Interview withAnders Melts (vocals) from Forgotten Sunrise
Founded in 1992, Estonian Industrial band FORGOTTEN SUNRISE (FS), based in Tallinn, is renowned for its unique “Outdustrial” or “Deathbeat” sound, often likened to DEAD CAN DANCE, David Lynch, KATATONIA, CELTIC FROST, and CLOCK DVA. The early years marked releases like the demo ‘Behind The Abysmal Sky’ (1993) and mini-CD ‘Forever Sleeping Greystones’ (1994). Internal differences led to changes in the line-up. The band evolved their style in 1996, incorporating computers and coining the term “Deathbeat”.
Noteworthy releases include a promotional CD (1999) and self-released mini-album ‘a.Nimal f.Lesh’ (2000). Signing with My Kingdom Music in 2003, their debut album, ‘Ru:mipu:dus’, received acclaim in 2004, followed by ‘Willand’ in 2007. Key additions in 2006 (Gerty Villo on keyboards and female vocals) and 2007 (Pavel Torpan on guitars) expanded their sonic range. The release of ‘Different Knots of Ropelove’ (2007), a remix CD, showcased their versatility. In 2009, the band self-released ‘The Moments When God Was Wrong’ (full-length CD-single) and re-released the demo tape ‘Behind The Abysmal Sky’ with the mini-CD ‘Forever Sleeping Greystones’, featuring seven live bonus tracks on CD. Ragnar Kivi joined in 2010, contributing electronic drums to further enrich their evolving sound. Currently the band members are Anders Melts, Kadri Sammel and Jaan Pullerits.
The brand-new album by Forgotten sunrise ‘elu’ is a fine combination providing sonic variety and the symphony of juxtaposing effects. About the term “Outdustrial”, the album’s content, what would be the result of mixing MODERN TALKING and CANNIBAL CORPSE together and whether they plan to see KATATONIA this year - with Anders Melts
Reflections of Darkness [RoD]: I must express my admiration for how you define yourselves: “‘Outdustrial’ - negative music for positive results.” What would you consider as positive results, and who do you believe comprises the audience for FORGOTTEN SUNRISE?
Anders: We like to call FS “Outdustial”, because it’s similar to Industrial, but it’s not. Some say it’s outsider Industrial - also fine for us. Positive music is terrible, I think you agree. It brings anger and stress for me. When I listen to sad, dark, deep, even depressive music, it gives me strength and positivity. It’s something like two minuses sum to one plus. Also about creating. You put your dark thoughts and dialogues with yourself into music and it leaves you a better person. Like Charles Manson, he wanted to be a musician, but was too bad at it. Maybe he was just too weak to put more effort into creating music. It was easier to get followers to be a cult leader. Our audience are the open-minded people who usually don’t expect anything. They trust what we create and go with the flow. From 18-year-olds to 80+, from metal heads to ravers. People who are always looking for something different, being not into just one genre.
RoD: This year marks your 30th anniversary. Can you share a bit about the project’s origins and its evolution through subsequent productions?
Anders: This year it’s already our 32nd birthday. When we started, I was 15, totally into Death and Black Metal, the year was 1992. I preferred more atmospheric and weird bans mostly and me and my best friend Jan wanted to start our own Death Metal band. We were very lucky that we found the rest of our band mates quite quickly and they had more experience than we did at the time. We only had vision and will. So, a year later we recorded our first demo ‘Behind The Abysmal Sky’ and we got a record deal thanks to tape trading with one Finnish label. In 1994 our second and also the last Death Metal recording was released as ‘Forever Sleeping Greystones’ EP. The very first Post-Soviet Metal release that was released outside Estonia. Also, the first Metal release released by Estonian band on CD. Last year it was released for the first time also on vinyl, 30 years later. In 1995, our drummer left and it has been a total pain in the ass to find a drummer in Estonia. One friend of mine had a brother who was making some Warp records influenced music with his 486-computer. FastTracker program, some readers know, I think. We met and started to make electronic beats instead of using a real drummer, that’s how we started to develop our own style “Deathbeat” or “Outdustrial” as we know it. Many old fans turned their backs to us and some of them like us a lot at the moment. Time changes, people change.
RoD: When discussing the Estonian music scene and FORGOTTEN SUNRISE’s place within it, where do you feel the band stands?
Anders: There are still some people who are surprised that we don’t play Death Metal anymore. We have never been in focus. I think this stuff we have been creating for the last 25+ years, I’m much prouder of it. It’s unique and weird and it means a lot to me. Still, I think if we talk about the Estonian music scene, on the tombstone you will read “The innovator of Estonian Metal”.
RoD: Beginning as a Metal band and later incorporating industrial and electronic elements, did this evolution feel natural to you?
