Fallout Ritualist:

~By Billy Goate (Editor in Chief)~

There’s something about that voice. Mikko Kääriäinen (best known as Count Karnstein) of the Finnish band CARDINALS FOLLY croons like a stern master with ice water for blood. Dare not knock on the door of his estate seeking shelter from the tempest. His singing incites shivers as he wails and thrashes about, bemoaning the wiles of the devil and the fate of foodhardy thrill seekers. Mikko joined our own Stephanie V. Cantu for her podcast Crypt of Despair last year and I was eager to get to get a proper interview with him in these pages. Come with me now, into the shadows to a domain where doom is law and riffs conjure soul-stealing specters. This is the twisted realm of Cardinals Folly…

You draw significant inspiration from mysticism and the occult. What are your own beliefs about the supernatural? And while we’re on the subject, have you ever encountered something uncanny, unearthly, or otherwise unexplainable?

I guess it’s mere curiosity that has brought this devious individual and many others on the brink of great things. Teenage rebellion is a pathway to many things you will be able to truly understand later on, to expand your consciousness to unnatural levels. I believe in the devil as an ideal collaborator in spiritual rebellion – a dark power of nature, relentless illumination, self-deification, and resistance of the right-hand path. A cultivated inspiration and idol for individuals like us. Of course, The Master will always take care of its own, the truly initiated and dedicated, and therefore things will always happen. From everyday charms to weirder incidents. I don´t want to pick out anything special, for it´s not about bragging how weird your life has been. That´s the naturality or unnaturality of this kind of mind – you just live it. Nothing is that strange anymore. That´s almost like a Biblical term to me, at this point. Reference based on the many, the majority, what they would think.

Interesting. I’m guessing you’re well read on the occult. For the novice, what tomes would you recommend for reading? I’m guessing Dennis Wheatley’s novels will be among them, given the band’s name.

Well, for someone willing to get both a factual and fictional overall briefing about the western esoteric and occult practices, I recommend the following starters:

• Stephen Flowers: ‘Lords of the Left-Hand Path’ (1997)
• Dennis Wheatley: 'The Devil and All His Works’ (1971)
• Don Web: 'Overthrowing the Old Gods: Aleister Crowley and the Book of the Law’ (2013)
• Trevor Ravenscroft: 'The Spear of Destiny’ (1972)
  
• Anton LaVey: 'The Satanic Bible’ (1969)
• H.P Blavatsky: 'The Secret Doctrine’ (1888)
• Eliphas Levi: 'Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual’ (1855)

How long have you been singing and playing bass? I’m curious about what lit the fire inside of you to get started with both.

I started everything with this band. I needed a vision of a band to make happen, to actually give a damn. Never been one of those bedroom metal musicians. Cardinals Folly and its early version symbolize my musical career. I simply started to play bass and sing when we started playing doom in 2004, without having any experience. To be honest, the more I see in this life, the more I like my choices. There´s a shitload of stagnated bands out there. Bands with members who can play, but are pretty clueless about anything else. I´m glad I had no specific pattern to start laboring when we started. I´ve learned it all myself along the way, which certainly suits me very well. I´m a person of my own. Our heaviest influence among traditional doom bands was Reverend Bizarre, when we started. Reverend Bizarre was emerging in Finland and it felt the closest thing to us. Of course, there are also typical old school legends like Saint Vitus, Pentagram, Cathedral, etc., but Reverend Bizarre was so present, especially in our early works. Now all that really remains from their influence is the cinematic gothickry, but that I love too much to ever let it go. Besides, it´s nothing that unusual in metal, generally. They just did it really well, I want to do it even better – really combine the themes and the music.

I admit I’m a little late to the game. The Coven was the original incarnation of Cardinal’s Folly, right?

You could say so. The idea didn´t change one bit and we simply continued with a new drummer and new moniker. Like I said, we were total newbies back then to everything regarding functioning as a band, so we made up a proper fitting name hastily in our excitement, without giving it too much thought. Our first drummer left and we got a new one, who was really into doom and very experienced with the underground. So we forged our visions stronger and had more artistic approach. I found the true name for us and we set the course to where we are today.

Around 2012-2013, there was a complete change of line-up. Was the future of Cardinals Folly in doubt at that point in time?

I´ve always been very demanding regarding people´s input in Cardinals Folly. I never chose to be the leader of the band. It came naturally, because of my level of ambition, temperament, and vision. Cardinals Folly is my baby, and I was never truly happy with the input of the previous members. Our guitar player had no time to really play in a band and since we took our name in 2007, our drummer had always had self-doubts about his playing and we always argued about many things. He´s a friend of mine still, and probably always will be, but we weren´t exactly the dream team, musically. I was always pushing forward and he was stalling.

With Juho joining in guitar around 2012 and Joni in drums 2014, we got the right dedicated members to push things forward. The future of Cardinals Folly has never truly been in doubt, as it´s always been a major creative outlet for me. But you can speculate if I had made it to this point without these guys. Probably not. The band would exist anyway, but you kind of need the lineup to truly make it something. After all, band life is about sharing our views, rehearsing, talking crap, playing live, doing records, drinking together – that´s what it is to me.

