RockUnited - Your last album "The Cold White Light" was released 2002, what has the band been up to since then, other than the new album ?

Ville - Just resting and going through helluva thought process and self-observation, each on their own and also together.

Sami - And we toured a lot after that album and had some hazy times. Lots has happened and our families have grown. It's been enriching, involving with deep thoughts.

RockUnited - At least your solo projects have gotten publicity between the Sentenced albums. How much did you put effort on those while on the break ?

Ville - We did one tour with Poisonblack, but when that was finished it'sbeen just normal living. But I concentrated on that, since I had time and enjoyed music that way.

Sami - My solo project at the moment is my two-year old son.

This is where the recorder stopped twice and curses were thrown at it. The boys seemed ok while finding out the cause for a headache. Having jumped over two answers, the boys summed up the next two questions nice and short, the first curiousity being the burial of the band. Was the burial the absolute truth, since what it first brings to mind is just another media trick ?

Ville - It's not a media trick.

Sami - Yeah. We wanted to stay true to ourselves and to other people. There's been many variations about quitting, like we've been fighting with each other or with the record company, but it's all bullshit.

RockUnited - How did you come to this decision, what made you put an end to everything ?

Ville - There's many reasons and none have nothing to do with music. We felt it has nothing to do with why we decided this way. It's more about our personal lives, like Sami told our families have grown and some have gotten married. I have two kids and it's a large sacrifice being away from home. And being a part of this rock'n'roll dream hasn't really worked that well for us, it's brought us more harm than good. If you ever even tried to have some piece from the dream, it's all been a complite failure. You only live for that one hour on stage and then try to kill the rest 23 hours time that is left. I've ran each year more and more away from all those hours and during these years I've found this idiot within me and I want to get rid of that person.

Sami - On the other hand this band has always been an on-off band, you either do it with all your heart or then you don't do it at all. Since we've got our personal lives we had to make a decision what is best for everyone and for the band. And we came to the decision it's best to record the final farewell album and celebrate the whole career with it, just say goodbye to everyone who's been involved with us along these years. And go out with style and have a grand funeral. This is how we can deal with the decision till the very last breath. It's been a complicated process in all aspects.

Ville - Mentally it's been really rough. Eventhough it has been rough all the way to the recording process, in a way it's still been a relieving thing. We feel relieved and happy, we go our way without compromises, it's an end which this band deserves.

RockUnited - Young bands have tough times when they dream about huge success and come to realize it's a tough job and the success might not come at all. Or then you're successful for a year and it's all downhill from there.

Sami - And you can only see about five percent what really goes on in there. When Ville mentioned touring, it's all plain hell. It's only five or ten percent from that when you really feel alive. You play to the fans and the rest of it is just crap. We're like half the men we used to be, we're still walking, but barely alive.

RockUnited - But a job is a job, after a while you're not too fond of it. It's a necessity.

Sami - Yeah, and after we've finished the long tours and gone home, you feel like you'd rather shovel shit for 16 hours a day than play in a band. Of course we've had our highlights, but it's just a part of it and the rest of it is shoveling that shit within us.

Ville - Yeah, and each year we have to sacrifice more and more for the highlights.

Sami - You have to sacrifice more and more from your personal life when the band gets bigger. You hit a wall at some point and now we've kinda reached it. The band has always been a big part of our lives and we want to keep it clean in our memories in a way where it doesn't suffer from anything that has nothing to do with it. This is how we think we go out with style and make the end a memorable thing, that none other band has ever done before.

RockUnited - Of all careers then, what about a career as a sewage cleaner then ?!

Ville - We've kinda been cleaning the sewages already in a way.

The recorder now showed its problem. It was the revenge of the blonde journalist and a mix of buttons. Women and electronics. The guys found the situation very humorous and after a few laughs I asked will they continue making music after Sentenced is buried and what will happen to the solo bands like Poisonblack, which is still going to release their second album ?

