Sami Albert Witchfinder:
Thoughts of a Solitary Man

Cover Photograph by Jarkko Pietarinen

How can I give an appropriate introduction to one of the defining voices in the history of doom metal? Sami Albert Hynninen is probably best known as the pioneering co-founder of Reverend Bizarre, but equally respected for Spiritus Mortis (which will shortly be releasing their fourth full-length via Svart Records).

More recently, his solo project Opium Warlords was loosed quietly into the world. You can feel dreadful heartbeat of doom throughout these frightfully intense and beautiful recordings. The man best known to fans as Sami Albert Witchfinder is not only fiercely independent and notoriously driven; he’s full of wry wit and refreshing frankness. In this interview, Sami visits with Stephanie Cantu about the artist’s burden, his penchant for elusiveness, channeling otherworldly forces, and arriving at the brink of madness.   (Billy Goate)

Opium Warlords

Sami, what inspires you to continue creating music that is unique and diverse to each band you’ve been a part of?

This is a bit of a boring answer, but the only reason I go on with the music business is that I simply have all of this material inside of me. I have several albums fully composed in my mind. Some of this material dates back to the ‘90s. I can’t really rest before all of this music is recorded. It will take at least ten more years. With Opium Warlords, I can do almost whatever I want, but in the past the reason for different projects was the fact that I had so many diverse things in my mind. Also, I have been asked to join a couple of bands and as I have found their ideas interesting, I have taken the ride – but always in my own way.

Does this music inside of you ever feel like an annoyance or entanglement to get out, or is it all there perfectly in your memory bank waiting for its proper time to be released? Was Opium Warlords your first effort to tune out the world and take care of this?

It has felt like a burden for many years. It feels the same as if you would go to work in a factory knowing that from this point on, for the rest of your life; you will be there eight hours, five times a week. But just lately, I have intentionally tried to adjust my thinking to a bit more positive shape, thinking that it is also a blessing to have all of this material. I just wish to be able to really focus on recording all of it in the coming years. I have wasted too much time being miserable.

My first effort to work with this material was already with KLV, back in the early ‘90s, but then I had to do other things for many years. Maybe I could say that my second effort to return to this material was The Puritan and now it is Opium Warlords.

I hope I do not have to start a new project anymore. That would also be a waste of time and energy. Now I want to use all the time with as complete concentration as possible. For sure, when talking about “wasting the time” I have been a very prolific artist throughout these years, but now I really try not to worry about things I can’t control and then again to have total control on everything I can!

Tell me how you formed Opium Warlords when it was still a concept in your mind. Would you agree that you follow in the Ways of Olde, particularly with your vocal style being reminiscent of Nordic Viking culture?

I do not know how the Vikings sang. (laughs) I have never heard any of their records! And I am not that interested in the whole Viking culture. We never had Vikings in Finland. I used to be influenced by shamanism as it appeared in ancient Finland, but even that belongs more to my past. Maybe I follow the Ways of Old in such ways that I have gotten influence from people like Ian Gillan and Rozz Williams for my vocals and naturally I have some roots in Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, and Led Zeppelin.

The concept of Opium Warlords first came to my mind somewhere around 2004, but back then it was a bit different from what Opium Warlords came to be. It was more “floating” sound wise. This was because at those same times I had The Puritan in my mind, as well, and it was very heavy music. Then when The Puritan came to an end, all of that material – which in the first place had already gone through some other projects – became Opium Warlords’ material. The final form of Opium Warlords included almost everything I have ever thought about musically.

Would you say, as a musician, the ancient rites of shamanism come to play in wayfaring the audience to a different dimension during a live gig? Differentiating shamanic disassociation from insanity when crossing through those barriers would seem difficult. Can you relate to this in any way?

I can say that in the past my performances did have this shamanic quality in them. I was channeling forces from the other side. Also, the shaman is always wounded, as in wounded healer. This is something that is easy for me to relate to, as I am very much wounded. The limit between gnosis or tradition and insanity is a very blurred one. When you do the trip of the shaman, and now I am not talking about any intoxicants – actually, Finnish shamans usually did not use any substances – it is always slightly out of control and in the realms of insanity. To become the shaman of the tribe was not something many people aspired to. It was a hard task and demanded lots of sacrifice from the chosen one.

Because of my fragile health, I nowadays do my best to avoid these altered states of mind, but of course I can’t avoid them wholly. They are always there as a part of the creative process for me. When producing an album, I go up and down like a rollercoaster and both extremes of low and high are very hard to go through. I try to keep the balance as much as I can, so that I would not hurt myself more than I have to, but that aspect is still there. This is why I would quit the whole business right away if I did not have the songs waiting to be recorded. I have already given up many things.

