New and Noteworthy: Interview with Helsinki’s Voidfallen

Giving birth to a band is no small amount of work, and Helsinki’s Voidfallen have chosen an interesting time to join the Finnish metal landscape. In an environment brimming with tenured bands and their decades-long fan bases, kicking off a new act can be, in some ways, courageous.

The melodic death metal five-piece, comprised of Tommi Kangaskortet (vocals), Henri Vuorenmaa (guitars), Lauri Myllylä (bass), Mika Lumijärvi (drums), and Aleksi Tossavainen (guitars). They broke ground with EP The Sinners, The Plague, and the Voidfallen in September 2019.

The band spent two years incubating “Sinners”, which kicks off the EP with unflinching growling vocals and riffs that are mature beyond the time the group has been together. They unleash “The Plague” next, balancing blast beats and layers of instrumentation. “Voidfallen”, the band’s namesake and final song of the EP, upholds the first two songs’ intensity while delivering more melody and memorability.

The personal and financial investments they’ve made in getting the band off the ground have begun to pay off, garnering early attention from fans and landing them a Finnish tour alongside melancholy metal’s current shooting star Vorna, as well as death metal up-and-comers Kaunis Kuolematon. One of the remaining tour stops will be at Helsinki’s On The Rocks venue, slated for this Saturday, November 16.

In advance of the performance, Kangaskortet and Vuorenmaa chatted with Metal Solstice about the band’s formation and lessons learned, the importance to them of production value, and the group’s plans to forge ahead.

Metal Solstice: Voidfallen has clearly put a lot of resources into the quality of the initial materials you released, including the EP and the “Voidfallen” music video, etc. How do you bring this same quality and experience to the live performances?

Kangaskortet: Our goal is to do everything as well as we just can, or have resources to do if we outsource it like with the video. Music is the most important thing but there is much more to it, than just music, if you want it to be a comprehensive experience.

Vuorenmaa: We have always liked good looking visuals: video, pictures, graphics.  We wanted to implement that also into our band. We felt that making good looking music video and other graphical content would give the audience more, and so far it has been a great decision.

MS: Let’s talk a bit about how Voidfallen formed. How difficult was it to start something new, in a country where many metal bands have enjoyed longevity of 20-30 years?

Vuorenmaa: Maybe a bit of courage and a lot of determination to make something new and interesting. Finland has produced a ton of high quality metal bands in the past and we want to be in that bunch as well. It’s a long road but we are determined to do the work for it. This also reflects on the previous question.

Kangaskortet: To start, not so much. When it was time to actually start forming the band, the music and the plans to what was later going to be Voidfallen it got a little bit more difficult and required quite some brainwork. We are however confident that we have what is required to became one of those bands.

MS: You’ve all been in other bands and projects; why was it the right time for you both to start working together on something new?

Vuorenmaa: Tommi and I have known each other for a decade now and we’ve talked about this several times before, but we couldn’t find the right time to actually do anything about it. Until the end part of 2017 when I had the demo of “Sinners” basically done and I sent it to Tommi. We both felt then that it’s time to act and do something completely new.

Kangaskortet: I wouldn’t really say there was a right time now either, but more like the right dots were connected at the same time. We made plans and room for this to fit the time being.

MS: How and why was the name Voidfallen chosen?

Kangaskortet: We bounced a lot of different options for a few months trying to find something that would mirror the soul of our music and lyrics, and have a visually appealing look. All things considered it felt right.

Vuorenmaa: It also felt good to say out loud and it has a slight ominous, mysterious tone into it, just like our music and appearance.

MS: What have you learned from the process of forming a new band, and from each other? What are you still learning as Voidfallen moves forward?

Vuorenmaa: We are constantly learning. Financial stuff is something that we have to carefully think about of course. We try to be smart about it and use it to things that are crucial to our band.

Kangaskortet: Like he said, we are constantly learning and the process will never end. Originally we took what we had learned so far, finessed it, made both short and long term plans. We took our time with it and it was worth it. This is something that includes both creative side and the business aspect of it.

MS: Similarly, what can fans expect from your live performances, in terms of on-stage chemistry among the band, and the setlist beyond the three initial EP songs?

Vuorenmaa: We have the three EP songs and couple of new songs for our live set list. Some people already have heard the two new songs live on Tampere and Jyväskylä and we are playing them on Hämeenlinna and Helsinki too. For now, we are doing a five-song set, and it has been a great experience so far.

Kangaskortet: We are writing new material constantly for future releases and we will add few more songs to the setlist when we are done with the preproduction phase of the process.

MS: Nearly everyone, except for those who attended the first few Finnish shows in other cities, will be seeing Voidfallen for the first time. What kind of first impression are you trying to leave?

Kangaskortet: Our plan is to give a thrilling and active but not over the top show that looks like us. We have planned our general stage presence but this is something we cannot fully prepare in advance. These first shows are a part of the learning process for us as we are learning how the individuals act on stage. We document each show and together go through the things in the show which we need more and what we never want to see again. We have accomplished what was to be expected, and the feedback has indeed been good, but it is worth it for people to come to our shows frequently because they will receive something extra each time they attend.

MS: How active do you plan for Voidfallen to be going forward? Can you share more about any future releases or tours you have in the works?

Vuorenmaa: The plan is to be as active as we can, we are constantly looking to fill our calendar what comes to gigs and we have upcoming drum recordings on November for the new songs. We will release the two currently unreleased songs as singles and then we have been planning an full album next.

Kangaskortet: We’ll see how that goes, what happens after the singles is not set to stone yet but one thing is certain: we will remain active and release new material frequently. We are all in for this.