Sam (Lunaire)
1. What are your top five albums that were released in 2013? (In order 1-5)
- Summoning - Old Mornings Dawn
- Sigur Ros - Kveikur
- Deafheaven - Sunbather
- October Falls - The Plague of a Coming Age
- Fanisk - Insularum
2. What band did you discover in 2013 (can be a brand new band or an older band) that had an impact on your life? What made them significant?
I've known about them for a long time, but this year I really got into the band Candlemass for the first time. I listened their first album, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, a few years ago and thought it was alright, but for some reason this year I just fell in love with it. Then I heard Nightfall and Ancient Dreams with Messiah Marcolin on vocals. Boy, that guy can wail!
I sifted through their albums and found the songs that have a sadder sort of feel to them, “Samarathan” being the crowning jewel of this search.
This lead to me searching for other older doom metal bands and eventually just getting into more straight forward ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s heavy metal bands. For whatever reason I just never took the time to listen to these bands. Manilla Road is definitely one band I am very glad I finally found. At the moment I'm really loving Manowar. I guess you could say this was the year I finally got myself together and began to appreciate the classics!
3. How will you remember 2013? (In terms of music)
For me it was a very good year for music. A lot of bands that were quiet for a while seemed to come back out of nowhere with a new release. Summoning had not had a new album since 2006 and when they announced Old Mornings Dawn I was so happy. I did my best to avoid listening to the leaks that were popping up on Youtube, which proved to be a challenge. Finally it was released and, boy, I was absolutely blown away. For me, 2013 will always remind me of Summoning. It was not only my top album of the year, but easily my most listened to. There were also a lot of bands like Tyr, Amon Amarth, Wolfchant, Red Fang, etc. who released excellent albums. If nothing else it was a year where I was not disappointed by my favourite bands, that is for sure!
4. What can we look forward to from you in 2014?
As I am writing this, Lunaire is finishing off a recording we want to release by the end of 2013. I'm not sure how long it goes for just yet, but it's looking to be album length. We wanted to release it earlier but we took some time to redo parts that could have been better and played around with sounds and such. During our summer break we are going to do a lot of recording. We have some ideas for releases and also a number of tracks we want to record that we are not sure what to do with yet.
5. What records are you looking forward to most in 2014?
Time II by Wintersun, definitely. Wintersun was another band who was away for a long time and then came back with a release that blew away my expectations. Time II is supposed to be released in 2014, but the band’s track record for meeting arranged dates is not the best, so we will have to wait and see. After seeing some interviews with Jari it sounds as though everything is on track though. I am also looking forward to the new Behemoth album that will come out in 2014 as well. I saw them live for the second time a few weeks ago and it was easily one of the best concerts for the year.
6. There is a lot of debate over streaming sites and royalties, namely with Spotify. What is your stance on the economic policies behind the current streaming services? Do you have a preferred one?
I'm not too familiar with Spotify, so I'm not sure how people make or lose money from it. From my perspective though, people should just listen to music any way they can to see what they like and then support the bands they choose. Personally I would prefer as many people to hear Lunaire's music as possible. There are more bands recording more music now than ever, so it would be impossible for fans to pay to hear everything they like without spending every last cent they have.
