Markus Vanhala: Both bands are more into traditional metal stuff with clean high vocals. Malpractice is progressive and technical metal in the vein of Fates Warning, Dream Theater, Annihilator and Megadeth, and Manitou is more traditional heavy rock in the vein of Maiden, Priest and Whitesnake. Both bands have released three albums, so you should check them out.
Is it difficult to schedule things being in so many different bands at once?
Well, not so difficult as the M-bands haven´t been so active lately. Omnium Gatherum is clearly my priority number one, so I schedule all things this way. No big problems so far, but hopefully there’ll be problems soon because it would mean that the bands would be doing better all the time. I’ve noticed that I’m working my best when I’m in a hurry and under pressure. When there’s no hurry with any of the bands then I’m just lazy and sitting on the sofa doing nothing. It’s the deadlines that keep the world rolling.
What inspired you to first pick up the guitar?
When I was a little kid, Paul Stanley of Kiss holding his awesome guitars was the coolest guy on earth, even when he wasn´t playing it, and Adrian Smith of Iron Maiden was also my big hero already back then. VHS videocassettes of Kiss and Iron Maiden were in my everyday use at home. After playing some air guitar in my room whiile listening to some heavy metal I wanted the real deal guitar and then this left hand path of doom was chosen and the downward spiral of life started.
Who were your early inspirations, and who are current guitarists you respect?
Edward Van Halen, Adrian Smith and Randy Rhoads were maybe the biggest REAL influences to pick up the guitar, and those guys are still my biggest favorites of all time. Also some strange Swedish fella called Yngwie, Jeff Waters of Annihilator, Chuck Schuldiner of Death and Marty Friedman of Megadeth/Cacophony.
What’s currently getting the most spins in your CD or MP3 player?
New albums of Enslaved, Amon Amarth, Gojira and Bloodbath are really good. Otherwise I’m listening to a lot of ‘70s and ‘80s prog stuff nowadays, like Rush, Genesis, Marillion, Yes, Kansas and all this stuff. And, Paramore and Lambretta from girl power groups!
The metal scene in Finland is a strong one. Has it been that way for a while, or has it been a recent development?
It’s been this way for a while. Amorphis and Sentenced did the groundwork of the Finnish metal international invasion in the middle of the ‘90s and Children of Bodom/ Nightwish exploded that bank and they put the things to a really big level. Nowadays there is a huge number of metal bands coming and metal festivals in every little town. It’s at the same time good and bad thing. There’s an oversupply of metal bands, but also lots of metal fans buying the records. For example it was nice to notice that our album charted on the Finnish national album chart at position #24, and the previous one was #31. So, we have started to get some coverage in the middle of these thousands of Finnish metal bands. That’s cool and rewarding.
In your opinion, who are the best Finnish metal bands of all time?
Old heavy metal men of Tarot, ancient speed metal masters Stone, the mighty metallers of Diablo and our fellow candlelight bros of Insomnium. Old Amorphis and old Sentenced is also classic Finnish stuff.
