(We present Comrade Aleks‘ most recent interview of Cardinals Folly frontman Count Karnstein, which took place shortly before the release of the band’s newest album by Soulseller Records. He precedes it with a brief review that explains why the album is one you shouldn’t miss.)
This most productive and passionate representative of the Finnish traditional doom metal scene work without sparing themselves. Since the release of their debut full-length Such Power Is Dangerous! in 2011, Cardinals Folly got their portion of well-deserved recognition with five full-length albums, and that’s without counting three splits.
Yes, the guys spent the first years of their underground career trapped in the genre clichés and timidly adhering to the precepts of Pentagram, Reverend Bizarre, Saint Vitus, and beyond. But over the years, their dark, oppressive, sometimes epic riffs began to give way to bold, self-confident heavy metal. Cardinals Folly are still good when it comes to traditional doom, but the fast tracks, which only became more numerous with each album, sound so natural and challenging that even the most stubborn puritans of doom are unlikely to challenge the band’s primacy on the Finnish scene.
Live by the Sword is quite close in sound to the balanced pace of the previous album Defying the Righteous Way, but more often these songs break forward with an attacking gallop. Eight new tracks fit into 40 minutes and are perfectly invigorating.
The reckless “Ride or Die 666”, the dramatic “Luciferian”, the ominous “Innsmouth Royalty”, the heroic title track, the epic “Ludovico” and even the self-explanatory manifesto “Last Bastions of Doom” exceed the expected doom standards in speed (and catchiness) and sound equally exciting. Even the seven-minute “Priesthood of Darkness” is quite catchy, especially since Cardinals Folly still can’t stand their doom vibe for long and break loose in the finale, gradually increasing the tempo.
One of the characteristic features of the band was and is the recognizable, dramatic vocals of frontman Count Karnstein (known in the world as Mikko Kääriäinen). His intonations are inimitable, he is artistic, but does not overplay, and his delivery has enlivened the band’s material before, but on Live by the Sword Cardinals Folly play as if the last times are upon us (and they truly are). This album would be more accurately described as “heavy doomy metal”, but who the hell cares when this stuff rocks and kills.
Hi Mikko! How are you doing? Cardinals Folly’s new album Live by the Sword is to be released on October 27th. Will you play a release show or will you just start another world-wide tour?
Hey, Comrade Aleks! I’m fine, busy as ever. This Folly only seems to take more and more time from me, but that’s good. We’ll play Dutch Doom Days in Rotterdam, Netherlands one week after the album is out, of course also showcasing many tracks from the new album. And the day before that we’re in Belgium. Also a couple of Finnish shows coming later in November. And who knows what after that.
It was a half-joke about the world-wide tour, as Cardinals Folly performs live quite actively, or so it seems. How often did you play outside Helsinki this year? Did you reach any new points on the map with the band?
I got it, though you might stop even half-joking if you knew what we’re planning for next year! Well, this year we will have soon played 15 shows, of which only 2 were in Helsinki. Of other countries, we visited Germany, Italy, Belgium and Netherlands this year. Of these countries, Italy was our debut show there. It was a lovely evening, with several local dedicated doomheads seeing us for the first time.
How do you manage to keep such an active touring pace? Do you organize everything yourself or do you have help from outside? I’m asking because my buddy from the local (psycho / prog / stoner) band did the tours with 25 – 30 shows per month in Europe, organizing everything DIY, and it wasn’t an easy task.
I don’t. It just looks like a good pace, because for many bands even establishing that is difficult. Your buddy’s touring pace is the pace a band needs to really expand. And it’s the pace I want to eventually have. How to accomplish it?
I think the direction is right, but help from live session musicians is definitely needed in the future. I have a decent contact pool around the world, that I’ve built over the years in this game. Of course, it isn’t easy, but in the end it’s a question of what you want. Do you still want to be playing a few local shows per year 10 years from now? I sure as hell didn’t. So I did something about it.
Of course, it also takes a lot of your own organising, sometimes even sleepless nights. But it is what it is. I’m masochistic enough to even say the current state of this business sort of delivers sufficient karma to the bands – this will separate the men from the boys.
So… Live by the Sword. Your colleagues Arkham Witch released the Swords Against Death album in 2022. Didn’t you think to tour with them? A “Swords of Love” (or whatever) tour would conquer the hearts of many more followers and would benefit both bands.
