Tell us what you think we should know about the history of Mass in Comatose? What’s the average age of the band? Have you played in bands before?

Basically, the band saw it’s light of day in early 2007, when I parted ways with Nihilistikrypt on account of musical and some other differences. Having much stuff in drawer, so to speak, waiting for an outlet, I hooked up with Ove from Aeon Aethereal who I’d worked with on one occasion in the past and our "chemistry“ worked o we started to arrange to material on two guitars. Come summer, we found Siim to play bass and thus the basic line-up was complete. In the mean time there was quite a quest to find a vocalist. We auditioned many, including Ove’s brother Ott from AA. Due to his lack of time, he only had time to contribute the lyrics to "Control the Masses“. Siim took up the vocal duties and it seems he does a bang up job at it. In the first quarter of 2008 we started to record the EP using Thonolan's (from the band Urt) services for the drumming and here we are. Well if we consider arithmetical average then it is 23 - You do the math ;).
Since 94 I have been seriously involved (ilcluded this band)in three bands ; Ignorabimus (10years), Nihilistikrytp (2 years) and now Mass In Comatose. Ove has been mostly in one band (Aeon Aetherial) and Siim in DNR (r.i.p.).

You have managed to forge metal which has comparisons to Carcass (Necrotisism era), Entombed, The Haunted and even Morbid Angel – pretty much the cream of the crop. How do you see your sound?

Well, first of all, thank you for comparing us with masters like that. I have been fan of those bands for a long time. Especially Morbid Angel, Carcass, old Entombed and Fear Factory ! Of course, while writing songs I didn’t plan on sounding like someone particular but it’s quite difficult to dodge your influences. Since most the the basic material for this EP was written by me and later arranged by Ove and Siim, it’s quite obvious it’s my influences that shine out the most. Although it’s probable that the future material is going to sound a little more varied on account of the other guys contributing more but the overall direction is going to remain the same.
Quoting Ove, he said that his role - as well as Siim’s - has been the one of arranging some parts thus far. As far as his soloing goes, in the past said to have listened to Gus G (mostly Nightrage’s first release), Michael Romeo, Mattias Eklundh, (he admits having gone through an Yngwie phase). That’s the basis for his fast soloing stuff.

Your chosen style does not conform to the current flavour of the month with the labels (which is currently a painfully bad reinterpretation of Thrash) – do you pay attention to or care about the "20 year cycle" trends ?

Basically we do our own thing. If you start writing your music after current trends then it isn’t worth it. Music has to mean something to yourself. If it coincides with whatever trends going on at the moment, then fine but isn’t a goal in itself. It may sound more than cliché but we don’t follow what’s hit at the moment.

Actually contrary to what it might seem our message isn’t really political. The lyrics seem cynical but it’s just an interpritation of what I’ve seen going on in the world at the time. The basis of it all being that nothing is never as it seems. I try not to put ideas into peoples minds but just describe things how I see them and maybe just to show the way to the door that in my opinion is worth opening and exploring (refering to the movie The Matrix - I can only show you the door, open it you have to yourself).
Well, it’s hard to sum up all the things that are pressing issues in the world in a few words, I will not go into the details, most of the info is available out there - just dig in.
In brief - the wars that are going on at the moment are totally pseudo, these wars are totally redundant and there is little to do with religion, patriotism or "freedom". Then the European Union with their standardization of the euro and all the plans they have (the ones we aren’t aware about are a lot more worrying). And all the economical problems, which in my opinion are totally bogus and surely serve the interests of some very small group of people’s as opposed to the public’s interests.
And not to mention that the banking system is criminal and usury in general is wrong in my opinion . My thoughts of the world today are that the world is still a beautiful place filled with good people but slavery, control and oppression are still prevalent which is just is not normal.

I guess this one is for me because I am the only one old enough to remember the soviet times. To make it really short, during the soviet regime there mostly weren’t any worries about basic amenities (education, medicine was free and no problems with employment) but you had to always be loyal ideologically no matter what, just believe whatever the superiors were telling you. The right to express yourself your own thoughts was very limited - there was very strict control. Believe me, I’ve had my share of KGB encounters though I was pretty young (pretty similar to Orwell’s "1984“) but human values remained and in some way there was a feeling of togetherness – a community separate from the authorities.
Capitalism is almost the same. Just now we have "patriotism" and money. Now we have the "freedom" to say what we think but we have to fight for basic things (education, medicine and work, privileged are the ones who have it) and there still is a KGB-like instance, they just operate in different and more advanced ways.
So in essence - same day, different god, same shit. I have not seen 'Goodbye Lenin'but I have heard of it. Definitely gonna check it!

You have chosen to make your music available through Death to Music Productions – that’s awesome for us, because your music is of such a high quality – why did you chose to take this path ? What do your make of the current state of the „metal“ music industry ?

We are thankful for You for this opportunity to spread our music. This was quite logical for us. We do not expect everyone to understand this (and most of them do not) and everyone has their own way about spreading their music but in times like this our way we chose DTM because to unknown band like us this is good opportunity to promo us and the conceptual thing is similar. Conceptual thing is important.

We plan to be as open-minded as possible and not to limit ourselves to any preset guidelines. We’re already working on new material and it’s probably going to be a little different from the material on the EP on account of the other guys contributing as mentioned before. But on the whole the direction is going the be the same. Overall, we are planning to write things according to a timetable most convient to us. No pressure or haste so to say. We do not know if we can do better. We’ll try to do our own thing as best we can !

Got any last words for the avid and rabid Death to Music fans out there?

Check out other cool DTM releases ! Support music You really like, support things you believe in, live your life the best you can. "The important thing is not to stop questioning.“ – Albert Einstein.