Ville - Poisonblack will be releasing the second album later this year. We still have to work on it so that we'll be pleased about it when it's going to be released. That means I've still got work left with it what comes to touring and so on. But I'll stand proud till the end and after that I'll take a long vacation from music, just relaxing. I'll think about my future later on. What comes to music, I'll never stop doing that and probably none of us, but now that we're still carrying our coffin we're not thinking about these things and we don't even want to. But we'll see what the future will hold for us.

Sami - I haven't got another band and after we're done with our last show I'll just sleep six or eight months and then see how I feel about things. You really can't stop thinking about music before you've actually gone through the real burial. But I think we'll still continue with music, at least in some way. But right now it's all really unclear to us. But in my case I won't sacrifice my life for music anymore. Sure I could continue playing in garages whatever crap comes to mind, but going on a world tour is not my intention, I won't do it.

RockUnited - If you didn't continue with music anymore, what would you do in that case ?

Ville - I'm just trying to catch up the time I've lost with my family. It has nothing to do with music, other than maybe singing lullabies. Then maybe going to the unemployed office and continue where I left as a painter.

Sami - It's probably lullabies for me too. I have a bigger project on my mind in the future, which includes writing a book, so we'll see if that goes anywhere. It will be a fantasy novel based on world tour where I'll use real life material as well. But it's still too early to talk about that, since it's unfinished and so on.

RockUnited - Do you have much background on writing then ?

Sami - Some, I've always been interested on writing and done that a lot, even studied on it. It's another passion of mine along with music. And now we'll see if there's man enough in me for the job or what. Maybe what it finally comes down to is I'm shoveling that shit for 16 hours a day. But for now I don't want to bring anything more in the open about that, so far it's been just a way for me to deal with the issues in life. I've written quite a lot for years, but so far it's all stayed in my table drawer.

THE FUNERAL ALBUM

RockUnited - In your last promo package the information has been shaped into a funeral speach, ending to Amen and the whole package is black. Who's idea was this ?

Sami - Our record company got the idea from us since we've been thinking of funerals along with the title of the album and we've even got a coffin that goes together with the subject. It's good that they decided to deal with it this way. But the Amen and all the religious matter involving around that has nothing to do with this band.

Then Ville leans back on his corner, shaking his head "This has nothing to do with Jesus !". Not that I was after a religious point in the question, we all know after all these guys aren't your average church goers...

Sami - It's just a metaphor, but from the concrete side we're burying something that is about to die and that suites well with the humour inside the band. We like to play with the end this way.

RockUnited - Who was the person who wrote the promo information, do you know him ?

Sami - He (Gunnar Sauermann) writes for Metal Hammer, we just met him yesterday, but we're not more familiar with him. He's been following our career from day one and he had his input to the story.

RockUnited - You've got the promo shots where you're lying in the coffin, where did you get it and where were the photos taken at ?

Ville - Vesku knows this undertaker, so it was through personal relations.

Sami - We've decided not to spread the word where it's from, but coffins are available.

RockUnited - Were you in a mortuary or the undertakers office ?

Sami - Something like that. The coffin was actually in use for a while, a lifeless body has actually been lying inside of it ! The coffin came from Europe and was switched to a new one here. So it was kind of a second hand coffin that was lying around there. It still has the stench inside from the body that was lying there, we couldn't wash it out. When we were shooting the photos we all layed inside of it and the stench stuck to our clothes and hair ! We spent some truly deadly and dreary moments there. But we also had fun, it just matches well for what we're after here. We're coming to an end, but we can still have fun while at it.

RockUnited - But you got that stench out from your clothes in a wash ?

Sami - Haven't been sniffing them that well, hah !

RockUnited - How did you start working on the new songs, were you aware of the end already before starting on the writing process or did it come clear to you while working on the album ?

Sami - It's been a long process, we've all gone through the idea in our thoughts. So in a way we were aware this will be the last album, but the final decision came while we still had half of the material unfinished, without lyrics and arrangements. The decision changed the process upside down comparing to our earlier works. It's a helluva challenge writing the last songs for a band that has been going for so long. Mentally it was really tough and we also wanted to include that farewell atmosphere to the songs and possibly write the best songs we've ever written and go out in style. But it was a rewarding and unusual process that left a fond memory for all of us. And you can hear all the things we've gone through in the music and the lyrics.