Anders: For me it has always felt very natural. I think that most of my electronic music favourites have been into Death or Black Metal in the nineties. Dark electronic music, whether it is Techno, Ambient or even Drum’n’Bass sounds powerful and hypnotic, with different structures and not typical arrangements. Just the instruments are different. I like it a lot that we don’t use typical distorted djent type guitar riffs in our songs. You know, if you think about a mixture of metal and electronic music, first of all you start thinking about some KMFDM, FEAR FACTORY, NINE INCH NAILS, MINISTRY type of bands, but we are totally different. Even when we had a guitar in the band, people went to us and said “hey, I didn’t hear the guitar from the stage”, it was because we were using different effects and not typical metal sounds. Guitar was strongly there; it just wasn’t like people used to hear it.
RoD: Anders, as a DJ leading “Beats from the Vault” alongside Kadri, could you elaborate on that venture?
Anders: I started “Beats from the Vault” (BFTV) with my friend Margus aka Lemmy (RIP) in 1998. It’s the longest still active event series in Estonia. In Berlin, for example, they have different parties for Techno, EBM, Darwave, Industrial, Post-Punk. Our scene here is small, BFTV brings all these styles under one roof. Nowadays we (already a little team of friends and DJ’s) do it in the main Techno club here called HALL. We have three to four different rooms there. People say they have never visited such a party before, it’s always good to hear. Yes, we try to do something more vibe oriented than just dedicated to one or two similar genres. You have to come and visit us. It’s on every other month. Check bftv.ee
RoD: The latest album, ‘elu’, is noted as the first in the ‘hall-elu-jah’ trilogy. With a narrative arc spread across three albums, could you shed more light on the concept?
Anders: Yep, we started with the middle one. Why not, I’m even not sure what is the next album from this trilogy. Time will tell. About the concept, “hall” means grey and “elu” means life in Estonian. “Hall elu jah”! is like accepting the fact that there’s nothing black in white in life. Everything has both sides, it’s like yin and yang. If you mix it, it becomes grey. Trilogy, because usually we put all very different genres onto one album, this time we thought that let’s arrange the things a bit. So, ‘elu’ is the harshest one, the most Metal. Two others will be, one more dance-oriented, more clean vocals etc; and the third (maybe second) more experimental, Folk, Shoegaze oriented.
RoD: The music on ‘elu’ is incredibly diverse. From great beats, ephemeral vocals, and catchy electronics to a variety of instruments (including keyboards, guitar, bass, cymbals, djembe, thunder tube, knife, and fork(!)), plus male vocals evoking thoughts of Death Metal bands. For instance, in the catchy danceable piece ‘Orthotoxic Waste,’ the contrasting interplay is captivating, it’s almost like the Beauty and the Beast were having a sonic argument. What was the idea behind blending such opposing elements?
Anders: Hahahaa, yep… and with the previous question I said that it’s much more compact and purer. We just do what we like and one thing that always feels nice, at least for myself, is to mix together very different genres in a way that they will work. I love very different kind of music and sometimes listening to Psychobilly I start thinking that hey, this tempo fits with some breakbeat and why not to try Death Metal growling on top. I still remember one review many, many years ago, when the reviewer wrote that FS is like MODERN TALKING and CANNIBAL CORPSE together and it’s against the universal laws of music, because it works! I’m quite sure you can’t put FS into one box, genre wise, and on the other hand it’s also very hard for us. People like to compare artists to others and put stamps on, but if you hear something that’s new for your mind, you will like it only after you try to understand it and you give yourself a chance to listen to it more than once. It will work, but not like a pop hit. I still remember the first time I listened to DEAD CAN DANCE, CELTIC FROST, 16 HORSEPOWER - the first reaction was “WTF” and I listened again and again, and then I was blown away, still am, after many, many years.
RoD: ‘Near Bye’ and ‘iSaid’ are Industrial powerhouses. Do you personally enjoy this genre of music? What kind of energy do you believe is encapsulated in such songs? Is it cathartic or an outlet for energy?
Anders: I love the concept and the spirit of Industrial, it’s like Black Metal for me. Ideologically the most similar styles, I think. It’s not just about music, but also lifestyle and attitude. Some Post-Industrial and Electro-Industrial I like as well. I’m fan of CLOCK DVA, G.G.F.H., early LEATHER STRIP, also NUMB, THE KLINIK/DIVE, early HOCICO and SUICIDE COMMANDO. These bands are a good example of how when you put negative energy into art, it becomes the opposite.
RoD: ‘Meating 8:08’ appears to bear a significant emotional weight. Could you provide insights into the meaning or inspiration behind the song?
