LOST SOCIETY TALKS TO THE ROCKPIT

SAMMY CATCHES UP TO TALK ABOUT THE NEW ALBUM AND SO MUCH MORE...

Finland may not be well known for a lot of thrash metal bands but this young band called "Lost Society" may be one of those bands to change all that. Starting in 2010 and releasing their first album "Fast Loud Death" in 2013, the band showed their capabilities by putting out a seriously fun thrash album that harks back to the cartoony styles of early Anthrax. Not one to waste time, the band are about to release their second album "Terror Hungry", a slightly more heavier album but with just as much thrash as the best of them. We caught up with founding member and guitarist/vocalist Samy Elbanna to discuss their latest release and all things thrash!

Samy: How are you man?

Andrew: Yeah good thanks! How are you?

Samy: I'm doing good thank you.

Andrew: I've just been listening to the new album "Terror Hungry". I absolutely love this album! Old school thrash, similar kind of stuff that some of the newer bands have been coming out with as well as a bit of the bay area thrash sound. Would you say this is an improvement from the last album "Fast Loud Death"?

Samy: Yeah definitely and first of all thank you for that comment and yeah I'd say that definitely you can see an improvement from "Fast Loud Death" in "Terror Hungry". Of course we have all progressed in our own instruments and the band has gone forward in so many ways like some riffs have become more technical and the music has matured in some ways but we still kept that signature, like fun approach thing that "Fast Loud Death" had.

Andrew: Yeah the first album was great but I think this is an even better album. I think your vocals sound a little more aggressive so what was the idea going into this album when you first wrote and recorded it?

Samy: After we had recorded "Fast Loud Death", we returned to our home town and started practicing the first album's songs. Actually we started accidentally almost writing the new songs and I think it was just a matter of 5 months or something I believe that we had almost all of the tracks done but we went into the studio and demo'ed the tracks and after that we made a couple of new ones. But we basically didn't have any kind of plan of what we were trying to do, we just wanted to do some new material and we noticed we had an album full of songs so we decided to record them so the fans get some new stuff and we can go on tour again and play a bunch of shows and play killer songs to the people.

Andrew: Have you played any of these new songs live yet?

Samy: Yeah during the European tour we played a couple of the songs especially halfway onwards we started playing "Lethal Pleasure" because we released it during the tour. So we are really looking forward to playing a lot of the songs live and I think they will work pretty well.

Andrew: I think my favorite track on the album is "F.F.E.", I love the riffage in that one but what does F.F.E. stand for?

Samy: It stands for Fucked for Eternity haha! You can hear us scream that out in the chorus on that one.

Andrew: Ah ok! I should have picked up on that but I only heard the album once through so I hadn't paid much attention to the lyrics. But that song is probably the best one you guys have put out so far, it's a fantastic song. Another one I like is "Overdose Brain" which is not as thrashy as the other ones but is a bit more heavier with a nice groove to it. Did you write that song with a different mindset at all?

Samy: Actually when we had written about 3/4th of the album, we had an album again with all this energy like non-stop sort of thing but it would be cool to do a track that's more like Pantera kind of stuff. It was actually made from a drum intro that our drummer (Ossi Paananen) had made, I think he made that as we had finished from "Fast Loud Death" and we were thinking for a long time where we could put that drum thing and in one track we just spontaneously made that whole song. I like that song a lot because I think it's more simple but much heavier riffage, I'm sure it's going to be one of the cool songs to play to like a big crowd or something.

Andrew: Yeah it does have that live feel to it as well. I gotta ask just to get off the subject a bit from the new album but on the first album, I love the album cover on that one and am curious as to where that cover came from?

Samy: The first album cover came from Ed Repka.

Andrew: Oh Ok yeah I know him, he does a lot of album covers for thrash bands. So did you have much ideas for the new album cover? Obviously it's a bit more sinister and darker so what was the idea for this one?

Samy: Well basically we always knew after we made the song called "Terror Hungry" that would be the name of the album because it's just one of those powerful yet quick and catchy song names. We also wanted a kind of cartoony, maybe a bit humerous approach to the album cover but would definitely have a more dark theme because the songs are definitely a bit more brutal than the first album. So we basically got the idea to combine the two like there's the fun part of the album like the rollercoaster but then ther's the Terror Hungry dude with the machete waiting there to decapitate all the people on the rollercoaster! I'm really happy with that, I'm really satisfied with it. There's this dude called Jan Meininghaus who actually drew the cover and I think it's pretty good that we got a different person because it's a totally different album from the first one.

