ORANSSI PAZUZU’s JUN-HIS About New Album: “We Wanted to Make Something That Will Influence People in Mysterious Ways”

By Prog Sphere on March 17, 2020

Oranssi Pazuzu is one of rare bands on the broad black metal scene that pushed the genre into new directions with each of their previous releases, starting with 2009’s debut Muukalainen puhuu. The group from Tampere/Seinäjoki in Finland returns with the release of fifth full-length album Mestarin kynsi, out on April 17th via Nuclear Blast. The new recording is once again Oranssi Pazuzu refining the black metal genre by largely relying on Krautrock, electronica and ever-present psychedelia.

In a new interview with Niko Savic, singer and guitarist Jun-His reflects on the creative process and ideas behind Mestarin kynsi. A few excerpts taken from the interview, as well as the full stream, are below.

“[Mestarin kynsi] continues partly from where we left off, which is hypnotic but sinister moods and soundscapes, and all that,” Jun-His says. “On this one we wanted to do a bit more focused soundscape and the world. We did previously with the Waste of Space Orchestra album a wall of sound with ten people, so we thought we can’t do that bigger or anything like that. Better to go to another direction which means, for us, more focused and more space between elements. On practical level we brought some new technology with sampler and that sort of stuff.”

He continues to say: “We kind of had quite early on this idea that maybe we could try to make pieces that would for us represent and feel like that we are making spells or courses, something that will influence people in mysterious ways, and maybe ways that they don’t necessarily think about.”

During the interview Jun-His also speaks about the group’s long-standing relationship with the Roadburn Festival telling that it is the general vibe of experimentation that connects the band with the festival.

“For us it would be easy to do the same album again, and I think for Roadburn it would be easy to do the same festival again. But there is a sense of explorer of both Walter [Hoeijmakers, festival organizer] and us, and that’s one of the most important things.”

Listen to the full interview below. Mestarin kynsi is out on April 17th via Nuclear Blast; pre-order it here.