Ville - I think it was a tough album to record for all of us. And when you thought of it being your last album you worked harder on it. It was an intensive feeling while working on it and it was really hard to work when you went through the closure in your thoughts, still trying to work on the album which required lots of concentration. So at times it was tough to keep the balance.

RockUnited - Who wrote the lyrics and songs this time, was it the whole band ?

Sami - Hasn't really changed from the earlier albums. Miika Tenkula is our main songwriter, but me and Ville wrote a couple of songs. We all worked on the lyrics.

Ville - This is how it's always been. The approach to the writing process wasn't that different physically from the earlier albums, but mentally it was tough, since you can only write the last album once.

RockUnited - While you were writing the lyrics and the songs, what was the atmosphere then ? You started writing the songs already over a year ago.

Ville - I wanted to stay honest to myself and others while writing the lyrics and they were really personal. I wrote them for myself without any messages to others. Or maybe to certain persons.

RockUnited - It's the usual Sentenced material, dark and gloomy.

Sami - That too, but eventhough the theme is a band funeral, we tried adding different things there. So it's not a theme or concept album in that sense. But of course we've always carried a dark atmosphere with us, eventhough we've also always had some rays of sun coming through somewhere. It feels like we've captured on the album what we've gone through in the last two years. In that sense it's more deeper and we had to look inside ourselves what is best for this band and ourselves. In that sense we dug deeper into our thoughts than before. There's some songs that are almost two years old, but the process from start to finish took us about a year and a half.

From subject to another we suddenly tried thinking back when was the last time Sentenced played in the finnish metal festival Tuska and none of us weren't sure about the year. What a bunch of emptyheads, but the last time was 2003 and RockUnited actually wrote about that show. But on with the recording process. Ville mentioned staying in the studio was no different from earlier albums, they used as much time there as before, but still taking the time they needed. They're not thinking about time while recording, as long as they get it done in about six weeks that is.

Sami - It was about six weeks with the mixing and all. We concentrated on the album what we're about to put into it while in the studio. We worked about ten to twelve hours a day, only one day off each week. It's always an intensive thing and it has to be, if you start digging in too deep with each song you'll only spoil it. So it has to be a quick and quite painless process.

Ville - When you work intensively you manage to keep the real feeling to it, which song needs more energy and whatever the thing is to each song. If you start toying more with the songs you'll only end up with a complitely different kind of material.

Sami - We could never go in the studio without the songs like some bands do, just jamming in the studio to see what they'll come up with. We'd only end up with crappy material like that and a hangover. You have to have it all done in your thoughts before going there and record it with the intensive feeling you've got at that moment.

RockUnited - Did you have that six weeks booked in advance ?

Sami - Yeah, you gotta have. The studios are booked in advance far to the future, even a year or so. You gotta have a certain period for it and it's mentally easier knowing when to start and when to finish and you have to get it all done in that time. But we've always booked enough time so we don't have to rush on things. If there's ever a day when we can't get anything done, we sleep over it and continue the next day.

RockUnited - How do you work under pressure then, knowing you've only got one week left ?

Ville - We've never actually come to that point, having a rush in finishing it.

Sami - And if we ever had anything like that we've concentrated on how to get more time, than just playing something and fast, there's no point in that. You better have a schedule, that's how it works for us. If we just went there thinking we'll see what we come up with for year 2007, whether we have two or 14 songs complited, it wouldn't work out.

Since having guests is IN these days, the guys admitted they've used a female vocalist on couple of songs on earlier albums, but with "The Funeral Album" they think you can't really call the outside people guests, as they're not some huge stars, just people who's output has worked for the songs. There's a mouth-organ solo which was played by Pasi Puolakka, also a choir of children and a singer called Kimmo Härmä in the background. But the band isn't bringing them out on the album cover in the typical way, sticking a label there screaming "featuring Michael Jackson" type of things and such. They were only searching for the right mood and addition for the album and based on that searched for the "guests". Where did they find the choir of children then ?