Should you one day decide to play live, I imagine it would be tough to commit to one role in the band when you have created all the instrument parts. Is there a hesitant feeling in sharing the sacred space of a solo project with others?

I created one concept for an Opium Warlords live performance years ago, but I have not thought about it too much anymore. I am not that interested in playing live, anyway. I have now done it with Lord Vicar and Tähtiportti, but it is not a priority in my musical career at all. I am only interested in recording albums. I guess I would enjoy being just one element in Opium Warlords, when having a live line-up. At least I enjoyed much more being just a bass player in Lord Vicar, than how I felt about being a bass player and vocalist, and the leader, in Reverend Bizarre.

Opium Warlords is not really a solo project. I do not do it all alone, and because of this I would not be jealous to share it with some other people, either – as long as they would do what I want them to do. But when it comes to recording, I do not have time or energy to waste to show others how these songs have to be played, especially when I can do it myself. I also hate rehearsing. I just want to record the stuff, forget about it, and go on.

I am happy having just Erkki, our drummer, and Jouni, the recording engineer and co-producer, in the line-up at the moment. It is much easier and faster to work this way. I do not need anyone else there and, most of all, I do not need anyone else’s ideas. But this does not mean that there never would be any other members in the band. I keep all the doors open.

How is Opium Warlords distinct in personality from your other bands and past creations? What essence does it impart in your present life?

I view everything I have done on the same chronological line. Everything I do, I do with 100% concentration and effort. It all comes the same way for me, even if the styles vary. Opium Warlords can be seen there in between The Puritan and Reverend Bizarre, in that sense that The Puritan was heavier and darker than Reverend Bizarre and lacked most of the humorous aspects of it, whereas Opium Warlords has both of these elements: utter darkness, but also irony and sarcasm. It just goes much further on both levels. It is there in between, but at the same time on the extreme opposites on that line, reaching outside of the polarization of The Puritan/Reverend Bizarre – more extreme in everything than either of these bands. It also has lots of connections to my work with The Candles Burning Blue. It ties everything together, just in much stronger form.

Opium Warlords will probably be the only thing that lasts a bit longer. I am slowly getting out of Spiritus Mortis and I already finished my work with Azrael Rising. I will keep working with Tähtiportti, but in a few years I hope to reach the point where I only work on my own projects and compositions.

Your progressions within songs are unpredictable. Sometimes gradual-to-building intensity, ranging from peaceful to heavy. In a way, songs within songs. What is your songwriting process like? Does each instrument layer develop as you go along or is it a premeditated orchestra?

I basically hear everything inside of my mind. It is very easy. The songs and arrangements almost write themselves. Of course, there can be structures and sections which need more of a process. Sound production for this kind of music is very demanding and requires lots of thinking, but otherwise it just comes to me in nearly finished form. Some of these old songs have gone through different forms and styles, but even there the main structure remains the same.

There is what seems to be a subtle Eastern element in Opium Warlords’ instrumentation and vocalization, similar in tone to throat singing at times. Is this intentional, as an ode to your band name, or is this purely coincidental – if it exists at all?

I have been very interested in Eastern cultures. This interest was stronger some years ago, but I still enjoy the music from East Asia and South-East Asia and I am generally interested in Mongolia, Tibet, and Japan. I have not tried intentionally to get any influences from there, as I never try anything, I just do; but I would not be surprised if some of those Eastern elements are there. At least on the fifth Opium Warlords album, which we will start to produce in 2017, there is one song with very obvious East Asian influences. Actually, there the point is to go as far as to intentionally use certain clichés.

I like the Asian idea of emptiness and minimalism in music and visual art and philosophy. It is a major factor in everything I do. But I guess I really understood it through some western artists, such as Arvo Pärt in music and Aubrey Beardsley in drawing, and after that I started to learn about the Asian roots.

Do you reach a certain level of nirvana or transcendence while you are creating music?

Sometimes, but they are brief moments, if they can really be described as nirvana or transcendence. Maybe I could use word euphoria. Suddenly I do something that really affects my mind and everything is perfect for ten minutes, as if I feel I’m touching something much bigger than my own life. But usually all the sessions still end in stress, because I worry about everything and try to reach the perfection on each level and every detail. Without those euphoric revelations I could not go on. I know they are there waiting for me. I do not know how to get there, but I know I finally will.

What is current in the works of Opium Warlords? What do you envision for the future of this music and how it will unfold?

The fourth album, DRONER. It consists of three longer songs on three sides of 12”. To return to the previous question, with this album, which has been so demanding to produce, I have had more – and stronger – euphoric moments than ever before.

