Avenie - A Long Winding Road To The Present
By Russell Garwood
"Avenie is a surprisingly old Finnnish metal band; due to drastic line-up changes there are no original members left in the band anymore" begins composer, singer and guitarist Matti Auerkall. "Quite soon after joining the band as a singer, I also started writing music for Avenie and nowadays pretty much all material comes from me. To describe the music, I like to use words such as melodic and atmospheric," he continues, "but there are also some nice shredding solos, growling and mosh-riffs in there. I like the idea of presenting beatiful orchestrations and melodies with heavy 7-string guitars and weighty drumming. My personal influences are too numerous to put down here, but to mention a few that have a relation or influence on the style of Avenie's music, I could say maybe early Nightwish, later Opeth, Soilwork, Metallica, Meshuggah, Tori Amos and possibly Evergrey. There are different key elements of each band or artist that I can sense glowing through Avenie's material.[/B]"
Matti - Guitars, vocals & composition
The band's history is not simple, the axeman relates, having been formed 9 years ago. Following some fairly high-profile warm up shows, the band made some recordings together, prior to Matti's addition to the lineup in 2005. "I stepped in as a singer, soon took over guitar duties as well, we recorded a demo, did some shows, messed around with the line-up some more, and now released the new demo called The Gauntlet" he sums up. "This can be listened to in its entirety at our myspace. You can also contact us by e-mail if you want to be a cool underground music supporter and purchase the CD (more info at our webpage)." The story does not end with the demo, however. "Right after releasing it, we managed to once again survive a drastic line-up change. There are now three of us: me on vocals and guitar, Kalle Marttila on bass and Felipe Muñoz on keyboards. We are not in a hurry to pick up new members now, I'll be handling the drum duties in the studio for the time being and our current live-line-up also includes Hiski Marstio on guitar and Kari Ruissalo (of Pofony) on drums, we are very happy to having them help us out."
Kalle - Bass
The trio is raring to record more, Matti enthuses. "We have talked about recording our first full-length this year. There is just so much material lying around that I don't even care anymore if we have a record deal or not, I just want to record and release it. We will probably start recording it in a few months. We would prefer having our material published through a label, by professionals, even though looking at today's music industry, self-releasing is starting to look like a better idea. But I still have faith in the smaller labels that are run by people who love music and are supported by consumers who actually listen to and respect the artists and albums they buy." As for the name, the frontman remains unsure of its origins. "I have been told, that Avenie is the name of some kind of a goddess, but while desperately trying to seek information about it to properly answer questions like these, I have not been able to find any. I was not around when the name was given and so have only second-hand information about it mostly given to me by drunk people. At least it looks good and is easy pronounce for a simple Finn." As for the future, Matti concludes: "For some time now, I have seen Avenie's potential as a big touring and recording band and I would really love to play Avenie's music for screaming crowds on huge festivals and gig-per-day type of tours. I hope we will be able to capture the spirit and concepts behind our music and lyrics even better on our future recordings and be able to deliver that on our live shows as well."
You can catch the band live 06/05/09 at Yo-talo, Tampere, and 13/05/09 at Dante's Highlight, Helsinki.
Official Avenie Myspace.
Official Avenie Webpage.
By Russell Garwood
"Avenie is a surprisingly old Finnnish metal band; due to drastic line-up changes there are no original members left in the band anymore" begins composer, singer and guitarist Matti Auerkall. "Quite soon after joining the band as a singer, I also started writing music for Avenie and nowadays pretty much all material comes from me. To describe the music, I like to use words such as melodic and atmospheric," he continues, "but there are also some nice shredding solos, growling and mosh-riffs in there. I like the idea of presenting beatiful orchestrations and melodies with heavy 7-string guitars and weighty drumming. My personal influences are too numerous to put down here, but to mention a few that have a relation or influence on the style of Avenie's music, I could say maybe early Nightwish, later Opeth, Soilwork, Metallica, Meshuggah, Tori Amos and possibly Evergrey. There are different key elements of each band or artist that I can sense glowing through Avenie's material.[/B]"
Matti - Guitars, vocals & composition
The band's history is not simple, the axeman relates, having been formed 9 years ago. Following some fairly high-profile warm up shows, the band made some recordings together, prior to Matti's addition to the lineup in 2005. "I stepped in as a singer, soon took over guitar duties as well, we recorded a demo, did some shows, messed around with the line-up some more, and now released the new demo called The Gauntlet" he sums up. "This can be listened to in its entirety at our myspace. You can also contact us by e-mail if you want to be a cool underground music supporter and purchase the CD (more info at our webpage)." The story does not end with the demo, however. "Right after releasing it, we managed to once again survive a drastic line-up change. There are now three of us: me on vocals and guitar, Kalle Marttila on bass and Felipe Muñoz on keyboards. We are not in a hurry to pick up new members now, I'll be handling the drum duties in the studio for the time being and our current live-line-up also includes Hiski Marstio on guitar and Kari Ruissalo (of Pofony) on drums, we are very happy to having them help us out."
Kalle - Bass
The trio is raring to record more, Matti enthuses. "We have talked about recording our first full-length this year. There is just so much material lying around that I don't even care anymore if we have a record deal or not, I just want to record and release it. We will probably start recording it in a few months. We would prefer having our material published through a label, by professionals, even though looking at today's music industry, self-releasing is starting to look like a better idea. But I still have faith in the smaller labels that are run by people who love music and are supported by consumers who actually listen to and respect the artists and albums they buy." As for the name, the frontman remains unsure of its origins. "I have been told, that Avenie is the name of some kind of a goddess, but while desperately trying to seek information about it to properly answer questions like these, I have not been able to find any. I was not around when the name was given and so have only second-hand information about it mostly given to me by drunk people. At least it looks good and is easy pronounce for a simple Finn." As for the future, Matti concludes: "For some time now, I have seen Avenie's potential as a big touring and recording band and I would really love to play Avenie's music for screaming crowds on huge festivals and gig-per-day type of tours. I hope we will be able to capture the spirit and concepts behind our music and lyrics even better on our future recordings and be able to deliver that on our live shows as well."
You can catch the band live 06/05/09 at Yo-talo, Tampere, and 13/05/09 at Dante's Highlight, Helsinki.
Official Avenie Myspace.
Official Avenie Webpage.
