Hi! Twenty years is a dangerous age for a band. By that point, some groups become prisoners of their own legacy while others reinvent themselves so radically they lose their identity. How have FINSTERFORST managed to evolve without abandoning what makes the band recognizable?
Olli: Hey! Have we? Well, thank you! I think it is a mix of not giving a fuck and staying very curious about music in general. On one hand we have never been shy of being inspired and influenced by all kinds of music which helps a lot with not getting stuck. On the other hand we have never been the band to follow trends. Instead we have always followed our own path, even if that meant not selling a certain amount of records or being the streaming Darling.
You have described your music as "Black Forest Metal" for years now. At what point did that term stop being a playful description and become a genuine artistic framework?
Olli: I would say it works as the opposite of a framework for us. We have been described as Folk Metal, Pagan Metal, Viking Metal, later on as Post (Black) Metal and surely some more genres were thrown around to frame us. The Black Forest Metal label gives us the freedom to do our own thing and not care about genres, fan bases and so on. We're defining it while we evolve inside our own world.
One thing that has always separated FINSTERFORST from many folk-oriented bands is the absence of obvious nostalgia. Even when drawing from tradition, the music rarely feels interested in recreating the past. Is that a conscious decision?
Olli: For the early years I can't say why it was that way. Since I've joined the band, it has definitely been a conscious decision. I studied history, so don't get me wrong. I'm very interested in history but I don't see a point in trying to recreate it. Every era had its' fair share of cruelty, its' winners and losers, its' cultural and societal highs and lows. There's just no use trying to bring back cultures that have obviously not succeeded. There are reasons for it.
The metal scene often rewards specialization. Bands become known for one sound, one formula, one specific emotional register. FINSTERFORST seem determined to do the opposite. Has refusing easy categorization ever become a disadvantage?
Definitely! We're a tough sell to anybody because you can't say "They are a great (insert genre) band! They sound like X combined with Y!" Makes us tough to market and book for sure. At the same time it has become our calling card. Our niche. And as mentioned before, it has provided us with great freedom.
Seven years have passed since the last full-length. In an era where artists are encouraged to remain constantly visible, did that absence feel liberating or frustrating?
Olli: Would we like to release more? Yes? Would we sacrifice quality for that? No. So it is what it is. And we're pretty proud of Jenseits, whether it's a full-length or not.
The previous Jenseits release revolved around a nearly forty-minute composition, while Still returns to more traditional song structures. Did you find yourselves rediscovering anything by working within shorter formats again?
Olli: Writing lyrics was definitely more free-flowing. I didn't have to think about the bigger picture of the song and create like a storyboard so I wouldn't get ahead of myself. That being said, writing lyrics for Jenseits was as much fun as it was exhausting.
Atmosphere has become one of the most overused words in modern metal criticism. When you hear people describe FINSTERFORST as "atmospheric", what do you hope they actually mean?
Olli: I'd hope people can close their eyes and go on a journey with us. The drummer of another band once told me we helped him through tough times and cried while telling me how important we were to him. If you can make people feel such strong emotions, that's atmospheric to me.
Folk metal has experienced several waves of popularity and backlash over the years. Having witnessed those cycles firsthand, what do you think the genre misunderstood most about itself?
Olli: Honestly? They thought they'd become mainstream at a time where so many bands constantly redefine genre boundaries. So it's almost impossible to stay ahead of the curve. And there wasn't enough evolution or development in the genre. At least that's my take in the issue.
Many bands become heavier with age, while others become more reflective. Listening to Still, I hear both tendencies simultaneously. Does that contradiction reflect where FINSTERFORST stand today as musicians and individuals?
Olli: We're seven guys, so it's a tall order to reflect on us as individuals. As a musician, I'm not sure about becoming more reflective because I haven't looked at it that way. Heavier? For sure! I think there comes a moment when, at first by accident and later by design, you realize that all the technique and skill doesn't necessarily translate to greater songs. You still have to create those moments that make you feel something. And more often than not, that's created by relatively simple means. Taking the foot off the gas and a step back and let the heaviness do the trick.
