you have enjoyed it as well!

Flora

 Live Giggin!

                                       

Live venues have been opening one by one here in Turku, Finland. First there were still some restrictions but even those last ones have now been removed. So every band has around here has been busy asking around for gig opportunities, and we have done our part. This month we have not one, but two live gigs, one we already had at Turku band Festival on March 19th and the other will be at Hard Rock House, Helsinki, on 31th March. Finally some action, finally out of town! We've been waiting for this!

As you may be aware, the work to get gigs starts months, sometimes a year ahead before the actual show date. In this case too. Turku Band Festival usually announces it's application process in October and the bands are chosen by the end of November. The festival was supposed to be held in January, like it always is, but because of the corona situation not being that good it got postponed. Luckily, the new date fit all our schedules. That is not self evident, since all of us have other music projects as well. 

Come March, it seemed like the situation would be better, at least when it came to vaccinations: more people covered. But the number of actual cases has been quite high, it's just that the disease itself isn't that serious or risky anymore for most people. Still, if you catch it, you stay home. So, the date of the festival was kept but two bands out of four actually cancelled due to illness. There was only us and Turku based Metal Band Rahko playing. Despite that there were people enough to fill the place, and even though the place itself was a bit remote. 

We played first, had a blast! The sound guy knew what he was doing. (and there was a sound guy!) We heard everything quite clearly to the stage and there were no complaint from the audience either. The set we had formed included a few new songs, so there was an element of surprise and excitement for us too. All went well and was over too soon! The only thing that went wrong was a pick that flew out of my fingers at the very last minute while playing Siouxsie on the Beach! Oh well, continued with hands only then...

Rahko was a full-on Metal band, a lot of influences from Black Metal (to my ears at least) with the female vocalist growling in Finnish. Incredible concept! It was all very well thought, energetic, aggressive music, sometimes adding beautiful clean vocal lines into the mix. The vocalist was very talented, in my opinion. I don't know how to really growl, I just sometimes use the false chords as a spice up to the vocals. But judging on how her clean vocals sounded right after growling and her speech after the gig, she knew her stuff! No sign of fatigue what so ever. Impressive! Alas, and unfortunately, they announced just at the end of the show, that this was her last one with them. Hopefully they'll all find the path that's right for them. It's just a bit sad to see a good thing end...

Anyway, Thank you Rahko, for allowing us to use your equipment and being there with us! We hope to see you around in the Turku live music scene! And Thank you Turku Band Festival for having us! We'd love to participate again!

So, next week we'll play at Roihuvuori, Helsinki, at a place called Hard Rock House. We asked about their Thursday Club slots maybe a year ago already, but then the restrictions kept many venues from opening. Even when these were at times lifted, all the venues just couldn't take the risk, having to arrange everything with the corona passes etc. So I had settled for nothing probably happening. but then they returned to us out of blue and suggested a slot 31th March. Yess! We asked around and got another band to join us: Grand Sorceress, a Turku based Fuzz Rock/Doom band. Since they had to cancel the festival this will be their debut gig! Makes me really happy to be able to help!

I hope you'll all just swarm Roihuvuori next Thursday! We'll have CD's for sale and we'll rock your socks off! And we have new material, so if you want to hear those new pieces, be there!

Love Flora/ Hateful Chains

 

                                    Yölento - Night Flight

Last week, on Valentine's Day, our first cover release came out on Bandcamp and all the other platforms. It's received a nice bit of attention, seeing as we did it of a Finnish song and in Finnish language as well. Onyx Music Reviews kindly wrote a praising piece about it, which you can read here:

https://onyxmusicreviews.com/2022/02/14/hateful-chains-yolento/

We've been working on this song for quite some time, so it was really nice to see the outcome and the fruit it hopefully will bear.

Yölento- project started out as a collaboration of just the two of us, Kimmo and me, but in the course of time we decided to make it a Hateful Chains release, partly because of the possible attention it might gather on the Finnish music scene, partly just for the fun of it, just to give out some ear candy while you wait for the next album and it's main single releases. We've been thinking out and processing ideas for other covers as well, so you'll probably hear about them at some point.  

