The Morning Never Came from Finnish band SWALLOW THE SUN has to be the newcomer album of the year 2003 – at least for me. Once listened to it will captivate you for a long time. Perfectly fitting to the winter when darkness takes over daylight and the gray sky cries melancholy the album comes straight along to fill the gap bands like My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and Anathema have left in their early days. The Morning Never Came stands pretty unrivaled this days, is that the key of the band’s success? I gonna ask ... keyboarder A. Munter took care of the answers ;)

Dajana: Existing since 2000 and having released just one demo (Out Of This Gloomy Light) you could ink a deal with Firebox. Now your debut album The Morning Never Came runs the charts of many metal magazines, got high-rated everywhere, was album of the months, newcomer album of the year ... etc. It’s an extremely fast advancement. Isn’t it frightening?
A. Munter: Yes, in a way it is, to a certain extent. But the thing is that all of us have been into music and bands for quite a while, and we have certain amount of experience considering these things. If we were just starting with no experience at all, this all would be fuckin' frightening. And of course we are happy with the way things have gone. We just have to hope that they'll keep on going well
in the future, also.

Dajana: Expectations are high for everything you will do afterwards. Do you feel any pressure? How to deal with that?
A. Munter: Of course people will have some expectations, and that will lead to some pressure on us considering future releases, but the more you think of it, the more it'll affect you. So, for what it comes to composing, I try not to think of what people will be expecting of us.

Dajana: Can you already tell anything about sold entities and activities that point out high-rated reviews?
A. Munter: The first pressing of the album was sold out, and the other one got to the label and stores last week. It seems that it has been going quite well, even to the extent that it surprised our record label, because they ran out of copies of the album at one point.

Dajana: What you think is the secret of your success?
A. Munter: Well, I wouldn't actually speak of success at this point. But I'd see that the reception of the album has been good because all the pieces on it clicked together nicely. Raivio's compositions combined with the arrangements by all of us are working, the album sounds good, heavy, and not too clinical, and Tuomo Lehtonen did an excellent job with the covers.

Dajana: You sound pretty much like a big portion of Saturnus, mixed up with old My Dying Bride, old Anathema and a bit of Opeth. Was that the aimed goal? Or did you realize that first afterwards?
A. Munter: My Dying Bride has always been the main inspiration to us. But of course we have never aimed at copying someone, just to play similar kind of music as they do. And because we all listen to various genres of music, influences from them can be heard from the album, too.

Dajana: How much of space offers this genre you are ranging in to develop? How big is the risk to copy the debut album or the bands you are influenced by?
A. Munter: The genre doesn't limit development. I think that already on the first album there's lots of influences from other genres also, they are just played in a way that they sound like the genre were most often associated with. I don't think that there's risk of copying, we are quite critical with ourselves.

Dajana: Are there already any ideas about new stuff?
A. Munter: Some, few songs are half-finished, but as we don't have any excess material from the album, everything that is composed after this is new. Probably the following material will also include songs by other members than Raivio.

Dajana: Your lyrics deal with (dead) women and horror stories. Get you influenced by special writers, stories or films? If yes, which one. Why this adduction to dead women? Any special meaning behind?
A. Munter: Raivio, as the main lyrics-writer, would be better suited to answer this question, but I'll try to do my best. The lyrics on The Morning Never Came are basically horror stories, or tales of apocalypse, with some 19th century vibes on them, and the classical horror stories often feature women, either dead or undead. The classic horror themes.

Dajana: You finally have played first shows. How did they turn out? What to expect in the future in matter of live appearances?
A. Munter: The shows were excellent. The reception was good, especially in Lutakko, Jyväskylä, because we all live in here. We are currently on a booking agency, so you can expect a lot more gigs. Hopefully also beyond Finnish borders.

Dajana: You have put all 4 tracks from your first demo on the debut. Do these tracks vary from the original ones?
A. Munter: No, not really, only minor changes here and there. That actually became somewhat of a problem at the studio, at least for me, because the mood on the demo turned out so well, that it was hard to catch that mood again when recording the album.

Dajana: My favorite song on The Morning Never Came is Out Of This Gloomy Light. Tell me your version of a screenplay for a (possible) video.
A. Munter: Oh, I really haven't thought of that before. Possibly it could feature the house on the cover of our album, and some beautiful dead women.
Dajana: *lol* … no comment …

Dajana: Besides band related things, what are you interested in?
A. Munter: Reading, movies, computers, and some sports. But most of my activities besides my job have something to do with music.

Dajana: Looking back to 2003, what are your top 5 of things that happened last year?
A. Munter: Not in any particular order, I'd say: seeing Iron Maiden live, all Swallow The Sun -related things, playing live, festivals such as Ilosaarirock and... seeing Iron Maiden live. That was fucking awesome, I have somehow been able to miss all their performances in Finland until this year.

Dajana: Looking forward: any interesting pledges for the rest of this year?
A. Munter: No, not really.

Dajana: Bring the beauty of the dark Finnish winter that swallows the sun closer to me.
A. Munter: Well, the nature in Finland is beautiful, but it's way too fuckin' cold in here. But the winter really does swallow the sun, you can hardly see any sunshine here during late autumn and early winter.

Dajana: Ok, me is running out of questions. Last words are up to you. Now you can tell everything you want us to know ...
A. Munter: Give our album a listen, and we hope to see you on gigs - Let's Metal!

1/2004 ©  Dajana Winkel • Swallow The Sun •