Sami - They're called Musarit and come from Oulu. We don't know about their history, but there were about twelve girls singing in the songs. We were trying to get some contrast to the songs they were singing in and the idea came from the time when we did the "Vengeance Is Mine" song which is brutal and violent with its sound, arrangements and lyrics. Somehow we felt it would be a good addition to find something complitely different to the song and the choir worked well. There's a certain kind of feeling like revenge is sweet when you have innocent girls among all that violence. There's also chimes which bring contrast to the choir. We got the idea while writing the song and it was something really strange in the studio, when our apathy was mixed with the 10-12 year old girls energy levels. It sounds exactly what we wanted from it.

RockUnited - You can really hear all those new sounds and influences on the album and also style, you've got the choir and lots of rage at least.

Sami - We've actually tried avoiding influences, we've just done what has felt the best for us, also trying to find something new to the sound at the same time. This time we came up with the choir and also played with spoons, zippers and other stupid things at the studio, just to get something different on the album this time around and new atmospheres to the songs. Also we wanted to do something different while recording, just so it freshens up the working process.

ZIPPERS, HAIR AND SKIN

From this point on the discussion turned filthy, blame it on the whole bunch doing the interview, everyone was really tired eventhough we finished the interview a little past eight in the evening ! So scroll down a few lines if you don't want to make a mess of your innocence.

RockUnited - Talking about zippers, did you have the microphone in your pants while zipping back and forth ?!

Sami - We tested that, but it sounded better when doing it with the guitar and a zipper.

RockUnited - But it would've made impressive noise if you had played with the pants zipper, sticking some hair in between, ending the recording to a painfully mad roar...

Sami - Well, (laughs) there's some hair as well.

RockUnited - But we didn't get that with the promo package !!

Sami - There's some pubic hair in the official album then...

Ville - Yeah, and the covers are made from skin, with some added dirty pimples.

Sami - The covers are actually made of foreskin.

RockUnited - (can't stop laughing...typical gross finnish humour) I wonder who'd dare to buy that one ?!

Sami - Maybe some male, middle-aged germans.

Now you can open your eyes, less dirt-talk from here on, promise ! The guys also used scissors, harmonica and compressed air while recording. But where did they get the inspiration to use all this really weird stuff and where can a listener here it all ?

Ville - The mouth-organ thing had been in our minds for some time, but I guess we never made a song where it would've sounded good in.

Sami - It's a really filthy instrument, it needs certain surroundings to fit in. Maybe we had some western influence in the song where it finally fitted in well.

Ville - I don't take it that way, it reminds me of...well, I don't even want to say what it reminds me of...(laughs). When you know the backgrounds of what's been happening around the instrument, herpes and whatever, I always smile when the song kicks off. But if I started explaining this, I'd probably turn into a retard in everyone's faces. So I better shut my mouth.

Sami - The spoons, zippers and all were just spontaneous ideas, Hiili (Hiilesmaa, producer) probably came up with those, since he's always willing to go for anything new with each band, just to break up the atmosphere. We went through the kitchen before going behind the mic and only then checked what got stuck into our hands and went with that. You can hear them all around in the album, but they don't play any bigger parts there.

Ville - Like solos...

RockUnited - Spoon solos ! What about "Spoonman" revisited ?!(check out Soundgarden album "Spoonman")

Sami - Nah, no leading roles ! But when you get that "what the hell is going on here"-feeling, it always means you've created something worthwhile.

RockUnited - So far I've only gone through the album a few times and I can hear some things here and there, even the zipper, but I think you have to listen to the album really carefully to hear them. But it's nice to hear these things what you've come up with.

Sami - You have to listen quite carefully at least during the first two songs.

Ville - Let's just say don't waste your time trying to find the spoon noise from there...

RockUnited - As expected, your album again carries that melancholic, very sad sound with the theme of death and other dreary things evolving through it. But the more you listen to the album, the more it feels like you've made the most sensitive album ever in your career. And this doesn't come from the thought that your career has reached an end. Do you think you've found a more sensitive side for this album ?

