Despite consisting of musicians primarily known for playing extreme metal, Cemetery Skyline just released a debut album full of catchy, melodic, at times even poppy gothic rock songs. Guitarist Markus Vanhala shares the story about the founding of Cemetery Skyline and the creation of ‘Nordic Gothic’.

“We are not a pandemic band”, Vanhala is quick to point out. “Because it was just before the pandemic started, in January 2020, when the first flame of this band was ignited. But of course, the two-year hiatus from touring helped us to take the time to write these songs, and polish them to perfection.

I really love working with Santeri (Kallio, keyboard player). We have a similar kind of philosophy in songwriting, and we really had a chemistry when sharing parts and composition, and making the most out of each other’s songs. Santeri beat the hell out of my songs. I really appreciate that dude. When I write the music for Omnium Gatherum or Insomnium, it’s usually completely ready when I present it to the band. But Santeri and I kind of found each other.

All things just started happening naturally, accidentally, and unplanned, without stressing out. An honest way of making music. We didn’t have any major plans to do an album. It was just like: let’s do something different than our main bands. It’s a group of friends. We all love nineties gothic metal. Every one of us was listening to bands like The Sisters of Mercy, Type O Negative, Fields of the Nephilim, Killing Joke and The Mission in the nineties. And you don’t hear that kind of music that often anymore. So we decided to bring it back. For real.”

First and Last

“Mikael Stanne was the first and last singer we asked. The world has been waiting for an album that features his clean vocals exclusively. Me too. Santeri and I were thinking: who could we ask to be the singer? And then we were just listening to a Dark Tranquillity album, and I thought: Stanne has a really soulful voice, and he has some stories to tell, and he’s a great friend of mine.

So then we gave it a thought, and he was immediately in after hearing the first demos. He loved the songs and wanted to see where it would go. Mikael did an outstanding job with the clean vocals. He did all the melodies and arrangements by himself. We actually worked on this album for four years; we didn’t have any schedules, or any pressure from labels. We gave it all the time it needed.

Mikael actually thanked me that we didn’t do this album two years ago, because he feels like he has been becoming a much better singer in the past two years. And I was actually happy to hear that. On some of the newer Dark Tranquillity singles, I heard a lot of Cemetery Skyline-style vocals. These things always go in all directions: learning new things and using them in everything that you do.”

Musical ADHD

“The music and the album really pushed themselves out. It was beyond our control. People often say that we are crazy. Especially Mikael and myself, because we are in four bands. But I don’t see that as a problem. The more bands you have, the more they are kind of helping each other. It keeps things more interesting if you can have adventures under a different title than whatever different side of music you explore with one band.

I definitely think I have some kind of musical ADHD, because I cannot concentrate on only one band. For example: the week before I was going on tour with Insomnium, I was supposed to write the new Omnium Gatherum album. But nothing came out, so I accidentally wrote a new Cemetery Skyline song, haha! That’s how it always happens for me. I can’t control it. Things just happen.

I would definitely say that Cemetery Skyline is a band and not a project. Of course, the schedules are insane with people who have this many bands involved. Mikael has three albums coming out: Dark Tranquillity has just released an album, then there’s Cemetery Skyline, and The Halo Effect is also releasing a new album. So Mikael is going to be a really, really busy man next year.

However, we do already have something like ten shows booked for next year. We are trying to do what we can. We aren’t going to stress out, because we don’t want to ruin this. This is too good a band to ruin with busy too busy schedules and too many tours, where everyone doesn’t have time for anything. It has to be fun. And so far, it’s really, really, really fun!”

A Magical Night

“We played our first show in July at the John Smith Rock Festival in Finland. The promoter is a really good friend of mine. And when he heard about Cemetery Skyline, he insisted that the first gig of the band would be at that festival. We actually published the band’s name before the band was even announced. John Smith released the headliners of the festival: Behemoth, Testament, Amorphis, and Cemetery Skyline. Nobody knew who Cemetery Skyline was. We were watching all the confusion unfold on social media, which was exactly what we were after, haha!

We didn’t exactly know whether we were even going to be a live band. But then, mr. John Smith asked, and we delivered. We have to give him some praise for making us a live band. It was a magical night. For every one of us. Even if we have been playing thousands of shows with different bands, that night was special. Because it was the first time together ever on stage, with a couple of really good touring friends. I would never have imagined to form a band with these guys, who have been my touring buddies for a long time.

We actually never rehearsed for the album recording. So the first time we rehearsed was three days before the first gig. But then we rehearsed three days in a studio, with the whole crew present. I would say we were pretty good live. It even surprised me how well everything clicked. The bar was quite high. We didn’t want to disappoint the other people in the band, and nobody in the band wants to disappoint any people in the audience. Those are the pressures and stresses of perfection.

Mikael was actually very nervous for having a band he only sings clean in. Especially for the John Smith Rock Festival gig. He was stressed out for like a year, about how he could pull this off in the live situation. And he pulled it off 200 percent. He was great. He said to the audience: I’ve been doing thousands of gigs, but this is the first gig where I’m a real singer, haha!”

That Nineties Vibe

“We recorded the guitars with Juho Räihä, the guitarist of Swallow the Sun. He has his own studio, SoundSpiral Audio. We had a lot of adventures with different sounds. A lot of old pedals. I think the main guitar sound on the album was an old Marshall JMP-1 pre-amp from the nineties, because we wanted to get that nineties vibe. In some ways, this is a nostalgia project, but also learning a lot for the future. Now was the time to adventure a lot.

We have already been working with Juho for I Am the Night, which is my black metal band, and he also did the last Omnium Gatherum EP. He’s great. He knows what I am after, and I don’t even have to say it. We have some kind of BlueTooth connection with Juho. He is very creative; he’s not a one-trick pony. He did the I Am the Night album so well that he accidentally ended up being the other guitarist in I Am the Night. That’s another album I should finish and record, another I Am the Night album…

Cemetery Skyline is also a special project for me because I am the only guitar player, which was also different in the live situation. I pretty much use the guitar rig I’m also using for Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum live, but the special ingredient is a Boss Dimension C. A chorus pedal, on top of everything. That chorus makes everything bigger. That chorus is the goth in the guitars.

Then again, Santeri is such a great keyboard player, and Victor (Brandt) has such a huge bass sound, so it’s kind of easy with these guys to play with only one guitarist. Because they will fill the soundscape. It’s pretty nice to do the songs that way, for a change. Also for me. The fact that there is no huge guitar wall adds more dynamics to the songs.”