I’ve thought about it once or twice, but I don’t know them personally, and they seem to mostly stay in the UK. But going to play shows in the UK would be great, since we never did that so far, and I’ve been talking about touring there together with Iron Void. Arkham Witch could complete the bill, eh? I got the new Arkham Witch though, both the last EP and album. I dig them. And yes, the comparison to Folly isn’t a bad one. Mixing heavy metal and doom isn’t exactly the current thing, haha!
By the way, I expect answers from Iron Void’s Jonathan this week too. I skipped their new album released earlier this year. What about Australia? Didn’t you finally find a way to reach your buddies from Lucifer’s Fall and their small congregation there?
Jonathan seems cool. He’s one of those old doomheads who never quit. And an absolute old school Star Wars maniac, just like me, haha! I was planning to go to Scotland to see the Iron Void/Orodruin shows last summer, but other plans came in the way.
Australia, well… we did a split with Lucifer’s Fall in 2019. That was actually released by Cruz Del Sur. Probably our best label so far, aside from the current one. I did meet Phil on my 3-week holiday in Australia the same summer. Spent a few good weeks with him and his wife in Adelaide. Great people, also everyone in Lucifer’s Fall seemed really nice.
We did have some dream about touring together in Europe, but… well, “never say never” is one of my fave mottos, even if it’s included in the title of the worst James Bond film ever, haha! So maybe one day something happens. Lucifer’s Fall called it quits though. But I doubt Mr. Howlett ever will. I have this feeling that we will meet again, and that might include playing shows together…
Live by the Sword contains more fast killer-tracks than any of your previous albums, and this up-tempo delivery fits the band perfectly. Was it a conscious decision to increase the band’s speed?
No. It never is for us. I did think about adding more choruses to songs, but that’s all. We just go for what we like and choose the best tracks and keep them.
The thing is, that if I’m honest, we’ve all three, even myself who used to be a huge doom metal maniac, been a bit bored for a good while with how doom metal is mostly like. It’s almost like not sticking to the slow Sabbath riff formula would be against the rules or something. I don’t think you can attract young people to doom metal with a scene like this. If it goes on like this, the average age of the people in bands is gonna be 65, everybody’s gonna sit on their asses in their welfare country and just expect things to run like a TV show that had too many seasons.
For me metal is always rebellious and meant to be revolutionary even in all its traditionality. So there’s no fucking way I’m gonna play you guys doom metal that sounds like I’m afraid to press the gas pedal. I want to make mean riffs and death grunts as long as I have a heartbeat. I don’t need to be an impossible individual to deal with, or hide behind some artificial artist imagery in the social media or internet, but if I hear something that genuinely makes my ass move, I’m going all-in for it. I’m a ride-or-die to that. I just want to make dangerous music, to reach new peaks in that art. I have full confidence in what I’m doing, and that’s all you need. That, and maybe a few beers.
A few beers won’t hurt anyone for sure. Not in our age at least. You said about “more choruses”, and Cardinals Folly had a lot of catchy stuff before with hooks, nice to sing along lines, etc. Do you try to reach a bigger label nowadays? Or are all places occupied with a few old or trendy new bands? I don’t remember if I asked this question to you before. But the frontman of Dead Talks got the point – being on a big label is rather a question of luck than high skills.
I don’t know Dead Talks, but in my opinion, he mentions the other side of the coin – how trendy bands get picked as supposedly guaranteed sellers. But what about all the work required to make it while on a big label? You end up using countless hours just handling things other than composing or playing music. Most bands would not be able to do that, no matter what they say. Because even that is not a free meal ticket, unless you make it really big. I think most bands just say that to explain their own situation. Sometimes the promo shit that bands write online is a polar opposite to their real-life approach to their craft. It has become a joke for many, as the industry is in a slump. Not many are willing to carve the path further.
I wouldn’t talk about “trying to get on a big label”, but rather “wanting the best for my band”, and in our case Soulseller Records was definitely a step in the right direction. Does Cardinals Folly sound like a trendy mainstream crowd-pleaser if we insert more studio time, bigger production and a better promotion/distributor? Nah. Not as long as I’m game. We improve by each album, no matter who puts it out! But of course we want the best for ourselves. There’s always room to improve without ruining your authenticity.
