AS THE SUN FALLS (Melodic Death Metal – Finland 🇫🇮) – Interview with the band via Angels PR Worldwide Music Promotion #asthesunfalls #melodicdeathmetal #heavymetal
Thanks to Angels PR Worldwide Music Promotion for conducting and providing this interview with the band!!!
Watch the official video for “A Shimmer On The Tides”, the first single from the upcoming album “Songs From The Veil” coming out on May 22, 2026 via Theogonia Records.
Inspired by Finnish mythology, northern waters, and the quiet glow of winter light, “A Shimmer On The Tides” opens a new chapter for AS THE SUN FALLS. The song captures the meeting point of nature, ancient belief, and melancholy, wrapped in the band’s signature blend of melodic and atmospheric death metal.
The accompanying video is a studio-shot, minimalist portrayal that amplifies the song’s mood, emotion, and underlying tension.
Available on all digital streaming platforms:
Spotify
Apple Music
Credits:
Mix & Mastering: Mikael Andersson (MRG Production)
Video: Hannu Mikkola
Stay tuned for more from “Songs From The Veil”. Step into the tide. Step beyond the veil…
Songs From The Veil draws deeply from Finnish mythology. What drew you to these specific legends?
I do not like to call it mythology or legend, as they are stories just like Christian stories and believes today. Calling them “legends” while many of these beliefs still exist within our hearts is demeaning it greatly. Where is the difference between the Story of Saint Peter, Jesus and the stories of the Soulbird, Kalma or the great Bear of the woods?
There was always this mysticism around the swamps and woods of Finland, even the Vikings feared the Finnich lands and believed it was magical and the Finnish tribes were forest giants controlling the weather.
Finland has been Christianized very late compared to most of the rest of the world, due to its distance, the dense forests and the sea surrounding it.
It took multiple crusades, led by Sweden, many dead Christians, sacrifices by the church and over a 100 years to force the Finns into Christianity. Yet many have never truly turned towards christianity, and so happened that Finnish Christian traditions are full of old pagan rituals, relicts and believes till this day.
This has led to the Finns being deeply connected to nature and the wild. Going on hikes, to the lake and being at peace with nature. Having all these old pagan influences in your daily live nourishes your hunger to explore these stories and believes and to investigate them. And I must admit that the more we look into those, the more they reflect a deep truth about life and what we see around us.
I can believe in the existence of a Soulbird, a spiritual reindeer, or an old wise tree any time, compared to a zombie turning water into wine and walking on water.
How does mythology help you express themes that modern language sometimes fails to capture?
Modern language is loud. It speaks in engines, schedules, and constant motion. We hear cars and construction sites everywhere, machines working without rest, and slowly we learn to stop listening to anything quieter. The breeze moving through the air, the bird calling from a branch, the small mouse stirring beneath fallen leaves, all of it fades into the background of modern life.
The old beliefs offer a different way of listening. I do not use it to explain modern themes, but to remember older truths that guide me through the present. Ancient beliefs teach us that the world is alive: that snow can fall with intention, that winter can call, that trees can speak to those who are willing to hear. When we begin to listen again, we open our eyes and realize how deeply we have been shaped, manipulated into speed, productivity, and emotional quietness.
Through the old ways, meaning is not forced into words but felt through presence. It gives voice to what modern language often cannot: our longing for connection, our grief over what has been lost, and our quiet hope to feel whole again in a world that rarely slows down.
The album explores both cosmic mythology and personal loss. How do these worlds intersect musically?
The answer is simple. Life.
Loss is part of life and a big part of old beliefs. It is seen with grief but also with the belief that you shall be reunited in the afterworld. It is a sad and very melancholic way to see the world as it is. Everything dies… And the Finns made it an important part of their literature and culture. Many traditional songs and poets are about loss and sorrow, even at Christmas. Prime example is “Varpunen jouluaamuna” telling the tale of a dead child visiting its sister for christmas in the form of a bird.
Compared to Kaamos and Pohjoisen Sydän, how would you describe the emotional shift of the new album?
“Song From The Veil” is more mature and darker. Compared to previous releases, the new album is bringing a deeper sentiment of desperation, spiraling down to this sadness evermore into and having to learn how to live with it.
Nature is a recurring presence in your music. Is it a backdrop or an active character in your storytelling?
Nature is always an active character in our music. I would even say it is the main protagonist in almost all our songs either in its purest form such as a forest, an animal or a person or veiled as a wind, a storm or the cold. In the end, everything is nature. Every tree, every bird, every human, every gust of wind, every star, every wave is a creation of what creates life and maintains it. Nature.
How do atmosphere and melody function within your death metal foundation?
It was a struggle for many years to find the right way to combine the wanted or needed atmosphere with the genre of Melodic Death Metal. But once we started not to care anymore if we are indeed Melodic Death Metal or if we play Black Metal or Doom, it became so much easier. More musical freedom and opportunities. Death Metal is a genre based on riffs and brutality, whilst we are trying to avoid pure brutality as it does not represent us. Nature isn’t brutal; it is vicious and dangerous in its beauty. It is like a chord progression going from oppressive tone through beauty towards melancholia and sadness in the afterwards. It cannot be incorporated easily as into Death Metal.
Which mythological concept from the album resonates most with the band on a personal level?
I can only speak for myself, for me it is probably the Soulbird. A bird guarding your soul your entire life, unseen and silent, always following you from your first to your last breath. And then guiding your soul safely across to the afterlife. It has something reassuring in it, a feeling of not being fully alone in this world.
How important is silence and space in shaping your sound?
It is one of the most important elements of my songwriting. I write lyrics being outdoors at the lakes, on a hike or even in the snow in freezing temperatures sitting next to a fire, drinking glögi or a hot chocolate. Silence lets you hear the words of life, the murmuring of the winds across the trees, the crackling of branches, and so much more. It feeds your soul with hope, melancholy, and knowledge. It gives you answers to the questions you are thinking about, and it guides you through your pain. Silence is music.
What challenges arise when translating folklore into extreme metal without losing authenticity? How open and ready was Theogonia Records for this project?
One of the biggest challenges was to shorten the stories to a length fitting a song. We were planning on telling the story of Kulervo, Kalervos Son but this story was a big challenge to add to this album as it would have required 4 or 5 songs to be told properly. So, we decided to focus on other beliefs instead. Another challenge was to get the Finnish Folklore into English language without losing the deep meanings. As you may know, English is a very simple language, but Finnish is a very unique and complex language where one meaning can have many different words and one word can have many meanings. So, the way of using it and the context really defines the tone and it made it very hard to find the right words in english.
Theogonia Records was very supportive of the idea of following the path of folklore and old ways.
What can listeners expect emotionally from Songs From The Veil?
This album is different from what we have done previously. It is darker, more atmospheric, and more brutal in its core. Musically, we stayed true to ourselves and followed the same path of blackened Melodeath as usual (with a heavy side of the Black Metal this time) but added some new twists to the
compositions. We were focusing on the guitar work and the ambience on the background instruments by adding many folklore lures, flutes and horns as well as traditional vocals.
What does the “veil” symbolize for AS THE SUN FALLS?
The Veil is the unknown or unexplored for us. It may be the future, the past we forgot, the chances we left out of fear or just the other side of the lake.
But I believe that in a deeper sense, it is the reality we refuse to accept, the forgotten ways and abandoned nature.
Band Members:
Vocals: Joni Hakulinen
Guitars & Vocals: Jani Berney Mikkänen
Guitars: Juuso Laitinen
Drums: Anttoni Välimaa
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