Andrew: Yeah it fits with the theme as it is a darker and heavier album. Now just a question about how you guys got started, you guys are from Finland right?

Samy: Yeah that's correct.

Andrew: Finland is not really known for a lot of thrash metal but is there much thrash metal in Finland?

Samy: Of course compared to some other countries there's definitely not as much but it's one of those rising genres. I'd say that at the same time we were starting the band, there were some bands, surpringly after we had released our first album, a lot of thrash bands have been starting around here. I guess they've seen that something can actually happen with this kind of genre even nowadays so that's really cool to see that. Yeah definitely like in the capital city and even in our home town there's a couple of really killer thrash bands that I hope can really make a name for themselves.

Andrew: Speaking of that thrash metal resurgence, everywhere, even worldwide there seems to be a new interest in old school thrash metal bands with you guys and Municipal Waste and Havok. Why do you think there's this new interest in the genre again?

Samy: I've always said that I think that the main reason is that people have this understanding little by little of how the 80's and 90's, especially the 80's, that where everything good happened and nowadays nothing good can be done anymore haha! You gotta trust in the old stuff and I guess it's true but also through the years I've been listening to music actively like that. Every year it's almost like some genres that gets pulled back from the past like some folk metal, at least in Finland and there's been this whole metalcore stuff that's been happening. But I think now thrash is starting to rise up especially in the last couple of years, like everywhere there's some new thrash bands.

Andrew: Yeah definitely, it's really good to see. So was that one of the reason's that made you start the band? Or how did the band first begin?

Samy: Oh no that was definitely not one of the reasons. Basically when I was 7 years old which was about 11 years ago, I heard my first Iron Maiden track. My brother played it, "The Number Of The Beast" and as cliched as it sounds, that song basically changed my life in the way that I wanted to become a musician and I wanted to play metal. So it was just a matter of time before I started playing guitar and then in 2010 we started the band. We had totally different members except for myself and we started playing this wierd kind of metal thing. It was kind of like it had the Iron Maiden harmonies and stuff but it had the more aggressive stuff like from Anthrax and Megadeth 'cause I had just started listening to that stuff at the time and especially when our guitarist Arttu (Lesonen) came onboard 'cause he's like an old thrash metaller so we had a lot of new influences. For a lot of us thrash and this crossover stuff has always been really close to us so we just wanted to play this kind of music.

Andrew: So aside from Iron Maiden, who are your main influences?

Samy: Definitely Anthrax and I would say the biggest two have always been Anthrax and Megadeth, so like the first 3 albums and stuff. I would say they made the biggest impact on me but of course the classics have been a big influence on me. Of course Slayer's Rein In Blood, Exodus' Bonded By Blood and stuff like that. It's not just classic stuff, theres also stuff like Municipal Waste's Art Of Partying and stuff like that so there's a wide range of albums and bands that have influenced me.

Andrew: Which brings me to my next question actually. If you could be a fly on the wall for the recording of any classic album in history what album would that be?

Samy: I would have to say "Among The Living" by Anthrax. I'd love to see Scott Ian's riff hands just go back in time, just fucking crazy!

Andrew: I think my favorite Anthrax album is probably "State Of Euphoria". Not as thrashy but I think it's a solid album.

Samy: Yeah definitely! It's got a lot of cool elements on it so I like it a lot too.

Andrew: So what's your plans for 2014? Obviously you got the new album coming out but are you going to be touring as well?

Samy: Yeah basically in a couple of weeks, a day before the album comes out in Finland, we are going to start a Finnish tour. We are going for 2 months basically, doing these weekend shows and stuff and we are going to go to Spain for 4 shows for the first time so really looking forward to that. And once the summer starts we will be doing a bunch of festivals here in Finland and also we're going to Germany and Europe to do some festivals. But basically for the rest of the year we have no plans yet but I guess we are going to be practicing a lot, we're probably going to do some new material. I just really hope that we can hit some new area to play a show, that's always a cool thing. So we'll see what the future holds for us.

Andrew: Yeah it would be great to see you come to Australia one day. I'm sure all the thrash metal fans over here would love to see you come over and play so maybe one day hopefully!

Samy: I really hope so one day! Once a really good deal comes about, we'll definitely be on the first flight to come and thrash all around there.

Andrew: Well it's been a pleasure talking to you, thanks for chatting to us and good luck wth the new album! As I said it's a great album and I hope all the fans dig it when it comes out.

Samy: Thank you so much dude, it was really awesome!

Sammy spoke to Andrew Schizodeluxe March 2014