The album contains a 25-minute piece, "Leere", alongside much more concise material. Do you approach writing long compositions fundamentally differently, or do they simply grow beyond their intended boundaries?
Olli: We get that question quite often and still can't exactly answer it. It just happens because it feels right to end with that one massive monument of a song. By now we obviously expect it to happen, so we're not surprised by it anymore. But other than Jenseits which was designed as a 40 minute one song EP from the start, we never actually plan on a certain song length. Simon once told it like this: "Whenever I think I'm close to the end, I realize there's just one thing missing. And then there's another one and so on and so on." In terms of writing lyrics for those, it's best described as painful fun.
German has remained central to FINSTERFORST despite increasing international recognition. Has there ever been pressure, internal or external, to move toward English lyrics?
Olli: We have thought about it quite a few times, especially me. Sometimes it seems easier to get in that flow when you don't overthink every single word. But in the end we've always come back to German as we/I can simply express ourselves better that way. From the outside there has never been any pressure as far as I know.
Throughout your career, you've occupied a strange territory between black metal, folk metal, atmospheric metal, post-metal, and something entirely your own. Do you still feel connected to any specific scene, or have you become outsiders everywhere?
Olli: Honestly, we don't care. What do genres mean? It's a description so people have an idea of what you might sound like before they hear the first note. We are living in our own little niche and people have to experience the music and make up their own mind about it. Do we feel ties to some genres? Well yes, in terms of having friends in different bands that we have spent time with. Other than that, it's all just Rock'n'Roll.
After two decades, what aspect of the contemporary metal scene irritates you more than it did when the band started?
Olli: There's plenty of stuff that irritates me today. But I think most of it just comes with getting older and missing out in developments because the scene is no longer that important to you. In the end I still feel pretty comfortable at most concerts and festivals. What I really don't like is the right/left polarization of the scene. The heart and soul of Metal is Rebellion and right now it seems to be the most rebellious thing to be a radical centrist. As a classic leftist that fucks me up big time.
Many listeners discover bands through playlists and isolated tracks today. FINSTERFORST, however, often feel like an album-oriented experience. Do you think something essential is lost when music designed as a journey is consumed in fragments?
Olli: Oh yeah! Take Jenseits for example. We had to divide it for the vinyl version and stuck with the parts for streaming. But in terms of lyrics you won't get the message by hearing only the first three parts and in terms of music you won't get the big arc until you've heard the last big choir. A lot of great albums are a unit that shouldn't be divided.
The title Still is intriguing because it can suggest silence, calmness, stagnation, endurance, or continuation depending on interpretation. What made that single word capable of carrying the weight of this album?
Olli: Just what you said. It offers different meanings and kind of summarizes the whole album. We thought about other titles as well but none other had that feel of being complete yet simple.
The inclusion of two cover songs at the end raises an interesting question. What does a FINSTERFORST cover need to achieve beyond simply paying tribute to the original?
Olli: We have to feel like the song was written with a similar mindset like ours. Pursuing some kind of heaviness without clinging to imaginary borders. When that's the case we try to give it our own spin. Make it feel like this should have been written by us.
You've spent decades building a sound that is immediately identifiable without belonging entirely to any established category. Looking back now, was that individuality something you consciously pursued, or something that emerged accidentally through stubbornness?
Olli: I would think that every artist tries to create his own identity. With that being said, we've never talked about trying to be different than others. We've just incorporated whatever we felt was missing or helping us to get closer to that perfect Finsterforst record. So I'd lean towards accidentally by open-minded stubbornness, if that makes any sense.
Imagine somebody encounters FINSTERFORST for the first time through Still and then works backwards through the entire discography. What misconception about the band do you think would disappear first?
Olli: That's a really interesting question. We all know the other way around. Everytime we release something new there are people that want us to go back to the sound of Weltenkraft which will probably never happen. Listening to Still first would probably lead to the misconception of a band that has always sounded extremely heavy which wasn't always the case. And then, in the middle of the road, there's Yølø to really freak them out. Can we find someone to do it and study him or her?