How long did you work over the new material? Live by the Sword sounds damned solid and focused, so I wonder if you had to leave any fillers overboard?
It was the longest writing process, for several reasons. After the previous album came out in March 2020 and we had finished our German tour back then, I left Europe for several months and covid emerged. At that point we didn’t really know what would happen in general. It took us like 4-5 months to get back on track in Finland. And when we did, lots of songs were written, but none of them was on the level we ultimately looked for. It’s like we needed to spit those songs out of our system to get going again, even if they were not the step-up that we were looking for. Things have gotten to the point that if anything sounds even remotely average or non-impressive, we don’t mess around with it anymore. Of course, this is what everyone says, but at this point I can just be honest about it. The riffs really need to talk to me, and I have to come up with good vocals on top too. The only way to evolve.
But then that Purification split opportunity came, and it gave us the perfect way to do a smaller release again, write 3 mid-tempo songs to get into the frame of putting things together for an album, albeit a mini-album in this case. Succeeding in that opened the door again for inspiration, and more killer tracks emerged in 2021. We did like 5 of them before our guitar player Juho moved to the other side of the country, which again slowed down the process a bit. Then I finished writing the album with the last few tracks before we hit the studio early this year.
Sure, the album is our best: the production and especially the vocals are closer to what I want than ever before. There’s still room for improvement, and as long as we can evolve, the band will be motivating work in progress. I love it that our story is actually very much a story of our own – we get BETTER on every album, while most bands get worse! But I guess most bands don’t do six albums either. Or have a frontman who sounds like a madman. Go figure! I would also like to use this opportunity to thank Soulseller Records, who are handling this release with the professionality it deserves. Thank you, Jorn!
I wanted to add something to your words, but there’s nothing to add. You sum it up perfectly. “Ride or Die 666”, “Luciferian”, “Priesthood of Darkness” demonstrate your inexhaustible reverence before the Ruinous Powers, so did it ever help you? Or is it your twisted tribute to HIM making you follow the left-hand path of love?
All of that and a lot more. Look at the world around you, like Prince Prospero said in Masque of Red Deathfrom 1965 (one of my fave films ever, you never guessed it right?): “Can you look around this world and believe in the goodness of a god who rules it? Famine, Pestilence, War, Disease and Death! They rule this world.”
In the end, you always have to pay the devil his due, but that’s my pact with the devil and sealed in my blood. In hell you will meet more interesting people.
I know this quote thanks to Theatre of Tragedy’s Velvet Darkness They Fear. Okay, it’s a kind of cliché but here’s the traditional question: do you have songs based on movies this time?
I know that album, because my wife loves it. She mentioned it to me during one of our many Vincent Price-themed movie evenings. I did know that band, but I didn’t know they had such great taste in movie samples, haha! “Ludovico” continues the Clockwork Orange-inspired madness that “Ultra-Violence” started on the previous album. So I guess you could call it a movie song, as these are more inspired by the Stanley Kubrick film than the Anthony Burgess novel.
Once again you return to H. P. Lovecraft mythology with the new song “Innsmouth Royalty”. What new did you discover in the Shadow over Innsmouth story?
Nothing, haha! The title is sarcastic. The song is actually more about “Dunwich Horror”, which is maybe my favorite HPL story. That story has inspired several Cardinals Folly tracks, all the way from “Her Twins of Evil” on our third album Holocaust of Ecstasy & Freedom back in 2016. I think that story and also film inspired several tracks on that album. Oh yes, also the opener track “The Poison Test” mentions the fire at Sentinel Hill, where Wilbur Whateley finally tries to open the gate for the old ones to enter.
I sort of see myself as the Wilbur Whateley of doom metal – deranged and outlawed, but still right in many ways! If you haven’t, you should also check out the 1970 film version of Dunwich Horror, where Dean Stockwell puts on a great performance as Wilbur. Actually, having said that, I’m gonna watch it TONIGHT, as a friend is coming over for a movie night and I bet he hasn’t seen it. HPL is a slight obsession. Yog-Sothoth will always be the gate. And the future.
Yes, I remember your tender love for the Dunwich Horror story. Do you have the book with Baranger’s illustrations? And how do you like Goe Tanabe’s manga based on Lovecraft’s stories? I can’t get used to this manga style still.