The original song is written and composed by Juice Leskinen, one of the most important songwriters and especially lyricists in Finnish pop-music history. It was the title song on Juice Leskinen Grand Slam's album 1986 album Yölento. There were other songs that were hits, played on the radio and engraved in the minds of Finnish people for decades to come, but the title song wasn't such a piece, maybe because of it's length? I appreciate Juice's lyrics and talent in making catchy songs, but of course this album or his music in general doesn't represent the Goth aesthetic or mindset in any way. He's more a representative of the general Finnish style of pop-music.

But there was something about this song. Something in it reminded me of eightie's Post Punk or New Wave. It might have been something as so seemingly insignificant as the snare drum sound, which immediately took me to the soundscapes of  The Cure's slower and more melancholy songs. It might have been the repeating and, in the end, quite simple melodies, building up a song structure often found in afore mentioned band's songs too. It might have been the synth sounds, which were of course very eighties. Perhaps it was the combination of it all that just echoed the influences of the key music to my beloved genre. What ever it was, it spoke to me at a very deep level, and most of all due to the lyrics.

Yölento, or Night Flight, describes an aviator, or the poet himself as I have interpreted. He is out there,  flying over the night skies, in the turmoils of the world. He doesn't know which way is up, he's lost himself in the atmosphere of a whiches mount. Will there ever be a painless night? Will the work continue? Will we still be marching to peace and war, like soldiers? He ponders, and in the end, he just wants to rest in the lap of his lover. The word "rest" is repeated in the refrain in every verse, which to me emphasizes it's weight and meaning. It's one of the most beautiful thoughts I can imagine, that in your partners arms you rest and are relieved from all your woes, for a moment. 

So in the end, the reason we wanted to make this cover, was because it was a personal favourite. What better reason? So, we set out as a duo recording a favourite song, but further in the process we decided that it should be a HC release after all, and all players should be included. That meant all the instruments would be recorded by their players. And that's what we did: Drums were recorded in the drummer's cellar, literally, the bass and it's solo-part in our eight-floor-studio, as well as Guitars and my Vocals. Additional vocals were recorded by Kimmo and Ikke (the bass player), to give the choir parts a little more depth. We also knew musicians from the clasical music field in Turku, so we were able to record timpani with the kind assistance of our friend Olli Lehti, a percussionist. In my opinion, that gave the song a little extra something. 

For the cover image I chose to modify a picture of Otto Lilienthal, who was the father of both aviation and gliding. The Wright brothers based their work on his findings, at least that's what I found out reading about him. He tried out his inventions himself and sadly died as result of these experiments. So, I chose his character to represent the aviator, the poet or dreamer of this song. 

Our record label, Danse Macabre Records kindly released this song for us, and now that it's out there, I hope it will be the ear candy we sought to make it, while recording and processing of album number two still continues. So, thank you Danse Macabre!

Just before the release we also received news that Adrienne LaVey, the Youtuber who goes by the name Ligea Resurrected, had uploaded her review of our first album on our channel. It was marvelous, very analythic and a very praising review. I was quite beside myself, in a good way! I really enjoyed hearing someone describing our music from a listeners point of view, really getting it and also interpretting some things in way I hadn't even thought about. 

I'm very thankful for her doing this. It's not easy to get heard or seen even in the marginal scene of Goth music, so the work these influencers do is invaluable to all the small bands out there. So, thank you Adrienne! And thank you also Adele Sinnamon, of Onyx Music reviews, for giving a song in Finnish language such attention!

Yours, Flora

 Plunge into the year 2022

Ok, so the start of the year hasn't been that great, pandemic-wise. Cases have been on the rise so badly, that venues have closed and events have been cancelled. Same old, all over again. I don't know what to think anymore. It seems like a never ending cycle. Spring and summer comes and things get eased up again, venues open, people go to gigs like they used to. Come fall and winter, everything escalates into that miserable limbo where nothing happens and you just wait. Like winter wouldn't be like that already, without the pandemic!

