On 6 April 2018, Kalmah will release their eight studio album Palo. Ahead of that launch, Metal Wani’s Jake Patton caught up with lead guitarist Antti Kokko to talk about the Palo, its creation, the bands expectations on how they think the album will be received, and future touring plans in support of Palo.
Speaking about the gap of time between Palo and the bands last release, 2013’s Seventh Swamphony, Antti comments on the difficulty of rehearsing for a new album with band members located in two different parts of Finland, and also talks about how a choice was ultimately made to finish the album
“A year or two ago we decided to give it a little push and now we are here with the new album and it feels great that’s for sure!”
Palo is an album rooted in the history of Kalmah, and it should come as no surprise to fans that many of the melodies and riffs on the album have come from past ideas. When asked about this Antti offers some reflective insight into how some of the riffs and melodies for Palo were born. Antti states:
“In the nineties, we had a different name which was Ancestor, and we did five or six demos and couldn’t get the recording deal, so now we are reusing those riffs and melodies to kind of show to people that we could have made it in the nineties as well. Good ideas, why not use them?”
As any Kalmah fan would know, the band is very habitual when it comes to recording and when asked about why the majority of Palo was again recorded at Tico Tico Studios as opposed to experimenting or using another place Antti comments
“The place is near us, and we are good friends with the sound engineer, so it’s always fun to work there and that makes it an easy choice to go to Tico Tico”.
Musically Palo offers fans another long-awaited taste of Kalmah. When asked about how the band decided to pick tracks The Evil Kin and Blood Ran Cold as the opening singles for the Album Antti remarked that there isn’t really any process, but that “The Evil Kin has the old riff from the nineties and it’s kind of a mix of as we are today, so it was a good choice for the first one (single)”
Closing out by talking about the bands touring plans in support of Palo, Antti offers some hope for fans in corners of the globe that Kalmah has yet to visit
“We have the Finnish gigs coming up and then there are some shows in Asia but that’s not a tour either. We would be happy to play in new places and hopefully Palo will get us there”