Interview with dark electro revelation Miseria Ultima: ‘Arctic coldness, death and tragedy’
After their recently released new EP “Witch Heart Apparition”, the Finnish dark elektro duo Miseria Ultima (Aleksi Martikainen on vocals and Kimmo Huhtala on synths) now strikes back with their 3rd studio album on their new label Alfa Matrix.
The band’s trademark sound is clearly present again, so you can expect cold melancholic atmospheres and strong melodies with harsh aggressive vocals and dark elektro assaults. “In Colors of Void” features 11 songs dealing with mortality and tragic death and how we are facing grief and such sudden loss.
Our reviewer was more that raving about the new album when he wrote this: “Miseria Ultima confirms their strong potential revealed at previous works and will be a true revelation for Dark-Electro heads.”
Time we hailed Finland to meet up with Aleksi Martikainen (vocals) for a talk.
SL: Tell us more about the concept of your new album?
M: In our album “In Colors of Void” the main concept is about the feelings we go through when facing different kind of tragedies. Even the pains and tragedies have their own colors and shades. The whole concept is about these shades and facing every song reflects it differently.
SL: How would you describe your music on the new album to somebody who does not know you yet or only knows previous material?
M: We think dark and cold, with warm and aggressive synths are the main keys. What you can wait from our music are the cold machines, bursting angry and cold melodies, combined to lyrics, which take a more philosophical approach towards different kind of things. Especially on all our three albums, we think that in our latest album we have gone forward, towards even more melodic and aggressive style, but keeping the EBM and dark electro things almost the same.
SL: Is there any link to find between your icy music style and your country of origin, Finland?
M: Yes, of course. We think that it is our main concept as a band. We both were born and have been living in the north of Finland, where the winters tend to get cold and dark. You can see the sunlight only for a while in winter, but of course there are some months that the days carry no light. It has a kind of an artistic link, when you walk around in the winter night or day, in snowstorm or in a calm day, taking the atmospheres in and think about nature how cruel and beautiful it is at the same time. This sometimes inspires our music very much. Silence and nature. We think that for both of us, we understand the north and arctic coldness and of course the summers there, things like these are very inspirational. You see death and life, tragedy and joy in every season. The whole process for us is like sparking a fire into self-consciousness.
SL: Atmospheres also characterise much your songs. Do you have any cinematic approach before writing a new song? Tell us more how are you both working in studio together?
M. We both see music as pictures and atmospheres. We are kind of an “visual people”. Usually, when Kimmo sends Aleksi a song, Aleksi has a moment to reflect a proper lyrics and arrangements to it, which he has been written. We usually both do our things and then we head to the studio and make some production together, giving ideas, processing the whole thing. And then we advance to record phase, what we have “idealized”.
SL: I have the impression you have quite diverse influences?
M: Haha, yes! We both were in a doom-metal band in a past also did some together under a different project. We think that reflects and influences us a lot, especially doom-metal bands like Funeral and Skepticism have been very inspiring for us. But of course there are many more, we listen to different kinds of music, from metal to rap to classical to atmospheric soundtrack music and from industrial to aggrotech. We think all the music we listen to are affecting our style, taking influences from everything which sounds awesome.
SL: What’s next for Miseria Ultima?
M: There will be shows for us in 2023 and we actually are making new songs as we speak. But the priority are the shows and then we get back on track of making new songs and melodies. Sometimes, the inspiration comes ablaze, sometimes, it takes some time.
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