My first album with Hundred Million Martians, Solid Rock Planet, in now in streaming services – thank you, Plastic Passion!
Avainsana-arkisto: Finland
New Arched Fire single out!
The Finnish metal band’s second album deals with the concept of trust.
“Fear” is the first video and single off Arched Fire’s second album Trust Betrayal, to be released in spring of 2023. The “b-side” song “Trigger” is a Motörhead cover originally recorded for Antichrist magazine’s tribute album.
“’Fear’ is one of those songs that just happen,” says Ari Väntänen, their rhythm guitar player. “I had some riffs that I asked Kristian (Herkman, the vocalist) to record. As it turned out, the song was right there, just waiting to be born. We came up with the chorus part while recording the verses and the bridges. Kristian probably wrote the vocal parts while driving home from my place. And after the guys arranged their own parts, ‘Fear’ started to sound like us. Like Arched Fire.”
Besides the aforementioned two, the band consists of Aslak Purojärvi (drums), Mika Rytilahti (bass), and Janne Särkelä (lead & rhythm guitar). Musically, Arched Fire is where heavy metal meets speed metal.
Mixing rock groove and metal riffage, “Fear” represents a lighter side of the dark theme on the Trust Betrayalalbum. It’s about how a general lack of trust can make things difficult.
“Don’t be afraid to live! Do things before it’s too late! And be careful because everything tries to kill you and death is horrible!” says the singer/lyricist Kristian Herkman with a sneer.
The prologue of the band took place in 1989–1990 when a bunch of school kids formed Arched Fire in Finnish Lapland. Thirty years later they got back together and recorded their acclaimed first album Remote Control, out on Wormholedeath Records in 2021.
The band’s second full-length effort Trust Betrayal, out in 2023, takes their old-school metal game to a whole new level.
Hundred Million Streaming Martians
Plastic Passion, Hundred Million Martians’ (it’s a rock band I was in 2001-2008) record label back in the day, has released some of our old singles and stuff first time in the streaming services!
Check the links below.
Arched Fire Launch ”From Dust to Dust” video!
From Dust to Dust is a track taken from Arched Fire’s critically acclaimed album Remote Control out via Wormholedeath / The Orchard / Aural Music.
From Dust to Dust is the fourth lyric video single off Arched Fire’s critically acclaimed debut album Remote Control. The video was made by J. Hevander.
Ari: ”From Dust to Dust is the oldest song on our album. We first started playing it in October 1989, believe it not. But that’s only the riffs. The arrangement and especially the vocal lines and the lyrics by Mr. Herkman breathed a new kind of life into the whole thing. It was born again cosmic and existential. It’s the last song on the album. It’s a perfect slot for it both thematically and musically. It’s a punchy heavy metal song with lyrics deep as space and time. When we started talking about who could feat on the song, I knew the guys were all fans of a certain Finnish scientist, so…”
Kristian: ”I think it was Ari who had the idea to ask Esko Valtaoja to feature on our song titled From Dust to Dust. Esko is the most famous Finnish astronomer, and the song is about how our atoms are made in dying stars. We thought it was perfect, and soon Esko replied that he is in for the job! We went through some texts that Esko had written before and Ari found the perfect one to fit the song. Esko sent us a video of him reading the text and we separated the audio from it into the mix. The lyrics of the song deal with death and ponder upon what is existence. Matter is energy, and energy cannot be destroyed. So, we are made of indestructible energy! But what is us and where do we end? Death feels like something is lost, but in emptiness there is a potential for something new. Each human is spending just a tiny moment in space-time.”
Buy it on CD! (Record Shop X/Levykauppa Äx)
Arched Fire: Video & cd out now!
Finnish heavy metallers ARCHED FIRE present ”Escape” [Lyric Video]. ”Escape” is a track taken from Arched Fire’s album ”Remote Control” out via Wormholedeath worldwide. ”Remote Control” will be available in CD format on 11 06 2021 via Aural Music Group.
”Escape” is a story of a man who strives to get out of the misery and blight that is his life. He rises to power and spreads misery among others. It all happens in a world where people have the power to change their social position. The lyrics also has some references to the band’s early days (1989-1990) in the cold and dark, yet beautiful Finnish Lapland – a bunch of 15-year-old guys formed a metal band in a small town where there was no metal scene whatsoever and where guys with long hair were frowned upon.
The album’s out!
What a great way to begin May Day celebrations: ”Remote Control”, Arched Fire’s debut album, is now available in both digital and physical format.
”Remote Control” is available on all digital platforms. Click HERE to choose yours!
You want your records with cover art and liner notes? Click HERE to buy the cd!
That’s it for now, stay tuned & safe!
”Remote Control” – buy the CD!
”Remote Control”, Arched Fire’s debut album out on April 30th 2021 via Wormholedeath, is also available on CD.
Arched Fire: Wormhole
Here’s our new video, album out on April 30th 2021!
Arched Fire: New Song & Video!
The Finnish metal band’s debut single ponders the powers of the algorithms.
“Remote-Controlled End” is the first video single of Arched Fire, a Finnish metal band working on their debut album to be released later this year. Musically, Arched Fire is where heavy metal meets speed metal—“hevispiidi”, as a Finnish radio dj called them a long time ago.
“We’ve only had this band for a couple of years, but there was a long break in between”, says Ari, their guitar player.
Formed in Finnish Lapland, Arched Fire played a bunch of gigs in 1989–1990, when the band members were still in school. Now, together with their new singer, the re-formed band has written and recorded an album’s worth on new songs based on the sketches and ideas from back in the day.
“We’ve made a metal record with old-school dynamics and present-day standards. When your teenage kicks meet your current musical skills, it is a lot of fun.”
“Remote-Controlled End” is the first single off their forthcoming album Remote Control. The theme of the songs is smart-phone addiction and the AI revolution, the power of algorithms over people.
Remote Control will be released later in 2021.
Martians caught on video – see the photos!
Hundred Million Martians, that is. It’s the band I was in some years ago.
I found a bunch of old band shots on my computer, went all nostalgic and decided to teach myself to make videos.
Here’s Stompalong Cassidy (Yeah Yeah Yeah), one of my favourite songs in the HMM repertoire. It’s from the band’s third album Solid Rock Planet (Plastic Passion 2004). Photos: Nina Lampela.
And this one’s from out final album Marseille (Plastic Passion 2008). It’s a great tune and one of the first songs we rehearsed for the studio sessions. Photos: Satu Mäkelä, Ari-Pekka Lehtisalo, Nina Lampela.
Ari Väntänen 