This whole thing has had an effect on us as group. It feels like endless waiting. We are working to advance the music, the possibilities and chaces to play live, but it all seems to be happening in a slower pace. We have to work regular jobs, of course, like everyone else. That takes it's toll, now more than usual, because there are no opportunities to play to an audience and wind up and relax. Which is the salt of this occupation. It feels like we are not allowed to be musicians. And it's been like that for all of these years during the pandemic. Performing arts is the field that has been restricted by a heavier hand than most occupations, including bars and restaurants. Why that is, beats me. It must be the easiest way, and culture folk are expendable. They should get a real job anyway. 

Of course, I understand that measures have to be taken and everything must be done to keep the number of cases low in order not to strain the health system to much. The un-fairness of it just bugs me. But there's no other choice really, than to sit it through and hope for better. That's all we can do as a group, for that matter. Even though it seems like we're just floating in limbo and things don't seem to go forward, and we're just waiting for our turn forever, the reality is that we are doing something, all the time. Little advances, a rehearsal, a recording session, a new mix and mastering that needs to be listened to, a video shoot, an interview.  And not all of it has even reached social media yet, because not all of it at that stage yet. So we don't give up hope. We just work, prepare, then let it out, and see what it bcomes.

One of these things I have been pretty silent about recently is the Crimson Sun music video. We meant to shoot the final scenes before the end of the year, but there were curves on that road. The reason was basically the schedules of many different people, which are kind hard to put together. Must be familiar to anyone doing a group project. The scene involved a bath tub, which could be filmed around. Turns out it's not so easy to find. Hardly anyone has a bath tub in Finland anymore. But an acquaintance who lives a bit further happened to have one. And you could move it around! And the bathroom wall was a nice color too! So in order to go there to shoot we had to reschedule to the second weekend of January. 

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the scene or the filming. But there will be nudity. And a heavy chain! Which our drummer found somewhere and which definitely will be used a prop at some point. I hung some white sheets and curtains all over the place to make it look more mystical, or whatever, and put candles everywhere. Hopefully that does the trick. And the rose petals we sprinkled in the bath water. I'm trusting it will look awesome!

After that there's just the editing and some animation on top of that...

Meanwhile we'll be continuing rehearsals and recording, in order to complete album number two.

May your year 2022 be filled with hope and may it be a better than the previous one!

Flora

                                    

               Crimson Sun 

It's been a month already since the release of our first single of the coming second album. It feels like an eternity, just because of the sheer amount of work and things that have been happening, and because social media has the tendency of warping your sense of time. If you don't post for a few days the thing you did post just gets sucked into the void and it's just like it never existed. Unless the thing goes viral or something, which I think hasn't really happened for us yet. 

Still, the single has been well received and there has been some plays on net radios and interest from magazines. In fact, I just finished answering questions to an interview. One of the things that came up, is the subject of Crimson Sun, and the symbolism in it. I realize I didn't really open it up in the media release, let alone here, because I still wanted to keep a thin veil of mystery to it. But, I figured now would be as good a time as any. It's also perhaps time to start opening up about the general themes and the background of the second album. It's going to be a full series, many posts, so I hope you'll enjoy the ride. I think I will.

One of the reasons we decided to go with Crimson Sun and release it first was because it's themes fell quite neatly as a continuance of the last songs on our first album, thematically, but perhaps musically as well. The theme in Good People was the hypocrisy of human kind, the self-anointing of all of us who think we're good people. 

In Siouxsie on the Beach the theme was the end of the world as we know it, like it had already happened, and how we did nothing about it. To be perfectly clear, it's about climate change and destruction of nature, in which we, the good people, contribute to the most and are not doing enough about. In this I am pretty judgmental, and fully aware of that, but I do count myself into the lot, being a first world inhabitant myself. However, the point of view in both of these songs is lamentation, not that much pointing of fingers, and maybe a somewhat cynical approach. The same approach is present in Crimson Sun. 

