Unkind and the twisted views of the masses



Ugly and violent is how you describe finnish crust band Unkind. Recently signed to Relapse Records, Unkind  has released their debut album "Harhakuvat" which means delusions in English. This album is highly recommended for fans of Disfear, Tragedy and Motorhead. "Harhakuvat" is a slavo of unrelentling assault.

Greetings brothers how's it going? I hope it's not brutally hot in finland like it is here in Texas all month. It's been in the triple digits so far.
It's never brutally hot here although last July was pretty warm. We were on tour in Europe almost the whole month so we didn't really get to witness it though. Now it's nice and cool again.

Congratulations getting signed to Relapse. How you guys get hooked up on Relapse?
Thanks. We got a mail from them last fall asking if we'd be interested in doing them an LP and we had the good fortune to be able to reply yes. We still haven't got any other details apart from them coming across our last LP and liking it enough to contact us.

August 2nd Unkind will be releasing their debut album "Harhakuvat". Can you give the readers the story behind the title and who came up with the title?
Well the title is Delusions in English and it's pretty much picked up off the title track's lyrics. It ties the whole of it together nicely as that's what the world today is really. Just a mass of twisted views on how things are and/or should be. People let things like history, religion, politicians and fads affect it too much for humanity to function logically.

Finland has been known for their black metal, so what the overall scene like in Finland?
There's all sorts of good bands of every type around. Most do get overshadowed by commercially pushed giants, but there's plenty of good less known bands to pick from. Especially the last few years have seen a rise in the relatively new doom scene here. Several promising bands have started appearing on gigs all around in the wake of the few old greats. That can be probably largely accredited to the Dutch Roadburn festival and recent local fests specifically offering that type of music. Other than the doom/sludge scene hardly any other extreme music gigs overlap the hardcore/punk shows, which we still mainly play. I'd like to see a bit of a change there as most of the listeners might be able to appreciate all of the ban

Tell me what bands influenced you when growing up and how much of an impact have these bands had on you as an musician?
We've always listened to pretty diverse stuff and most of it has had it's effect on our music obviously. It's hard to pinpoint specific bands, but maybe a couple that all of us can agree to have been crucial influence when the band got started were Amebix and Discharge.

I notice the songs titles are in Finnish right? Can you give the an English defination of some of the songs on the album?
Ok here's a few direct translations and summary of the themes.

Laumasielut - Group thinkers - mostly about people jumping on political bandwagons without proper criticism.

Ylpeä Perhe - a Proud Family - the rise and inevitable fall of man as a species.

Kaivannot - Trenches - futility of overtly spiritual thinking while ignoring natural order.

Have you recieved any reviews from the press and what has been the feedback so far?
A couple of short internet reviews we've come across so far have had a satisfyingly positive tone. We expected a bit more backlash from the diy punk scene about selling out to a bigger label, but that has been really minute. I guess they don't care about it or us enough, but we're happy either way.

You got any shows lined up in support of the album?
We've got two release-party shows in Tampere and Kokkola. In addition we have a small Finn-tour with Ghost Brigade, who are also promoting their recent release. Our only gig abroad this fall will be on the 15th October at the Bloodshed festival in Eindhoven, Holland with some great bands, like Doom, Victims and Bastard Noise. Additional tour dates can be found on our Facebook and the Relapse website.

Before I end this interview I would like to say congratulations on getting signed to Relapse and I wish you the best.
Thanks again and all the best to you as well.
Interviewer: Paul Lewis
Aug 9, 2011

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