So how did you come to meet your current partners, Juho and Joni? You’re the primary songwriter, naturally, so I’m curious how these two contribute to or otherwise enhance your musical ideas.

They both just answered the ads I had left. I really like that I didn´t take them into the band because of some guaranteed friendship. They weren´t old fishing buddies. That sort of thing is overrated, when it comes to band members. Also, if the band has ambition, it can fuck over the friendship or the friendship can fuck over the band, if you know what I mean. You need brutal honesty, sometimes. Making music like Cardinals Folly is about ambition and vision, so it doesn´t help one bit if you´re a great guy otherwise. Previous members were perfect examples of that.

Juho trained on a few songs on acoustic guitar over the weekend up north at his parents and returned early from his holiday to make it to the audition down south, where he nailed everything totally. Joni did the same, without missing a beat. The musical collaboration and understanding is on a very high level here. An exceptionally high level that even most pro musicians can´t reach with each other for different personal reasons. I´ve seen this. We can together spice up the original idea and structure for a song without changing the atmosphere or screwing anything over. We simply enrich it with good flavors. I or Juho come up with a few matching riffs and we complete the song usually as a group, throwing in riffs and fixing the arrangements for whole band. The original idea remains, but grows some muscle around itself.

Lyrics sometimes exist already before the song, but usually some interesting theme pops up after the feeling I get from the music and I finish the lyrics in a frenzy of inspiration from that. In my opinion, combining the music with the fitting and believable lyrics of a similar atmosphere is very important. If you fuck that up, you´re not in the game anymore. Our approach is similar and we talk the same “language,” because we´re not educated musicians, but three guys on a mission they all completely understand, both spiritually and musically. I feel we´re a real band – a three-piece unit. We work everything together, despite of who wrote the original ideas. Nothing is ever personal. We understand our art and wish to push it forward. That is the priority in Cardinals Folly for us all, despite also being friends. It’s very easy for me to say this, since it´s nothing, but a transcription of what happens in the world of Cardinals Folly nowadays.

You balk at trendiness in music, “laughing at stoner/retro trends as Cardinals Folly since 2007.” In “Hyperborean,” there is the declamatory “No Trends!” in the chorus. Obviously it’s an important sentiment to you.

It feels very natural to me, that a metal band not only plays hard, but also views hard. With my current understanding of the music I´m doing, I certainly wouldn’t settle for less, in any way. This is my chosen lifestyle. Metal music in general is dominated by trends, which is understandable, but spoils the danger and excitement levels of this kinda music completely. I´ll be honest with you, I rarely even listen to new doom anymore. I do still get excited when I hear something totally ass-ripping, like the new Caskets Open album, for an example, but mostly you can predict the moves of the bands, even their behavior. The whole thing is just like my mom making a metal band, and as much as I love my mom, she´s not cut out for this. I feel I need to look elsewhere if I want inspiration. I´m over 30, but I´m still a rebel. I just don´t feel it enough.

Are you coming across many acts that are going their own way, perhaps even a little misunderstood? We’d love to know about bands in Finland, in particular, that have earned your respect and patronage.

Well, just to make it short by recommending some Finnish bands you might not know about: Caskets Open, Seremonia, Kohti Tuhoa, Vinum Sabbatum, Slave Hands, Chestburster and why don´t you also check out the Lithuanian band Hellhookah, because so far Arnas is the only one staying up and downing vodka later than I do! Great people, great band.

Cardinals Folly has been prolific, releasing a new full-length every two years. Last year, you brought us virtually two albums worth of songs, if you include that fantastic split with Church of Void and Acolytes of Moros. Are you tapped out or do you have more songs in the works for us? If so, it would be amazing if you could give us a hint about the material you’re toying with.

Well, I would never consider us being “tapped out” at this point, regardless of the song situation, since we´re hungry and nasty bastards, one of the few bands actually living the shit! Every week we do something, be it rehearsal, studio, a live gig, or just sitting at a bar together, getting nutty ideas.

And to back this up, I will humbly say that our fourth album, Deranged Pagan Sons, which will wipe the floor with all our previous works, will be released in the fall of 2017 on CD via Nine Records and LP via Topillo Records. Fresh start with couple of up-and-coming Euro labels and the very finest we can offer. Eight tracks and 48 minutes of brutal, barbaric, heavy, in-your-face doom metal. The songs are the best, the sound is the best, and for the first fucking time ever, I don´t really even hate my vocals.

That’s awesome news! I think I speak for many when I say I can’t wait to give the new record a spin. As we wrap up the conversation, anything you’d like to share with fans, or at least those who by now are becoming curious?

Later this year, you gotta face our new album in all its power. Join the doom metal cult Cardinals Folly and its ventures. Ride with the doomed ones! Retreating from it doesn´t do good for your metal credibility, so I suggest you open yourselves to it. Dance with the devil. It can´t be ignored anymore. We are going to blow off some steam and live to win, even if some boring jerks keep saying it´s a sin.

Thank you for spending time with me and the Doomed & Stoned readers!

The pleasure was all mine, and will be.

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