In the verses are presented all hopes that we have for the future, all wars being ended, all pain and suffering ending, all that. It's also something many religions and cults promise will happen in the next world, or after death. Towards the end of the verse the question is raised: Why is it not so? Or the attempt to convince oneself: It must be so. And in the chorus the idea of Good People is again present in different words: We hope for a bright future, but keep blaming others for our mistakes, we bathe in the blood of scape goats, but the sun is setting already. Then of course the question comes to mind, who is this "We" the song is describing? Because surely not all people think this way?

The lyrics of Crimson Sun originate in a lengthy exchange I had with my aquaintance, a Jehovah's Wittness. This was a few years ago, before Hateful Chains was formed, at a time when I was in the process of growing out of my Christian faith and organised religion altogether. I lived alone in a new apartment as I was recently divorced, and the doorbell rang. It was them, Jehovah's wittnesses, whom I had always turned away with some excuse, or just taken their leaflets and wished them a happy day, the leaflet ending up in the bin. But now I had nothing to do and felt like I could take the challenge of debating a person from a different sect of faith than me, and enjoy the exchange. 

It turned out to be not very enjoyable, because the Jehovah's Wittnesses have a strict program for their interaction with the people they're trying to recruit and turn into followers. The person who contacted me at first never came alone, she always had another woman with her, and they basically wanted to go through a "program" of explaining their beliefs and persuading me to join. I was looking for a reason to end these programmed "bible studies" and finally it came in the form of a belief I just couldn't accept.

 Among the many wacky and distorted (at that point, in my view, distorted, because I could not yet see the oddities of my christian faith) beliefs, one was just too unjust for my taste: That communion, was not for everybody in the congregation, but only for a select group that counted themselves as one of the chosen. It was something that was against everything I had been taught about the core beliefs of Christianity and made me very angry. So, I stopped the meetings and stopped communication with these people altogether. 

After this episode I had the need to find out, what kind of belief system it actually was, that made people hold on to such strange views and go to such lengths as even refusing blood transfusions and shunning their family members. What better source of that information than the people that used to believe, but have walked away? And to say that Youtube and all of internet was full of them would be an understatement. It seems I hit a time when loads of people had decided to share the story of their "awakening" on the web at the same time. It was a gold mine, not only of information, but also inspiration.

At this time, many lyrics of the forth coming second album came into existence. Some were born out of the process of my own journey, some from the frustration and outright fury, when I found out about the serious injustices and beliefs and systems that hurt people, present in the cults I was looking into. Most of these are about the Jehovah's Wittnesses. Sometimes a song is an end product of a lengthy thought process, and seems to just pop out of nowhere, but when looking back, you understand it was there all along, brewing inside your head. And Crimson Sun is a song like that.

I cooked it up when playing just something on a piano and waiting for my vocal student to come to class. Chorus came first, just had to write it down. And then I made a verse. Chords and melodies at the same time, all just happening so smoothly. The best part, (in my opinion) in which I put my thoughts on the Witnesses in, was the middle eight, where I describe them as carrion birds, picking the bones of the dead. Who else believes that after Armageddon, they will be the ones that survive and will build a new world, be the kings of the corpse mountains? Quite literally, really. But, of course we all wish that things were better, and that the world would some day be a blessing to all of us, not just a select few. So, the last verse is just that, a tiny hope, not much more, that it would be possible. Most of the time it's just too hard to really believe in it.

So, this was the first writing, disclosing the stories and background behind the songs we are currently recording. I'll be writing much more on the subject and the matters of faith from the perspective of one who has walked away, as it has really been a source of inspiration on songwriting and a force of change in my life.

Love, Flora

 

Influence

I've been talking about our influences here for a couple of times, but never really gone trough them in depth, or analyzed, what it is in them that has such a great impact on my music making. It should be known by now, that I'm the one coming up with the songs and lyrics, while we all participate in arranging in some way. Everybody's musical history and influences has an effect and leaves it's mark on the end result. But the effect of those influences on the song writer and composer is much more direct and immediate. That's why I'll take a moment to reflect on those, maybe do a whole bunch of writing about that, as I've seemed to promise before, at some point.

