A few months ago, Exthenia released their single Future Is A Dead End. We took the opportunity to catch up with lead guitarist/composer Mikael to ask him about it, and also reviewed the single. Check it out below!
Could you introduce yourself and tell me a little bit about the band?
Hello, it’s Mikael here I’m almost 19 years old and I live in Pori, Finland. I’m the lead guitarist/composer and one of the nutcases of Exthenia. Exthenia is a melodic death metal band from Pori, Finland.
You recently released your two-track single Future Is A Dead End – could you tell me about the writing and recording process of it?
Yes, where would I start? Well, I started to compose songs for it in August 2013, slowly but surely! Everything was ready only 1-2 weeks before we went to Ansa Studio to record it. We recorded drums and vocals in Ansa Studio, everything else in home. We have also made a video, ExtheniaTV Part 3, about making of it which can be found from our youtube channel here.
What’s the story behind the songs?
Future Is A Dead End is about person who have fucked up things and got nothing to do to fix them.
Left Undone tells about human/person type who have left some things undone in his/her life, and then afterward regrets it why he/she didn’t do it.
Which track out of the two are you most proud of?
I’d say Future Is A Dead End, it has a lot of epic parts. It took me more time to compose than our whole Dominate the Wind EP.
If you could go back and change anything about the single, would you?
Yes, I would have recorded everything in studio, not at home. So, more time for recording, that’s it.
How would you describe your live show to someone who hasn’t seen you yet?
We’re an energetic live band with a lot of attitude, we give our best every show! If you’re into metal, you should to come check out us live! We promise you won’t regret!
What would you say your best show has been?
Club Liberté, Helsinki (22.11.2013) has been the best so far in my opinion, but we’re going to dominate the stage of Club Liberté again in few weeks!
And what has been perhaps the weirdest or strangest?
Stratokarvia, Merikarvia was the weirdest. There was only a small amount of people watching and one old woman from Estonia who tried to buy our EP in nature.
If you could collaborate with another artist or band, who would you choose?
Collaborating with members of Wintersun would be AWESOME, it’s my favorite band!
And finally if Exthenia could put its name to a product, what would it be?
This one is easy. Signature guitars, pizza, and beer.
Future Is A Dead End Review
To say that the two tracks on this single are promising is somewhat of an understatement. There’s a wonderful raw quality to the pair of them and makes for a very intriguing listen.
Future Is A Dead End is indeed a striking track; it’s no wonder that this was the track chosen to represent the band as a single and it features a very strong and passionate vocal performance coupled with some fantastic keyboard lines. The melody combined with the harsh vocals works exceedingly well, and the frantic guitar, bass and drum lines all moving in sync serve to give the track an extra edge.
Left Undone keeps the pace going and once again, the keyboard in this is incredible and it doesn’t matter whether it’s taking a lead part or blending into the background because in both roles it adds a lot to the track and the amount of energy as a whole in this song in particular is tremendous – this is surely a song that will translate well in a live environment. A good touch to the track is the way it ends so abruptly, leaving the listener wanting more – a great way to lead into the next release!
A great release – it’ll be interesting to see where this band goes next.
8/10
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