Give a glance to the cover artwork imagery, look at the band logo and let the music of this band kick in. What would your very first thought be? Man, have I been despatched back in the midst of the 80's hardcore-punk and thrash metal scene or during the early 90's death metal days? Sure that's not really the case but those trade marks, straight off a period where DIY was not just some ethic to stick to but indeed was something out of necessity propelled by tons of real passion, are all there. The feel, if you can figure out what I'm blabbing about, the black&white roughly sketched illustrations, handwritten lettering, those unparalleled handcrafted band logos (nothing that could be compared to the pick-this-or-that-by-the-number-grunge-font we're massively trusting upon these days).
Thrash-HC-crossover-ist FORESEEN isn't an obscure band from that era surfacing from the dusty grounds to try and grab what they failed to catch in the heydays of the genre but these dudes from Helsinki, Finland formed in recent times, 2009.
They have three recordings under their collective belt, namely their self-titled debut tape dated 2010, a 7” split with Upright which dated 2011 and another 7” entitled “Structural Oppression” -6 tracks count to all their repertoire thus far (quality and passion over quantity).
Gotanerve-zine caught up via email with the band and the guitar player Erkka replied to our questions.
gan: Hey guys, here's gotanerve-zine, how're things?
Hey and happy new year. Thing are really busy at the moment, we are currently finishing the last touches of the writing process for the LP and we are entering the studio in a couple of months.
gan: I guess for most of the kids out there your name will sound a bit unfamiliar so just to break the ice and get this thing started, can you give a reader’s digest version of your history and where the name FORESEEN came from?
We started in the fall of '09 after mine and Mirko's previous band disbanded. We had the idea of creating a band with influences from punk, thrash and hardcore and we were really digging the whole mid 80's NYHC and crossover sound. The name Foreseen doesn't have any specific meaning behind it, we just wanted a one word name and Foreseen sounded really good.
gan: You're young and I bet weren't even born when the likes of Exodus, Slayer, Nuclear Assault, Crumbsuckers, D.R.I., Metallica, S.O.D., Cro-Mags, Agnostic Front (to name a few) were around and the genre you play was taking a steep rise into the underground scene in the 80's. How did you guys get into the genre in the first place, which are some of your primary personal influences and what in your opinion keeps the thrash metal flame alive these days?
Well not everyone in this band is that young but still not old enough to have witnesses these bands in their prime. Everyone has a history with metal and one of the earliest band I was into was Metallica. And when you start to listen to certain type of music you are constantly looking for more bands and along came Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Anthrax to name a few. After I started to get into hardcore, the first bands I were really into were Cro-Mags and Leeway cause they shared the same sound with the bands I grew up listening to. So when we started this band, everything just came naturally and we just began writing these riffs that sounded like the crossover and thrash bands from the 80's.
And what keeps the thrash flame burning are the bands and people who still believe in it, for example the band Ranger and Forced Kill who really live and breathe metal and people can really see it. It's not a tongue in the cheek, neon colored bullshit that they tend to sell as crossover or thrash these days but a real deal.
gan: Beside the sound you stick to that imagery and DIY feel of the early days of the thrash metal scene and 80's hardcore punk.
I don't think it's enough trying if you download the first skull picture you can find from google and type your bands name on top of it in old english font in photoshop and even expect someone to pay money for the final product. Draw it yourself or ask someone you know to do it instead. DIY doesn't need to be a synonym for shit, just make it look like you care even a bit for the record you probably paid money to record. That's how we have done our designs, with one exception being the Upright split 7" which Spoiler did.
gan: Foreseen released a tape and two 7”s thus far. Wanna talk about these works?
Well the demo tape is basically same as the first 7" but the demo has a one extra song. The first 7" had a different lineup and does not represent our band that good anymore but I'm still really happy with it and it has really good songs. Probably the song called “Paving The Way” from our split with Upright was the first song that represented us the way we wanted from the beginning, only thing is that we recorded it with the first lineup and we are not happy with the quality of the recording. We are re-recording it to our LP. And the latest 7" is basically a sample from the material that is going to be featured in our upcoming full length. We did that 7" cause we had a couple of older songs and we wanted to release something to keep ourselves in the game. The feedback we got from that was really overwhelming and we are really looking forward to get the LP out
gan: How a Foreseen song come to life?
The way we worked in the past was that I wrote basically a whole song at home and brought it to rehearsals, but nowadays its a group effort. I still write roughly 90% of the riffs but now we work on the riffs and the songs together as a band. I think this has really affected the quality of the songs and we have basically wrote all the new material in about one year.
The riffs usually come to life when I'm alone at home at night and listen to Carnivore and old Sepultura.
gan: Is there something we could call a thrash scene going in Helsinki or is it just you guys playing the role of underdogs?
We do have underground metal scene in Helsinki but its not just mainly thrash. The metal scene is really divided in Finland but the bands that we have been working with are for example Ranger and Speedtrap. We don't want to just play metal or hardcore shows but mix different bands together. We have been booking shows called "United Forces" that feature different metal, punk and hardcore bands and those type of shows are the ones we are the most excited to play.
gan: Does anyone of you own a skateboard?
Mirko and Tatu have history with skateboarding and Tatu is known in he's former hometown as "the hunk with four wheels"
gan: You guys have been on tour last Summer on the Oppression Euro tour. How did that go? Any good memories and fun road stories you want to share with our readers?
Sadly I could not participate with the recent tour due to my work situation. But from what I heard from the guys was that the tour went really well and it was much better than the one we did in 2012. So unfortunately I have no funny stories from the road. We'll have to do another interview in 2015 when we are planning to hit U.S.A for the first time. I'm sure that we'll have some good stories for you from that tour.
gan: What do you think about the new thrash bands that got to gain some popularity in the recent years?
I haven't followed the new thrash scene that much, I know there are some really good ones and some not that good ones. Norwegian band Necromantheon is among the best current thrash bands out there.
gan: At some point this year a saw an FB post where you were announcing to be recording a new LP. Any news about it and its release?
Well as I mentioned before, we are just finishing a writing process and we have booked the studio to March/April this year. We have the label and distribution planned out but we are not releasing any info about it at this time. What I can tell you is that it's the best stuff we have written and we gonna blow some heads with this. Keep your eyes and ears peeled.
gan: Beside the band, what do you guys do for a living?
I work as a IT-support for a construction company, Lauri our other guitar player goes to school full time, Mårten our drummer drives a delivery truck, Tatu our bass player goes to school and does part time job in a convenience store and Mirko our vocalist has a part time job in a kindergarten and he also prints t-shirts every once a while.
gan: Looking at one of your tour pics I saw one showing you guys standing upon the memorial to Cliff Burton. I heard different opinions about this. How in your view would Metallica evolve their sound whether Cliff didn't prematurely die?
I have had many discussions about this with my friends during the late hours of the night. I don't think that much about what would have happened to Metallica's sound if Cliff would have not died, but I think more about how awesome the band would have been for that short burst they would have had if Dave Mustaine would not been kicked out. I would trade that Metallica for the current one in a heartbeat. I could ramble on about this for a long time but I save that for another time.
gan: Yeah, mad Davie had definitely a huge impact in forging the earlier thrashy sound the Bay-Area kids got to go ape and thrashing all around to it.
gan: Thanks for taking the time for doing this interview. Anything you wanna add?
Thank you for the interview, its always a pleasure to answer some questions. Check out our LP when it comes out and support some good Finnish bands like Ranger, Speedtrap, Horros, Upright, Forced Kill and Kylmä Sota.
Check: www.facebook.com/Foreseen
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