So, what is actually my first influential band? What got me into the Goth subculture in the first place? It's a long story. When I was a teenager in Finland there were some bands that were becoming huge locally, and actually worldwide too. I got my share of those bands too, because I listened to the radio pretty often. The biggest at the time for me were HIM and Sentenced. These were actually considered more metal, but yeah, there you have it: I used to be more of a metalhead. (Still like some of them bands) Then there was also 69 Eyes, who still tour today. 

HIM's red album, Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666 was the thing. The melancholy, the atmosphere, the voice, it was really something unheard of for me. My friend recorded a cassette for me from her cd. I listened to it all the time, in secret, because at the time my parents were strict about any music that had some kind of reference to the occult or things like that. I got so used to their cover versions of Don't Fear the Reaper and Wicked Game that the originals sounded weird to me. I loved the whole album, but my favorite song was definitely For You. No other like that. Then the pink album came out and the heartagram and the great music business machine brought them to the attention of the whole world, and somehow, I just lost taste. Maybe the heartagram was too much for me, and with my fourteen-year-old brain I though it was a stupid idea, while in fact, let's face it: it's a brilliant logo, very memorable and somehow outrageous because of it's simplicity. 

Sentenced was the band I poured my sadness and suicidal thoughts into. What band could be more appropriate? Their lyrics are all about dying and suicide. When I wasn't listening to HIM, Sentenced was the way to go. Maybe this was the time I also started writing down some of my own ideas too, reflecting on those dying wishes and dreams of being somewhere else. With the album Frozen, it was about atmosphere as well. I didn't think about song structures or things like that back then. What appealed to me in HIM and Sentenced was sound, really, and also song melodies, I would say. The whole atmosphere… What I later found out, when reading about them, was that many of their influences were actually Goth Rock bands. Maybe that's where their sound came from, partially at least?

69 Eyes remained somehow obscure for me, although they played on the radio a lot. I always thought they were the epitome of a Goth band, because the media kept informing me that they were. At the time I thought "Gothic Girl" was a typical Goth song. But I didn't get the hang of the whole Goth subculture and didn't actually know there was such a thing, let alone that it was based on very different and a wider variety of music than what the 69 Eyes represented. Their music is cool, Dark Rock or Gothic Rock, with maybe the emphasis on Rock, which is cool. They use a lot of Goth imagery and you can definitely hear some Sisters of Mercy influences in the music as well. Some people might be of the opinion that they're not a Goth band, but I think they can be added under the very wide umbrella of Gothic. At least to me, at a time, they seemed to represent "Goth".

As I said before, my access to "worldly" music, let alone anything with a certain kind of darkness in it, was limited. In the Nineties, there were these scandals and waves of propaganda going on in the  Finnish Church circles, due to some church burnings and murders related to the Black Metal scenes of Scandinavia. It was an absolute no-no to listen to such direct blasphemous and Satan worshiping music, but I did manage to get a hold on some in secret. Cradle of Filth, Children of Bodom, Dimmu Borgir, all appealed to me because of that neo-classical dramaticism, aggression and the sound of danger. Some of that might still sometimes pop up in my songs, but it's there less and less, as I'm turning more to the roots of Goth. 

When, due to my circumstances, I couldn't listen to these horrible Black Metal bands anymore, I turned to their Christian alternatives, which were on the rise back then. Similar music, but Christian lyrics. These I often found at Christian festivals, which I used to attend in my teen age summers, at a stall of an underground christian record store. It was there that I found something that I really consider the roots and cause of my being into Goth music, and a creator of that music today, the starting point of a journey, if you will: it was Saviour Machine, and their first album.

