Wolfheart roars again.
Since 2013, the project led by Tuomas Saukkonen (guitar/vocals, Before the Dawn, Dawn of Solace…) and since completed by Lauri Silvonen (bass/vocals, Bloodred Hourglass, Casket), Joonas Kauppinen (drums, Disease of the Nation, ex-Before the Dawn, ex-Misery Inc.) and Vagelis Karzis (guitar/vocals, Full House Brew Crew, live for Rotting Christ) are developing their Winter Metal, now expressed on Draconian Darkness, their seventh album, with the support of Reigning Phoenix Music.
Saku Moilanen (Before the Dawn, Red Moon Architect, Slaughterror, ex-Aeonian Sorrow) from Deep Noise Studios contributed keyboards and orchestrations.
The album opens with the majestic Ancient Cold, a first composition that starts out dark, then impressive and finally aggressive, drawing us back into the band’s singular universe with explosions of violence. We notice a certain heaviness accompanying screams, then a more melodic touch when the clean voice appears, then it’s with a more Old School approach to Death Metal that Evenfall comes to strike us, letting a furious groove contrast with the more refined and soothing passages. Vocals blend together to create a complementary harmony before Burning Sky offers us a moment’s respite, but the composition also reserves us some much more theatrical and heady passages before coming to an end in favor of Death Leads The Way and its catchy riffs that have us shaking our head in no time. Keyboards are a perfect complement to the solid rhythm and backing vocals, but they also allow a few more lively leads to emerge before Scion of The Flame crushes us in turn, giving space to Vagelis and Lauri’s clean voice and rawer screams from Tuomas. Softness resurfaces on Grave, but quickly becomes ominous before finally unleashing its fury at full speed, while Throne of Bones takes the time to create a veil of melancholy before offering a more jerky and sometimes even technical approach. The atmosphere remains intact on the central break, and becomes heavier again when the saturation resurfaces, leading us to the virulent Trial By Fire, where the coldest sounds that come to the fore to keep our minds captive to their enchantment. The album is already drawing to a close with The Gale, where the massive rhythm is halted by the clean voice before exploding again in a wave of unexpected intensity that only stops to lead us into silence.
The Wolfheart pack have worked hard to make Draconian Darkness a veritable treasure trove of darkness as imposing as it is harmonious. The band continues to evolve and push its limits, reaching the level of the greats in barely ten years.
95/100
A few questions to Tuomas Saukkonen, creator and singer/guitarist of the Finnish Winter Metal band Wolfheart.
Hello Tuomas and first of all, thank you very much for your time! The band labels itself as Winter Metal, how would you describe this subgenre?
Tuomas Saukkonen (guitar/vocals): Winter Metal is sub genre in Melodic Death Metal where some influences from black metal and doom metal are infused together to create heavy, dark, cold but still very beautiful Metal music. Just like nordic winter!
What does the name Wolfheart mean to you, and how is the link with the music you create?
Tuomas: In the beginning I wanted to create a name for the band that reflects the feeling and attitude of a lone warrior and also that has a strong connection to the nordic nature. I think the name fits well for the band and our music too but honestly I have not been thinking about the meaning of the name that much for the past 10 years. It is a logo and a brand to me more than a word.
The band’s new album, Draconian Darkness, will come out in a few weeks. How do you feel about it? Do you already have any feedback?
Tuomas: I am extremely proud of it and very excited to get to play the new songs live.99% of the feedback so far has been from the 2 singles that are already out and that has been overwhelmingly good. As a songwriter to me the new album is naturally dearest but I am also biased to give any critic this early and time will tell how the audience thinks about it and in a few years I can look back and be more objective.
How would you sum Draconian Darkness’ identity up in only three words?
Tuomas: Grand, dark, beautiful.
How did the creation process happen for Draconian Darkness? Did you notice some changes compared to the previous records?
Tuomas: Not really. I work mainly alone during the writing process and present pretty ready demos to other members with basic guitar, bass and drum arrangements and then everybody adds their own touch. With vocals we always work based on ideas that come from Vagelis and Lauri. Only sort of a change was with working with rhythm guitar and key / orchestral arrangements in the very early stage of pre-production to make sure that we have right balance for both and guitars give some space for keys in right places and other ways around.
What about the artwork, what were the guidelines you gave Nikos Stavridakis from VisionBlack and how does it fit with the music you created?