Anders: I think it was the first song we made totally together with Kadri, almost 10 years ago. The oldest song on ‘elu’. This little Trap part was made later, because again, I liked the idea of putting something completely different into the song. I even don’t like Trap music, Witch House is fine and they have similar instrumentation and beats, made with 808 synth. This fragment also added 8:08 into the title. About the lyrics, it’s kind of the same topics all the time. If we take one verse from one song and change it to another from another song, the meaning doesn’t change. Sometimes I put lyrics together like that. I have some verses here and there written on very different times and then I check all these papers and put some of them together and add and change a bit here and there. Like our music, so are our lyrics, a bit like puzzle or dadaism.
RoD: Ants “Ank” Lill contributes backing vocals on the hit ‘Elukas.’ Could you share more about this collaboration?
Anders: On ‘Ru:mipu:dus’ Ghost from G.G.F.H. did back vocals and on ‘Cretinism’, Holocausto from BEHERIT, this time we needed more Black Metal type of screams, because it fits perfectly on blast beat. Ank is my long-time friend; we both grew up in the Death / Black Metal scene from the early nineties. We started FORGOTTEN SUNRISE and he started DISCRUCIOR and a bit later THARAPHITA, a cult Black / Pagan Metal band here. So, I asked him and agreed to join. We have performed this song with him two times also on stage and the live version is five minutes longer. Superb howls he makes. We are thankful for having him on ‘elu’.
RoD: ‘Elukas’ appears to be the quintessence of the album’s content. Could you elaborate on the story behind the song?
Anders: Kadri gave me a full electronic demo, I listened to it and immediately started to play some Post-Rock’ish melodies and then I thought, damn, it would be awesome if it goes to Blastbeat in the end. ‘Elukas’ means ‘The beast’ and at the same time it has ‘elu’ in the same word. Thinking about the beast I think about THELEMA, Aleister Crowley and O.T.O. We also love magic movie director and writer Kenneth Anger. Quite randomly I saw in one Facebook group that one guy (cheers to Ian!) mentioned that Kenneth is his sister’s godfather. I contacted the guy, he contacted his father (who also played in COIL and PSYCHIC TV) and wanted to help us find contact with Mr. Anger, because I had an idea that maybe Kenneth can add some spoken words about life in the song. We were very close, but we didn’t get the direct contacts (Kenneth was already over 90 years old too), so we used some spoken words by him taken from his audio commentaries. The album ends with his words and just a few months later Kenneth also left this mortal coil.
RoD: If you were to articulate the philosophy or overarching message behind FORGOTTEN SUNRISE’s art, what would it be?
Anders: Everything is possible. Everything has always two sides, there’s nothing outside of absolute. If you love animals, don’t eat them, thank you!
RoD: Who is responsible for the graphic aspect of the release?
Anders: I had an eye on different designers. Once I saw this picture it somehow clicked. We bought this picture already many years before. We also have cover art for the next two albums already. The cover of ‘elu’ is made by a guy called hellish.cav and designed by long-time friend and collaborator Rene 13, the guy who makes also posters for Beats From The Vault and has made artwork for most of our releases. Huge thanks to him!
RoD: Any plans for live shows in Europe with the new material?
Anders: Not really, from time to time we visit Finland and the Baltics. We have quite many gigs in Europe with Kadri’s BEDLESS BONES, but FS is too strange for festivals and too unknown for smaller gigs. Sure, we’d like to play more in Europe. Many say that we are a good live band first and foremost. So, if you want to book us or you are the booker / agency, get in touch!
RoD: Side question: Any plans to catch KATATONIA in 2024?
Anders: Hahahaa, didn’t expect this question. Yeah, I was a big fan of KATATONIA since their ‘Ihva Elohim…’ demo, cried when I heard their debut, because it was so beautiful. Then I was following them all these years. I have all the releases they have released till the last one. Already the album before the last one was weak and the last one confirmed to me that they have nothing to say to me anymore. So, fucking sad it is. We were friends with Anders aka Blakkheim in the early 00s. I still remember when we played together in 2002; I think and went after the show to drink in DEPECHE MODE bar in Tallinn, I told Blakkheim that they sound like Shoegaze with distortion and he was happy to hear that. At the time there was no such genre as Blackgaze or even Post-Rock that was also something similar. But when OPETH came and started to move more and more into Progressive Rock direction, KATATONIA like wanted to follow and at least for me they started to lose themselves and their own essence. Now, there’s even no Blakkheim on tour anymore. Renkse’s voice is still beautiful, but with some mathematics in music it’s lacking the soul in it. Sorry guys…
RoD: Thank you very much for your time!
Anders: Thank you, Karolina! You are a good person, always so kind and supportive. I wish the beAst of luck to you in every step that lies ahead. Peace!
All Pictures by Evert Palmets
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