After that, we will record a bit bigger album and after that, again, one smaller record. I like to have this continuation of double albums and regular ones. It gives me more room to breathe. I know exactly how the next ten to twelve albums will be, even the titles and the sleeves. All I need is the money to record them. And someone to release them.

Spiritus Mortis

Your live performances with Spiritus Mortis are very powerful, as you are not inhibited by a bass as a front man. How do you feel, is there a sense of freedom performing without an instrument or do you think it adds more pressure to keep the audience engaged? Has this led to more experimentation in past performances?

The thing is that I am not really performing. I am not a performer, and I don’t think at all about keeping the audience engaged. I just am there and what happens, happens. When I am without a bass, it can get much more dangerous for me and for the audience. I sometimes lose control, and without bass and amplifier holding me back I can physically reach a larger area in the venue, and naturally more people, too.

With Spiritus Mortis I was often in a manic state, near to psychosis. A few times, I actually ended up in psychosis. Those were hard years for me on many levels. It was “easy,” in a way, to do the gigs, as I did not care about my life anymore. There was not really pressure and the band played always perfectly, which enabled me to go deeper into my own world. But it all became too risky for me. I was losing my mind. Then after 2010 I quit doing gigs.

My return to the stage was with Tähtiportti, but with them I have always worn a mask. This way I do not have a straight connection to the audience. Even some of those gigs have gone out of hand, in my case. I just can’t control what is inside of me, this self-destruction and anger and everything. I am able to control it when I am calm and sober and alone, but in a crowded place, especially being on the stage, it is hard. This is one reason why I do not like to do gigs. I don’t want to become a sideshow. You know, people coming to see if I “flip.”

I was pretty “out there” already with The Candles Burning Blue back in 1997 to 2001, but it got really bad in 2009 and 2010. The gigs with Lord Vicar were different. I just concentrated in helping the band out and playing the bass. Most of the time I was there with my eyes closed. Staying in my own spot and also in my own, somewhat calmer, world. Listening to other guys playing and just doing my job. Almost like listening to my own playing, too. If the monitor sound was good, it was very easy; but when the hearing was bad, I could get lost, as I play by ear.

Tell me the craziest thing that has happened during one of your shows.

Well, maybe it was on that Spiritus Mortis European Tour in 2009. I was lurking among the audience, behind their backs, attacking them and strangling them with the microphone cable. It was not “crazy” as it equates to “funny.” I was crazy. I am embarrassed by those actions. There is no excuse for such behavior. Not even in my case, where I am diagnosed as being out of the balance. I also broke a couple of cognac glasses on my forehead and hurt myself in some other ways. I could have lost an eye, or opened my veins when doing all of that. I was on a serious suicide trip.

Sami, you’ve mentioned your gradual departure from Spiritus Mortis to concentrate on your own work. After the release of the next album, will you be performing any of the new songs? Would you consider doing any guest vocals in the future?

I departed from Azrael Rising, too, and after finishing the “lost” Puritan album next year, I will kill that project, too. Basically, the only thing I want to do is to record all the albums I have already composed. I want to be free of all of that music. To be done with everything and just to disappear.

I was not expecting to participate in any Spiritus Mortis gigs, but then this slot as a support for Pentagram and Satan came, and I felt that I couldn’t take that away from the other guys. When I now return to the stage with Spiritus Mortis, I try to do it with the experience I got from Lord Vicar gigs – more balance and musicality, and less destruction – but time will tell how it goes! We also have few more gigs booked for the next year, but I feel that after 2017 I will quit doing gigs for good. I mean with any band. Gigs do not give me almost anything else except stress. I do not have that “front man” in me anymore, and you can’t be a heavy metal vocalist without being there in the spotlight. My place is elsewhere.

Where will you disappear to? Does it feel more like a duty or obligation to remain in the public eye while putting out your musical projects? This must be a double-edged sword.

If I would tell it to you or anybody else, would it be a disappearance anymore? I do not think about any duty to remain in the public eye, but I know that in order to sell any records nowadays one has to do it, so I have to do some promotional things even when I would rather avoid them. But I can also say that I enjoy some parts of doing interviews, as long as I do not have to travel too far, make phone calls, or be around lots of people.

I guess in many ways I am less under a public eye than most of the other people, who take photos of every moment of their boring lives. I do not really update my life on the internet, besides some little things I do on the Opium Warlords Facebook page, which by the way, was something the label told me I have to have, so in that sense there is an obligation. I would have not started one myself.