Saviour Machine's sound was something unheard of for me. The over- the- top reverb in the guitars, the rhythms in drums, Eric Clayton's booming baritone, his mysterious and symbolic lyrics, his goth make-up on the album cover, the whole visual imagery, all of this opened a completely new world for me. Yet, they are not even considered a Goth band. Saviour Machine is an ideologically Christian band, so they are not a huge success world wide. But they were a success in Germany, for example, and managed to seal a record deal with Massacre Records. After two more Rock-albums they set to form a trilogy album about the book of Revelation, with big orchestral sounds and a choir. That too, left it's mark on me music-wise.

After finding this gem I always kept looking for stuff with something similar to Saviour Machine. I think the biggest thing for me in it was the vocals. Eric Clayton has an operatic baritone-voice which he tended to use in a quite heavy way, un-like, say Ville Valo or one of my later favorites, Ashton Nyte of The Awakening. That darkening of an already dark voice had it's appeal to me and I soon started mimicing it, thus finding my own low register, always going as low as I could. The other thing was drums. Although this band was considered a metal band of some kind, I though the drummer did something different than what you had the typical Metal bands. No double kick, but a lot of toms and beats taken from other music styles. Many times the beat had almost a dancing drive to it. Really good examples of this are Carnival Of Souls and The Mask, from Saviour Machine I.

I once spoke to another Goth about our Christian up-bringing and how it affected our Goth path, and he said that he listened to Saviour Machine a lot back in the day, because it was the darkest music he could find. In the Christian circles, that is. Well, I happened to stumble upon another gem, that was in some ways similar to Saviour Machine, in the aesthetics  at least, but it was wayyy darker. The sound of the band was more metal-like, but they had a very artistic way of constructing songs, which struck a chord with me because of my back ground in classical music. The band was from Australia and it was called Virgin Black. 

It was shivers down my spine when I first heard the start of their album Sombre Romantic, a solitary vocal line, repeated and followed by cello. Ach, my favorite instrument! Then I had to listen to all the beginnings of every song and decided to buy the album from the underground music stall I was standing in. I'd say I've never felt such a yearning to listen to this, to have this, as with this album. It's still one of my favorites, and every time I listen to it, it just satisfies me so much to hear the thoughtfully arranged songs and all the pauses and dynamics, that are not so typical in rock music in general. 

While they were considered a Christian band they had some shocking, even disturbing songs which I wondered about, but of course never told my parents. There was especially this one piece, called Museum of Iscariot, quite ballad like, but the lyrics described the protagonist beating and killing Jesus. No wonder they had to explain in the album cover, that the Jesus in the song describes one's faith. The meaning of the lyrics opened to me through out the years to come, the line: "He's never really lived" perhaps being the most striking and true for me, as I was going through the loss of my own faith. It's still one of the saddest songs I know.

Musically, Virgin Black has had an impact on me particularly in thinking song structure. It doesn't always have to be A, A, B, A, C, B,B, like in a typical pop-song. You can always break the usual pattern somehow. You can always bring out something of your own in a song, and abstain from the typical ways. Virgin Black might be one of the reasons I tend to put more than the usual parts in songs, and why there are some quite guitar-heavy tracks on the up coming album. But Saviour Machine is the other big factor. In fact I've been told that some of our demos sounded like them. Of course demos change, but the original influence can still be heard, if you know them well enough. 

I've written a lot about my earlier influences but there's still a lot to cover. When I realised there was a separate music genre called Goth, I of course set out to find out what it is. And that's where I found Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, Joy Division, The Sisters of Mercy, all the oldies but goldies, and then there were the classics of the Nineties Goth genres, Fields of the Nephilim, London After Midnight etc. I could write about them but you'll just get bored, 'cause of course you know about them already. But I'll write a little something about how they have influenced this band. Hopefully you'll enjoy that, and have enjoyed this part too!

Lot of love, Flora/HC

Statement

So many things have happened and escalated in the past few months, that I can't even keep track. The Corona-situation and how different countries have handled it, The on-going and still not solved! Climate Change and the sixth wave of extinction that seem to have been buried underneath other bad news, all the human rights violations and other bad news all the time... But what I've seen just recently on the news and media has made me think. Such things are now escalating that make it necessary to make a stand and speak out.

