Beneath The Endless Rains with Slow Fall

Beneath The Endless Rains with Slow Fall

Slow Fall present their own dark and intriguing take on melodic death metal, and the results are absolutely epic in scope.  Based out of Finland, Slow Fall has just unleashed Beneath The Endless Rains – their latest auditory odyssey via Inverse Records.  Fans of bands such as Sentenced and Amorphis just might discover a new favorite when exploring the intensive melancholic reprieves of Slow Fall.  Highwire Daze recently interviewed guitarist Juho Viinikanoja to find out more about the mighty Slow Fall and their Beneath The Endless Rains magnum opus.  Read on…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Slow Fall, and how long the band has been together.
My name is Juho Viinikanoja and I play guitar in Slow Fall. I also write music and lyrics. Slow Fall was formed back in the year 2016 and this current lineup has been together from 2019.

Where is the band based out of and what is the local music scene like there?
Slow Fall is originally from the city called Oulu in Finland. Even though everyone of us is living in different cities all across Finland, we still consider Oulu as our “hometown”. The local music scene of Oulu is well known for it’s wide variety of bands, especially in metal genre.

How did you wind up signing with Inverse Records?
If I remember right, a while after we released our second single and the first video track “Across the Cold” from our album, Inverse Records approached us and suggested for co-operation. Everything has worked out fine with those fine gentlemen on the label so thank you Jaakko and the boys!

Is there any overall story or concept behind the Beneath The Endless Rains title?
Beneath the Endless Rains is not a story or a concept album, even though at first I would have liked to do that sort of a thing. The right story just was not there at the time we did these songs, but I promise we’ll do some sort of a concept album one day! The title Beneath the Endless Rains is a result of long brainstorming after we discussed about the album title. It just reflects the album’s music and lyrics very well because melancholy is kind of a key element of the whole album. Also in the track Drown (Beneath the Endless Rains) the “endless rains” stand as a metaphor for an ocean.

Select two songs from Beneath The Endless Rains and what inspired the lyrics.
The first song would be Exile the Day. In the lyrics there is this person who is running away from something he/she is not willing to accept. Something too grave to understand. I think this is something very relatable in everyone’s life: not to be able to understand why this is happening to me or for some of your loved ones. The second choice would be When the Suns Collide. Lyrics for this song were heavily inspired by Alfonso Cuarón’s film Gravity. Space has always interested me a lot so I wanted to write something about loneliness and isolation and give the lyrics a so called “interstellar touch”. So basically every time I write lyrics for the songs I write about my own feelings or about something that moves me enough. Inspiration can be found everywhere, the only difficulty is to find the right words for each feeling I’m trying to express lyrically.

Who produced Beneath The Endless Rains and what was it like working with them?
We produced the album by ourselves since we had a clear vision for what we were heading for with it. But who knows if our future albums will include a producer too? I’d like to try out that too if the right person is willing to do work with us.

Who did the cover art for Beneath The Endless Rains and how much input did you have on it?
The artwork was done by Mr. Jomi Kyllönen and he did amazing job with it! We really had no need for “art direction” or whatsoever because Jomi had his vision and we just trusted this guy 110%. The cover art is quite far from the basic metal artwork style and it has something very elegant in it.

What has it been like to release a new album right in the middle of a pandemic? Have you had any shows or tours cancelled because of it?
Well, basically this pandemic just cancelled all of our upcoming shows we were planning to do to celebrate the album’s release. But it is what it is now and all we can do now is to reach new listeners without doing any live shows. And because now there’s lots of extra time in our hands we have already started to write songs for the second album!

What could one expect from a live Slow Fall show?
Very energetic and raw rock’n’roll show with lots of sweat included. Even though our music may be very melancholic at times we tend to have good time on stage. So, moshing before shoegazing I guess?

If Slow Fall could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
This is a tough one because there would be dozens of bands I’d love to share a stage with. But I must say Sentenced since they have been my all-time favorite band for almost twenty years now. I just never get tired of them. They have been a huge inspiration for me musically and I know that the other guys in Slow Fall would agree with me too. So, in some alternate universe I’d really love to play a show with Sentenced and thank Miika Tenkula for his amazing music.”

Are you involved with any other bands or projects outside of Slow Fall?
Not that much. I have done some sessions with my brother’s band Darklaid and played some guitars for their songs. Slow Fall is definitely my main interest when it comes to writing music and playing it live.

What is your favorite beer of choice and why
I’ve really learned to like Indian pale ale beers lately, so I’ll go with that category. I have never been too much into this “taste thousands of different beers”- thing so I can’t really say my THE favorite. The main thing is that beer never runs out, haha!

What do you hope 2021 brings for Slow Fall?
Well, it depends how long this Covid situation continues. But we definitely want to play lots of live shows when it’s safe for everybody again. Maybe even do some little tours here and there. But one thing I know for sure is that we’re going to write some ass-kicking new material and hopefully hit the studio next year!

Any final words of wisdom?
Beneath the Endless Rains is out there people so go give it a spin! Stay safe and keep rocking!

Slowfall is Markus Taipale (vox), Aki Pusa (drums), Heikki Kakko (gtr), Juho Viinikanoja (gtr) and Markku Kerosalo (bass).

(Interview by Ken Morton)

Slow Fall on Facebook
Inverse Records on Facebook