MORGAL interview

 Hi! When your first EP appeared, people were talking about how unbelievably young the band was. Looking back now, do you think listeners sometimes focused more on your age than on the music itself?

1. Probably both, but I think the main thing was that our sound, passion and songwriting style was pretty different compared to other youngsters in the scene. But yeah we still keep hearing how young teenagers we were, but I think it was also because of the shock how good and how young were.

Nightmare Lord felt like a step toward stronger songwriting and a more refined presentation. The Seventh Circle, on the other hand, sounds like you've deliberately let more chaos back into the music. Was that a conscious reaction to the debut?

2. Yes, it was a conscious reaction, our idea for The Sevent Circle album was to make it chaotic and more old school. On the other hand we had severe line-up changes and other shit in our personal lives, that kinda led how the whole process went. But the album overall exceeds the expectations we had. 

The current lineup introduced both a new vocalist and a second guitarist. Did those additions naturally pull MORGAL toward this more violent direction, or was the vision already there before they joined?

3. The vision has always been, men who execute it, not. But yeah, those additions made huge difference how things turned out. The writing process was totally different than before, specially the lyrics part. This time we had multiple person doing the lyrics. Before, Lord Warmoon did all the lyrics and vocals. And this time we did things more as a band, not by ourselves.

The album attacks immediately and rarely lets up, yet it never feels random. How difficult is it to write music that sounds completely possessed while remaining carefully controlled underneath?

4. I think it's just natural for us. Someone once said that Morgal is like a runaway train on the loose, but still somehow able to keep on track, and I think it's completely true. It may seem like some parts are temporary hullabaloo, but it's still quite simple after all. 

The title The Seventh Circle inevitably evokes descent, punishment, and infernal symbolism. What drew you specifically to the seventh circle rather than Hell as a broader concept?

5. We wanted to keep things simple this time. We wanted to offer more traditional satanic themes. For example the album title comes from Dante's Inferno.

Your riffs often balance raw aggression with surprisingly memorable hooks. When writing, do you ever worry that making songs too memorable risks softening the violence, or do you see those qualities as inseparable?

6. I think there must be compromise between memorable hooks and violence and that's the skill we have and others desire. That's the thing what makes us, us.

There's a distinct heavy metal backbone beneath all the blackened fury. Has traditional heavy metal become even more important to MORGAL as you've matured as musicians?

7. Yeah, it's always been huge source of inspiration for us as a band but also personally. We all have quite different taste in music in our personal lives but traditional Heavy Metal always bring's us back to our roots.

Joe Petagno's artwork gave Nightmare Lord an instantly recognizable visual identity. Did following such an iconic cover create any pressure when shaping the identity of The Seventh Circle?

8. Yes and no, I think that's not so big of a deal who makes the artwork for the album, as long as it's good. For example, Thomas Holm was a candidate artist for The Seventh Circle, but we weren't happy about the end result. So we ended up with Satvrnvs Noctvrna, which turned out to be a great choice.

The album constantly shifts between frantic assaults and slower, almost marching passages. Are those moments of restraint meant to build tension, or do they serve another purpose within the songs?

9. I think if you have these hyperspeed parts, then you also need to be able to do those slower more emotional parts to give the tracks more variation of things.

Many bands become progressively cleaner and safer as they gain experience. Listening to The Seventh Circle, it almost feels like you've become more dangerous instead. Was there ever a temptation to continue polishing the sound, or did you deliberately reject that path?

10. You can have balls and do things tight. Our vision for Morgal has never been to be clean or safe. The dangerous thing is that we don't follow any "rules" or standards what back metal is supossed to sound, indstead we do what we wilt.

Finland has produced countless black metal bands with wildly different identities. Do you feel connected to any particular Finnish tradition, or has MORGAL always been driven more by instinct than by scene expectations?

11. We have always followed our own path. Now a days it's difficult even to compare more traditional sounding bands from Finland to us, because we have totally different sound and mindset one could said.

Five years separate your two full-lengths. What changed the most during that period - not in the band, but in the way each of you thinks about making music?

12. Each one of us has gained more experience in making music and now a days everyone of us plays in multiple bands and instruments so of course it has changed a lot during this five year period. But the basics how we write music has stayed the same.

Some albums impress through complexity, others through atmosphere. The Seventh Circle seems driven by momentum above everything else. Is momentum the hardest quality to achieve when writing extreme metal?

13. I think it's just genious that, The Seventh Circle album stands up for scrutiny in multiple point of view. Theres always something to offer to different individuals. Momentum has always been our "thing", and I think that's what we are recognized for.

If someone were to discover MORGAL through this album alone, what misconception about the band would you hope disappears after hearing all six songs?

14. There were sceptical people for this album because of the line up changes. I would hope that people would realize that the direction that the band is going, is much greater now than what it was during Nightmare Lord. We are lot more capable of expressing ourselves by this line up than the previous. But if you were to discover Morgal through this album, I could say that there is so much more to offer than just speed and momentum, there's also more detail than ever.

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