Some darkness attached…
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Wow, Sisters of Mercy. That’s a blast from the past. Used to cover this tune in a past life.
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Hi again MadScientist,
Indeed, the hunchback of Notre-Dame is exactly what it evoked to me, with fates reversed… Apparently the guitarist-composer was initially amused by doom/goth recipes with a “classic” accent. I feel the sample you provided above probably belongs to a universe similar to where he came from, so that would be why in an early interview in company of Kai Hahto he sounded like he was welcoming Aleah’s input simply as a way to embelish his own art:
YouTube: Swallow the Sun interview (2012-Sep-18)
Though keep in mind my perspective is just too fresh to develop with any confidence on the whole context.
Yet i gathered he was eventually captured in his own strategy, eventually carrying the lady composer and singer high on his shoulders until mutual transmutations occured… Though kind of late as they learned the bad news near the end of 2013, i think, e.g. long after “Cathedral Walls” (by StS) which i regard as a 1st culmination preceeding their true final achievement: the Trees of Eternity album “Hour of the Nightingale” released with her gone on November 11, 2016. I figure there may be regrets attached to this delay.
Hallatar was supposed to perpetuate the new “light” but judging from a February 2018 video i’d be worried at the sight of the surviving performer’s veins, ready to explode after loosing his way - if not soul…
Aleah’s contrasting contribution worked too well as a seed and it wasn’t meant to last.
Good day, have fun!! 
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Well, TBH i never neard about them until now really. Sound good, ethereal rock if you will, very nice to have in the background or something. I always liked punk, metal and goth music. It’s very unique, but not so much as to dress as a vamp and come out only at night… HAHAHA!
Cheers!
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“Darkness is not the opposite of light, it is the absence of light.”
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Very true. I didn’t make it up tho… HAHAHA!
Good thing i didn’t plagiarized it.
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Didn’t make mine up either, hence the quotes. Not sure where it’s originally from, but I got it off a Beastie Boys album.
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Salutations MadScientist,
It’s true i’ve seen “Into Darkness” promotion which included a skeleton with red eyes, yes. This only confirms the progression towards northern cultural references as explained by Tomi Joutsen in intervew, as i recall, about “Kalevala” as their inspiration for some lyrical content belonging to the “Epic Poem of Finland” category. It generated beautiful pictures to match what i view as love songs for a doomed couple, if i may say so. Only it turned out to be for real and that’s one truly sad side of their story.
It’s probably not verbatim but that would be from “Legend”, a film with music by Brian Ferry:
YouTube: Bryan Ferry - Is Your Love Strong Enough (Legend soundtrack 1986)
With magical beings, a couple of unicorns, a sacred ring, malefic demons…
Yet, the way i perceived this Finnish guitarist-composer’s professional progression (respectively to the announced topic) has to do with evolving through serving the artistic work of Aleah and reciprocally. The “miracle” resided in the duo merging their forces over a new project, that of Aleah initially, but also quite likely a therapy for all those who made Aleah’s albums possible afterward. Too late for her to see its mediatic release, which was the begining of a descent, still in compliance with the main topic. In other words Juha Raivio climbed a few steps with guidance from his beacon “light”, or “sirene”… That was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it’s now over and everything must have seemed colour-dull and futile since then. Go figure if he can ever hope to recover and start to climb the stair again, as a complete artist himself.
Good day, have fun!!
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