What I have seen on the news and various media platforms has made me really worried and upset. I'm talking about the news about George Floyd's murder by police officers in Minneapolis, and the shit storm that has ensued after, which some could argue, was bound to happen anyway at some point, judging by the state of things in modern USA. Of course, America is not the only place where white supremacy and ugly ideologies like that raise their monstrous heads, no. In my country a politician was just ousted for making a sick joke about George Floyd's death, and rightly so. (However, the party that kicked him out is still problematic...) This problem is still unsolved, and it is everywhere.  

There has also been discussion on Twitter recently, about whether or not Goth music is a-political, and about some bands, whose members have/have had racist affiliations. There is discussion about how the  Goth scene is not racist, but still not all people of color feel welcome in the scene, and there are things about some bands related to racism, or misuse of that imagery, that we still have to come to terms with as a subculture. (We know some of the early bands' members used the Swastica-symbols to piss off their parent's generation)

I came across someone who said that it is not enough to not be racist. You have to be anti-racist. I agree with this and I want to make it perfectly clear that I, and we as a band, are against racism. We do not accept the idea that white people are superior to others. That idea is bullshit and based on nothing but imbecile fantasies. That idea has caused immense suffering and cost countless lives. We will not have anything to do with such bullshit. 

Just to make it clear.

Love, Hypnosis

                                   Work Pays, Doesn't it?

How having a full time job eats away your time, and other things related to the end of the year...

Cemetery at All Hallow's Eve, full of little lights in the midst of darkness

It's been a while since I've even touched this keyboard. The last piece I wrote was about Skeletal Family for Project Goth Playlist. I hope it's doing well there. I don't know, since I haven't been on social media very much lately, except checking on Instagram or Twitter every once in a while. Nor have I had much to add there... And there is a good reason for that: I started a new job.

I have a bachelor degree in fashion design, but so far I have just done a few dresses for customers every now and then, and my own stuff. Just a hobby, really. My day job was vocal coaching, a part time job which allowed me to concentrate some of my time to song writing etc. Now that time is short, because I started a new job, related to my previous training as a designer. It's mostly manufacturing, but there have been some interesting design projects for single customers as well. For now, it's just for eight months, maybe a year, but you never know what the future holds in store for you.

In addition to working from eight to four, some new project have come across my way in the music life, my dearer occupation: Having some years past been a keyboard player in a metal band, I was asked to a disco band project, to keyboards and backing vocals. Of course I had to accept!  It is a whole new field of music to be conquered, but it's been going well so far. We've had a few gigs already and hopefully will get more once the marketing stuff is settled. And I enjoy it, which is the most important reason to do anything. So, not going to give that up just yet, even if it takes a chunk of my time.

I still teach after my main job and the days tend to get long, even if I don't have as many students as I used to. So unfortunately I won't be writing as frequently as I would hope.

But do not despair, for many things have passed that I wish to reveal to you!

As you may already have noticed, our fourth single, It's All Right came out in summer, after of course we were finally happy with it. It has attracted some attention, but I think more needs to be done to receive that. Even if I'm working an eight to four job now I will try to get things going!
I sent it to numerous blogs and other media that handle alternative/straight out goth style music. After some time there were answers, and the single has now been reviewed in Onyx Music Reviews:

https://onyxmusicreviews.com/2019/10/17/hateful-chains-its-all-right/

It was a real pleasure to read about it, and with such flattering remarks. We'll try to live up to that image you painted of us! It has to be said here, that it's truly amazing and respectable that there are people out there who are willing to give their time and energy to write about music and dig up some new gems that might attract new listeners. You are one of the many reasons that keeps us, the yet minor bands, going and gives us reason to believe that the time and energy we put into our work is not for nothing. Thank you!