Tuomas: I gave him some of the raw versions of new songs and some directions where to go but the main vision came from him. We have worked together with Dawn Of Solace, Before The Dawn and Wolfheart so there is a high level of trust and artistic respect involved. While the King of the North cover was a totem for a king of the northern nature = a bear this new artwork is like a funeral wreath of mankind / world.
How do you manage to give your music this unique touch? Where do you find your inspiration to create music?
Tuomas: To me it is just an ongoing process that started over 25-years ago when I fully got into song writing. I never felt much inspiration coming from outside sources. I just need a certain amount of silence around me to be able to create and being outdoors and in nature works really well for that. Maybe the unique touch comes from the fact that I always and only write for myself.
How did you decide on the singles to reveal to introduce the album and why did you pick those ones precisely? Do you have a favorite song on this album? Or maybe the hardest one to achieve for the album.
Tuomas: This time it was really difficult to choose the single songs and basically any song from the album could have been a single / video song. Label, management and band members all had different favourites and in the end the selection of single songs was basically an old school vote. My personal favourite changes on a daily basis. I am also in charge of our video productions and do all the editing so the song I am doing a video on that day/week is always my least favourite since I am forced to hear it dozens of times 🙂
I actually noticed this album focuses more on the complementarity between Vagelis’ clean vocals and your massive growls. How did you work on this together? What about Lauri’s backing vocals?
Tuomas: There are actually more Lauri’s vocals on this album than ever before but this time both of them tried a bit different sounds with their voices and a lot of people have not been able to make a difference which part is done by who. I think it is a huge strength for our band that both Lauri and Vagelis are so versatile singers and both can even do backing growling on our live shows.
You asked Saku Moilanen to participate in the album on keyboards and orchestrations, how did this collaboration happen? Do you think his work improves the album’s power?
Tuomas: Saku has done orchestrations for our past 2 albums already and we have worked in the studio together a lot. He has recorded, mixed and mastered our previous 2 albums and also the last 2 albums of Dawn Of Solace. He is also for the first time the main producer for Wolfheart’s album so his work definitely has a huge positive impact on our sound. Musically he is like a 5th member of the band.
The band just signed to Reigning Phoenix Music, how is the collaboration with them?
Tuomas: We are still in a very early stage of our cooperation but it has been working really well and I see that this is a great opportunity for us to find such a strong partner.
Do you think you improved yourself as a musician and songwriter with this new record?
Tuomas: I do hope so. Every time I go to the studio there is more training and more experience gathered and the main thing is that naturally every time my main focus is to exceed myself as a songwriter and a musician. I believe that once you loose the hunger for improvement you are pretty much done and should focus on something else.
How do you work on live shows as a band? I was lucky enough to catch a few Wolfheart shows, whether in Paris (six times actually) or at Hellfest, do you have some special memories of French shows you would like to share with us?
Tuomas: Of course Hellfest was an amazing experience but we have played a few times in a super adorable boat venue in Paris. Petit Bain if I remember correctly and only good memories from that. Last time we played in Paris there was a misfortune with scheduling and we played the same night in Paris with Insomnium and the venues were right next to each other. But overall Paris has always treated us super well and gave us very warm welcome so can’t wait to get back in November.
Are there any musicians or artists you would like to collaborate with? Whether it is for one song, or maybe more.
Tuomas: Hmm… I would love to play drums, have Vogg from Decapitated on guitar and Niklas from Orbit Culture on vocals. That would be badass.
What do you know about the French Metal scene? Are there any bands you know and like?
Tuomas: Shamefully I have to admit that I follow the metal scene overall very randomly nowadays. I know Alcest and Gojira of course but not familiar with the rising new acts from France.
Wolfheart announced a Finnish tour in September to promote the new album, as well as being part of the Dark Tranquillity tour in November 2024, how do you get ready for those tours?
Tuomas: Finnish tour is a good warm up for the Euro tour since in Finland it makes sense to focus the gigs only on weekends so we play basically 2 shows a week instead of 6 shows a week like we do on the November tour. We have a few festivals also in late august so it is smooth landing to touring after the summer.
If you had to organize a concert for Draconian Darkness’ release show, which bands would you love to play with? I let you create a poster with Wolfheart and three other bands!
Tuomas: Hmm… That is a tricky one. I would create a competition for demo bands and the top 3 that gets most votes would be our supporting acts !
Last and funny question: which dish would you compare Wolfheart’s music with?
Tuomas: haha 🙂 Well… Since we are from the north it would be sauté de reindeer with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam. Taste of the Lapland.
That was the last question for me, so thank you very much for your time and your music, last words are yours!
Tuomas: Hope to see you all in November!