No, I just have it in a compilation of his stores in both English and Finnish, and in one illustrated big omnibus, but it wasn’t Baranger. Don’t ask me about Manga any more than you ask about reality TV or Japanese dwarf porn. I’m clueless. The only manga I ever read was some manga porn I bought while in Japan a long time ago. Just for funs. I didn’t understand it, or how someone could get a hard-on from it, either. Gifting it to a woman who didn’t appreciate it either, sums up this banal story.
Well, Live by the Sword presents Cardinals Folly as an absolute competent and solid band at the peak of its shape. Do you have a clue how to hold this high level of creativity further?
Right now I don’t, because life has sort of caught up with the band, and it’s hard to rehearse frequently. I’ve solved one part of this puzzle by using session members for gigs/tours when needed. For an example, last December I had an AMAZING tour in the US with two very young guys I had never met before. Matt and Holden, they handled guitar and drums perfectly and we got along super well. Maybe what I said about attracting the younger generations was bollocks after all! Because these guys really knew their stuff.
Highlight of the tour was when we played at a festival in Milwaukee as the main support for the legendary Jinx Dawson’s Coven. Definitely one of the highlights of my career so far. Also lately in Finland my friends Alexander (guitar in Orbiter) and Ville (drums in Grip of Death) have been helping me with a few shows. For next year, several good tours seem to be shaping up, with both the actual line-up and these dudes, so it will work out. I’m blessed to have great individuals with me on this cursed quest!
Can you sum up your experience of the US tour? That’s a kind of really bold adventure for an independent European doom metal band.
It may seem bold, but it’s also necessary. Sometimes you need to take such leaps of faith, and I do know something about that. There’s so many states and cities that you potentially can play in. We did 5 shows only, from Wisconsin to Ohio, but I hope there would be more next time. This last experience was so good that I hope to return in 2024. Matt and Holden are both ready for it, and eager to fight in the Folly US troops in the future as well. Those boys were some hungry witchfinders.
I have nothing but good to say about the United States of America, from Cardinals Folly‘s perspective. The crowds were great, the venues took really good care of us, dudes had done their homework and mastered all the set list’s songs well, we met many great people and made new friends… all in all, the road treated us well and I can’t wait to be back. Travelling can be exhausting, but it’s always worth it for me. It was the first time I jumped aboard a plane alone for 18 hours to play a Cardinals Folly tour, but it needed to happen. The stars were right.
You released two compilation during spring 2023: This Is No Church! and Heretic’s Hangover & Orthodox Faces. For sure, the end is nigh, but where do you haste? What drove you to release both compilations almost at the same time?
No, the Heretic’s/Orthodox tape is just our two first EP’s on the same cassette, as we did everything to that format at the same time. This Is No Church! is the title of the tape set and also the new compilation tape that’s part of it, with all our split release songs and a few unreleased ones. This set features our full discography for the first time ever in tape format. A set of seven tapes. All five albums before Live By The Sword, the EPs on a single tape, and the title compilation. It’s almost sold out.
Well, as far as I know, its our fourth or fifth interview, so that makes me the band’s biggest fan by default. But there’s always something new to ask. Can you tell me, what’s the outcome of the war and the future of mankind?
I think this period will later be remembered as the first stage of World War III. Sorry, but you asked! We’re going to hell, aren’t we? There’s no such thing as the future of mankind. Don’t read the news too much, if you want to stay sane! That’s my advice to you, and it doesn’t matter if we’re talking about the news in the east or news in the west.
I don’t see a future for mankind – not in the way the term is meant. The future is a dark place and times are uncertain. Alas, you can always learn from the hard times. Live every day like it were your last. If fate calls, answer it, live by the sword and let no posers take control. Stay true to yourself amidst this madness.
Agreed, and it won’t grant as much fun as the “holocaust of ecstasy and freedom” Lovecraft / you talked about. For how long do you aim to continue the cult?
As long as the Last Bastions of Doom ever need to be defended, I will. Until I shuffle off this mortal coil. While harking back to an era where metal felt dangerous and induced panic across the world.
Thanks for great questions once again, Comrade Aleks. Kippis!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cardinals-Folly/364401236910911
https://cardinalsfolly.bandcamp.com/
https://soulsellerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/live-by-the-sword