While It's All Right was put out there, we already worked out our next piece. In spring we recorded a piece for a lady choir, which I posted a snippet from in Instagram and other socials. The choir was magnificent, did all I asked them to and more. I originally wrote the piece for a male-female choir, but it turned out really complicated to get enough people to sing it. Perhaps while I was still in music school it would have been simpler. Now all my previous colleagues in classical singing had scattered across the map and continued their lives in music or other fields. But when I noticed through social media that there's a female choir in our town, who have done many recording projects before, I seized the chance and asked. Never hesitate to ask, for it will cost you nothing.


Turns out, they were happy to record with us and we even got to use an acoustically awesome church to record it in. The piece was recorded and edited with success, and was added to the end of our next song, Good People. And We have the Aino-kuoro to thank for that. So, thank you! We hope that the result will pleasing to your ears as well as it is to ours.

http://ainokuoro.fi/

After many mixing and mastering sessions, Good People is now ready to be released. I'm still working out the details around releasing, like album cover and how to get it seen and spread. But I will soon release the release date and then it will be out there to hopefully please your ears.

Meanwhile, while workity working and rehearsing and everything, we haven't abandoned our music video project for She Smiles. Slowly, but surely it is coming together. We have come up with a general script and looked for locations. You know how it's all about location? That's why we spent some more time to find the ones that really fit the ideas we have in mind. That is now almost sorted out. We have asked all kinds of dance groups and people who work some how in the field of bodily expression, to join us in the making of the video. Thus the combination will be quite interesting, with a minor risk for chaos, which we simply ave to accept, if we want to achieve something. We have a make-up artist with us, which we are really going to need, because of the nature of the video. I will reveal it all to you in good time and in manageable pieces.

The big job for me in this video is once again costumes. How do I always manage to grab a bigger piece of a cake than I can swallow? Greed. Must be. It's just always so tantalizing to start something new, to visualize it in your head and solve the problems that surface on it's way to reality. I can't help it, and I think that's the case for many that create, what ever the field. We have a saying here that goes something like "having many irons in fire at once" which is used to describe the situation of having many things to deal with in your life just now. Or too many things. I feel like that's the situation in my life, but hey, it's always been like that in the months before Christmas. So, with the knowledge that it won't last forever, I have the strength to work out some costumes for dancers and do all the other stuff there is as well.

The video will be shot in the end of this month, November and the beginning of December. Hopefully we'll get out there for new year, which would be great!! We are still going to use the flashing faces of smiling people in between scenes, which we have repeatedly campaigned for in social media, to get people to be part of the video and send us a picture. There's still time! If you want to have your sad smile flashing in the video, send us a picture to:

hatefulchains@gmail.com

At least some of the irons have been taken out from the fire at the end of this month, which was a huge relief to me. I had to prepare three applications for grants before the end of the month and the paper work was immense. Luckily I had other people from our organization to help me get it sorted. The grants were applied to finance our Contemporary Music festival, which we hold annually here in our home town. The little project that started among us music students has surely grown into something bigger and more permanent, and that makes me proud. Still, the effort and the paper work that goes into doing this thing surprises me every year. You'll hear about the festival somewhat next spring, but I won't let it take too much space in here, since this blog is dedicated to the story of our band.

The other irons are the orders that need to be finished at work, which all apparently are due JUST NOW, or were already LAST WEEK. it's because of the Christmas markets, I get it. But I can't help stressing about it and wondering, how on earth is anyone in this position able to handle it all. But luckily, we got a huge order to get out in time, with me and some other workers doing overtime. (Something needs to be done about these schedules...)

So in the end of October, just in time for Halloween, luckily some of the huge tasks have been done, and I'm hopefully able to give some time to the advancement of the She Smiles-video and releasing Good People. In the midst of all these things I wish you all happy Halloween, take the time to reflect on the past year, embrace the darkness around you and within you, and prepare for the new things that are coming your way. The time of the deepest nigh is now. Enjoy it!

With love, Flora/Hateful Chains

The light just doesn't do justice to how we see the cemetery with our own eyes