FROM THE CRYPTS - CELEBRATING PAST ALBUM RELEASES in the HISTORY of HARD ROCK & HEAVY METAL…
On November 20, 2010, Impaled Nazarene released their eleventh full-length studio album Road to the Octagon via Osmose Productions.
The album marked the first time that the band were without a co-producer (Tapio Penannen had co-produced their last few).
While the album is not conceptual in nature, it has reoccurring themes throughout. Here Mika Luttinen explains those concepts to Heavy Metal Tribune;
“It is not a concept album per se but certain tracks run the same theme thru. Basically The Octagon here is the ultimate evil, Satan if you will. Apocalypse, total devastation, end of everything. The ultimate wipe-out. Then there are other tracks that you can easily see I have been watching too much Lucio Fulci horror dvd´s this summer.” (November 16, 2010)
Talking about the album artwork for Road to the Octagon, Luttinen said;
“I have had the vision of this artwork for years and finally we found somebody who could execute it the way I wanted it to look. The album title is taken directly from the song Tentacles Of The Octagon as it starts with line Road To The Octagon Is Paved With Corpses.
Speaking about Jarno’s contribution to the album before his departure and if his leaving the band has impacted their sound, Luttinen said;
“Yes he has written stuff on every album from Latex Cult on. I don't really see his departure affecting our sound anyway, all members who have been in the band and still are, have always "got it" how to write stuff for Impaled Nazarene. Every member writes music so our core sound does not change if one leaves and another one joins you know.”
Touching on guitarist UG’s contribution to Impaled Nazarene and on Road to the Octagon, Luttinen said;
“This is UG´s debut album, he did not play on Manifest. Tuomio still played on the album and left immediately after the studio. UG joined right after. UG has been our session guitarist since 2000, so we have played with him already 10 years. He has done countless gigs with us. He fits to our family perfectly.”
Talking about the music video for the song Enlightenment Process, Luttinen said;
“It is clear that people (mainly younger ones) who have not seen Evil Dead movies do not get the video at all, it is funny. Basically everybody seems to like the song, so that is cool.”
Luttinen went on to say;
“Like I said, if you have not seen Evil Dead movies, you will not get it. It is a tribute to those films. I thought it was fucking great. We did not want to do another "band plays in garage/warehouse" type of ultra-boring video. And we did not want to appear on the video itself. Something different. It is very low budget, of course.”
(Scene from the video for Enlightenment Process)
Talking about the bands relationship with longtime label Osmose Productions, Luttinen said;
“They have been good to us, helped us and believed in us even when our sales went down. 100% artistic freedom, no label schedules, we can use whatever studio we like, we do shit our own way, send them 100% ready package and they put it out. And we are more friends than business partners.”
Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells
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