Also, here where I live no one is interested in the things I do, or know me at all, so as long as I do not do gigs I am far away from the public eye, which is excellent!

Will you divulge some information about the upcoming Spiritus Mortis album? Did you write the lyrics, or are the songs and concepts a collaborative effort?

I wrote all the lyrics, as I have done in all of the songs I have recorded with them, with exception of old classic Rise From Hell, a couple of cover songs, and one song which lyrics I stole from Robert E. Howard.

I got the finished backing tracks from them, wrote the lyrics, and arranged the vocals on top of them. The other guys heard the vocals for the first time when I recorded them. I have not even met them since the last gig in 2010. I met the second guitarist once here in my hometown, as he was the sound guy for a band that came here to play, and much later I met the drummer once when we were doing the mixing. The vocals were recorded in a different city than the instruments. Zero collaboration.

You may be single handedly responsible for keeping traditional doom metal alive. Will you watch it die?

Of course, I would like to think that I had some part in revitalizing the doom metal genre, a bit like Lee Dorrian did in the early '90s, but how much of that is reality, I do not know. And at least I was not alone there, even during those stoner rock years, when doom bands changed their style. There were bands like Warning, Cold Mourning, and Electric Wizard keeping up the right way.

This much I can say: when I started thinking of a doom band of my own here in Lohja, around 1993 and 1994, I did not know anyone else aware of the old bands that I saw as my influences, so I created my vision of pure doom in complete solitude.

Then when I got Kimi and Juippi to join me, the only two people I was able to get into the band, I had to ”teach them” what this music, and Reverend Bizarre, was about – structures, ways of riffs and rhythms, sounds, lyrical contents and visual aspects. So, on this much smaller scale – the original concept of Reverend Bizarre – I did something single handedly, first in my imagination, and then with the guys. They got the point very quickly, and Kimi wrote his first doom metal song ”Sodoma Sunrise” in the embryonic years of Reverend Bizarre, though we never played it at Lohja.

Nowadays, all the music fans are aware of what doom metal is, but it was very different back then. Very obscure and hidden. I believe I must have been the only person around here at the surroundings of my hometown with a collection of doom metal albums, during those early years.

Now it is everywhere, so I hardly will watch it die. Maybe Reverend Bizarre helped somehow to pass on this style of music, at least here in Finland. I hope that we did. That was our main mission!

Why are you so done with Reverend Bizarre?

Because I was the one who wanted to end the whole thing, and still, here I am working with the Reverend Bizarre-related projects, after all these years. Kimi takes care of Facebook, but I work much alone on all of the re-releases and merchandise. It demands lots of time and energy, as I want everything to be perfect. I would love to concentrate on the present, not the past. So, I feel a bit like being trapped. I can’t wait when my work with this band is finally done. Maybe it would be a bit different if I would get payment for the work I do, but I don’t.

I am very happy of the legacy of the band, and all the fans who keep it up, but I do not wish to have it in my life anymore. I wish to have it in your life, instead.

Any last thoughts on the subject of doom metal? How have you seen the genre evolve since your days in KLV and Reverend Bizarre to now in the present day?

I have not really followed the genre since I quit Reverend Bizarre. I felt I had done my part in it, and I was a bit bored, too. Doom metal was exciting when no one knew about it. Paradoxically, my main idea with Reverend Bizarre was to spread the word about the genre. We kind of succeeded in that, but the result was slightly boring. There have not been that many bands that I have felt to be really interesting. Some of the mystery and danger is not there.

Now I have been again listening to my earliest doom favourites, like Cathedral’s Mourning of A New Day. I watched this little documentary about the early days of Cathedral, and remembered many warm feelings and exciting days of the past. It was great to see those guys sitting there together talking about their beginnings. And, of course, I have been listening to bands like Trouble and Iron Man all these years. Some things never go away. While answering this interview, I had Asylum’s The Earth is the Insane Asylum of the Universe and Solitude Aeturnus’ Through the Darkest Hour spinning!

One interesting thing is that nowadays I like to listen to some bands that I did not like too much back in '90s or early 2000’s, like Crowbar and Goatsnake or Burning Witch. Back then, I was being so much a puritan that I was annoyed by certain sides of them. Now I enjoy them a lot as they really are heavy. I even listen to some Kyuss sometimes. (laughs)

It did feel good to return to Doom Metal now with Spiritus Mortis and Lord Vicar. It has been fun to be there again in the “scene” for a while. I still like all the old bands, and it is nice to see some familiar faces.

Thank you Sami, I appreciate your time and am honored to have you here at Doomed & Stoned. Many blessings to you and your musical creations. Until next time, DOOM ON!

Thank you for having me!