Coraxo was formed in summer 2013 in Tampere Finland, with the idea to mate old school death metal with ambient electro and soundscapes from science fiction.
The first EP Starlit Flame was released in Jan 2014 and the second part Starlit Flame II in Oct 2014. Both EP's were mastered by Dan Swanö at Unisound Sweden.
Tomi Toivonen - vocals, guitar, programming
Ville Kokko - bass
Ville Vistbacka - drums
Describe your sound in one ramble-on sentence..
Scifi electro death metal in the nordic style.
Our music is inspired especially by old science fiction films and books, like Alien, Blade Runner, Philip K Dick, RA Wilson, Douglas Adams etc.
Our electronic component is inspired by classic sources, like Delia Derbyshire, Tangerine Dream, Vangelis and Pink Floyd.
What inspires you to make music?
It's always nice to see people enjoy our music and have fun listening to it. I'd say "fun" is the keyword to describe our music in essence.
What aspect of making music excites you the most right now?
Exploring new sounds. With synthesizers your ways of creating new sounds are pretty much limitless. Also being able to create something that has never
really been done before, I don't think there's anyone else who mixes ambient electro (like Tangerine Dream, Tycho, Node, Kitaro, Vangelis) into death metal.
What are the biggest challenges you face as a musician?
Nothing that can't be overcome, I'm sure.
What's one of your all-time favorite recordings?
It has to be "Crimson" by Edge of Sanity. I can say it's not a small part of the reason we decided to go with Dan for mastering, I'm a huge fan of his work.
On the other end of the scale "The Silk Road" by Kitaro was one of my favorite music as a child, which must have some influence on the synth side of things.
Name three people who have influenced your music, and tell us why- Living or dead.
Peter Tägtgren, Dan Swanö, Devin Townsend. Tägtgren for being able to make awesome music from very simple and minimalistic elements, which we strive for as well.
Swanö for the groundbreaking work of making progressive death metal, and Townsend for the massive soundscapes and electronics in metal.
Do you have any recent or upcoming projects you'd like to share with us? Tell us about it.
We're currently recording and mixing our upcoming full length album. It'll be mastered by Dan again, and released in the fall/winter 2015.
Release date is not set yet, but hopefully sometime in Sep-Oct.
What is your ideal or target audience?
Scifi nerds? Science nerds? Anyone who enjoys melodic death metal with a twist, really.
Do you write/compose your own songs? Briefly describe your songwriting process..
Tomi: It depends, there's pretty much three ways I make songs. First way is when a song that's already done starts to play in my head, I guess you could call it sudden inspiration.
Then there's the way when I just noodle around with my guitar and happen to come up with something that I like. The third is when turn on the synths and start layering stuff
in my recording software. Then I turn the idea into a rough sketch and send it to the guys so they can compose and do the arrangements for the bass and drums.
What do you like the most about Radio Airplay?
It's a great way to reach new fans worldwide.
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** Optional - Interesting story about you, or anything extra you'd like to add.
Our music tells the science fiction story of an alien nanomachine race called Starlit Flame, that arrives on Earth with the intention of enslaving the human race. The songs are stories of this Universe, with themes ranging from mind control to propaganda, civil war, terrorism, philosophy, ontology, quantum mechanics and so on…