Blackened Horde: How did the band get started?
Aki Paulamäki: Seba formed the band in 2006 with another guitar player, I guess putting up an old school thrash metal band had been in his mind quite a wild back then. They have had few rehearsals with just two guitars and drums as they asked me and JNW to join the band. We made our first record, EP titled “Axecution” with that line up. After that release we had to let our drummer and other guitarist go. Atte joined in drums and we continued as a quartet.
Blackened Horde: What kind of music do you play?
Aki: Thrash and heavy metal are still there but we have added some progressive twists to our music nowadays.
Blackened Horde: Who are some of your musical influences?
Aki: Mostly classic thrash and heavy metal bands from the 80’s, like Judas Priest, Kreator, Testament few to mention and some progressive stuff like Rush and maybe King Crimson, at least for the bands “art department” Seba & Atte, heh…
Blackened Horde: Which current bands?
Aki: None, I guess… heh..
Blackened Horde: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Johnny Nuclear Winter: Answers to most these questions can be easily found in the internet, more specifically at our website www.axegressor.net or www.facebook.com/axegressor – please check out the facts to form a basic “band introduction” for your article. It’s no use for us to repeat same things over and over again when you can find them with 3 seconds of googling.
Blackened Horde: How has the fan response been?
Johnny: From despise to idolization.
Blackened Horde: Where did the band name come from?
Johnny: I came up with the name before I was even in the band. I have always played with words and this just seemed like a fitting name for my friends’ thrash metal band back then. And when they needed a vocalist – boom – I was in Axegressor.
Blackened Horde: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Johnny: Guitarist Seba and drummer Atte jam and drink beer (only 2-3 max, they are modest decent citizens) at our rehearsal place, record riffs, parts of songs etc. and little by little these pieces form a new sketch for a song, more or less in its final form. Mostly some parts of riffs, arrangements etc. change during the course of this process. Lyrics are written by me.
Blackened Horde: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Johnny: From my head. From frustration, hate, nihilistic views of life. From the fact that people are fucked. From the vision of a mushroom cloud liberating us all from this misery. And from the slight glimpse of hope that something could be done before that happens.
Blackened Horde: What is your view in Satanism and Occultism?
Johnny: Axegressor doesn’t deal with these things since we are not f.ex. a black metal band. And this is a band interview, right? What we do, think, stand for or oppose in our private lives is not relevant.
Blackened Horde: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Johnny: Which ones you’re particularly interested in and why?
Blackened Horde: Do you have any side projects?
Johnny: I puke my guts out in a grind-core band called Cannibal Accident.
Aki: I play in a hardrock cover band to get my dose of ‘playing live thrill’, important thing for me especially on the times that Axegressor is not on “active duty”.
Blackened Horde: What is the band like when you play live?
Johnny: Sweaty and loud. Me and bassist Aki are moving around and spilling beers on pedals and monitors, Atte and Seba mostly concentrate on their act of thrash metal mastery at that certain point in time.
Blackened Horde: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
Johnny: Depends on where we play. From 10 to 500. Mostly not 500.
Blackened Horde: How is the crowd response when you play?
Johnny: Can’t almost remember anymore, since it’s been a while since we were on stage. Our wildest crowds must have been in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria. Thursday night in our hometown was not so wild, haha.
Blackened Horde: What do you think of the US Black Metal/Death Metal scene?
Johnny: First two albums of Deicide and Morbid Angel are awesome. And I mean Abominations… and Altars… I just met the guys of Hellfire Deathcult and their Black Witchery worshiping artillery black metal blew my brains away. No damage done.
Blackened Horde: What do you think of the Overseas scenes?
Johnny: The porn-grind scene of Tuvalu fucking rules.
Blackened Horde: What are some of new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Johnny: Forteresse/Canada, Morgal/Finland, Blood Chalice/Finland, Galvanizer/Finland.
Blackened Horde: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Johnny: Something going on all the time?
Aki: Yes, always something going on. We have made some new demos but it ‘s too early to mention anything else about em’.
Blackened Horde: What does the future hold for the band??
Johnny: Upcoming things.
Aki: And one of them is release of our fourth album ‘Bannerless’ in April!
Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/axegressor
https://myspace.com/axegressorthrashmetal
https://www.reverbnation.com/axegressor
