By Martin Popoff
Asked to elaborate on the two Finnish titles that occur on The Cold White Light, Sami offers the following. "'Konevitsan Kirkonkellot' means 'the church bells of Konevitsan'. Konevitsan is a historical place in eastern Finland. And this song is actually a traditional Finnish composition. We've just made a really heavy and gloomy version of it, but we still wanted to have the original title there, because it was kind of logical. The other one, 'Aika Multaa Muistot', means something like 'time buries your memories.' When time passes by, you forget about the bad things and remember only the good things. But in this song, we turn it upside-down and it's more that you only remember the bad things that happen to you and you forget about the good ones."
"There are a lot of different sounds and atmospheres on the album," continues Sami, "and I figured the lyrics would have to be that way as well. There are songs lyric-wise that are more philosophical, like 'Brief Is The Light' and 'Blood & Tears' and songs that are filled with humour, as we talked about. And also there are songs that are quite gloomy, like 'Aika Multaa Muistot' and 'Cross My Heart And Hope To Die'. On the other hand, there are songs that are almost joyful and happy, at least considering that we are talking about Sentenced here (laughs)."
Asked to delve into the songs he considers philosophical, Sami explains that "'Brief Is The Light' is a song about how short life is after all. It might feel long, but if you look at it closely, it's short. There's this saying that all roads lead to Rome, but in the end, all roads lead, not to Rome, but to the cemetery. No matter what you do, you will one day die. And when you remember this fact of life, you can actually concentrate more on your life more fully. You have to make the most out of your days and don't let your life just pass by. And if you do this, later you won't have regrets. 'Blood & Tears' is almost the opposite (laughs). It's a song about how long life may feel from time to time. It often feels that life is filled only with loss and disappointment and your friends' funerals. But still, we somehow want to carry on. And even if hours feel like days, and weeks feel like years, and we lose everything that we ever had, we somehow still want to live our lives and everything kind of seems worthwhile. And that is just, pretty weird (laughs)."