Sami - There's more sides to it for me than just that. All those emotions we've gone through during the couple of years has been put there. In some way it's continuing where the last album left with. But of course since it's our last album and has demanded a lot from us, we've unburdened it down there. It carries a farewell feeling from start to finish. It also has all the elements we're all about, energy and aggression, melancholy and the songs with more emotion to them, even serious side and humour. But we wanted to make it in general something that has all sides to it and to our ears it sounds just that. And at the same time we're taking a few steps back and also the last step forward.

RockUnited - When making a final album you can't help wondering whether the band desires to make the best album of their career or go nuts, 'cos it doesn't make a difference anymore. Where where you aspiring to ?

Sami - Of course we wanted to make the best album ever and leave with a style after all these years. We feel we deserve this and all that new stuff that we haven't done before. The thought of ending it to a certain climax, with how we've evolved during all these years.

RockUnited - The album is very balanced and falls nowhere behind from your earlier material. Were you more inspirational this time while going through the closure inside your minds ?

Ville - Might be so, but it was more an unconscious thing. You can't really compare them, you've always had the passion for music while writing each album. But comparing the emotions is difficult. It was more a mental thing.

Sami - We've poured our souls and given everything into all our albums, but of course it was a bit different this time, since we had our last chance to say what we wanted to. But comparing the process is tough, since we've always been to it with all our hearts.

RockUnited - Now that the album is finished, do you feel you would've wanted to do something differently or are you complitely satisfied with the outcome ?

Ville - There's nothing you could've done differently. Everything went really smoothly and when each member gives their everything to it, you can't start questioning the material. While listening to the album I think we all feel it's unique in all aspects and I don't just mean soundwise or how the songs were done, but more from the emotional side. I think we all agree there's nothing we'd like to change.

Sami - I think we're more relieved having been able to include the emotional charge into it that we've been going through. I have no regrets, it's just the way we wanted it to be.

RockUnited - Did you have more songs in store ?

Sami - Actually we had one, but we decided to leave it out. It won't be released as a single or anything, neither will all those other unfinished stuff we've done in the years. All the albums carry a stamp of their own time, so there's no point in releasing them later on. They'll stay where they've been so far.

While trying to get some legend out of each song from the boys, they felt it was too much pain in the ass, but Ville went through the tracks pointing each of them as crap. He stated it was really difficult to go through each track analyzing them, though lyrically his input dealed with all the issues he's been going through during all these years in the band, and eventhough they might feel negative, they're not just that. Sami came to rescue and decided to mention some points. What was going to be the beginning song wasn't an easy decision, they had many candidates.

Sami - "May Today Become The Day" felt like the most energetic track that had the rock vibe to it. All the melodies and guitars work well for an intro to the whole album. "Ever-Frost" is very much alike, we wrote the lyrics when these religious politicians were accusing us being nazis, that was during the time when we did the song (Routasydän) for the finnish ice hockey team Kärpät. Damn it's hard to describe the songs, but it's all included in the songs.

RockUnited - I found the lyrics of "Concider Us Dead" to be quite sad.

Ville - They're actually pretty happy lyrics.

RockUnited - But do you feel like you'd want this thing to happen to yourselves ?

Ville - I'm actually going through that phase right now and in some level I'm really happy about it and don't feel the need to explain it any further.

RockUnited - You've got a beautiful piano in "Lower The Flags".

Sami - It's a very different track compared to the rest. The atmosphere has more a classical and lighter approach, but the lyrics deal with funerals and losing a close person. In that sense it's a heavy track.

RockUnited - Then you've got the really heavy track "Where Waters Fall Frozen", which has brought along some of your earlier influences.

Sami - That was weird, we never really composed the song, it turned into a creation while jamming at the rehearsal place. It's an outburst from all crap and we decided to include it into the album and play it again in the studio with the same outcome. We thought it would be a great track for the listeners just to shake them up a little and it's a good reminder you should never expect anything, everything is possible. Later on we thought it's a reference to where we started from and the mood we had then. But when we did the song we didn't have that in mind, we just created it out of nowhere.

FAREWELL SHOWS

RockUnited - About your upcoming last liveshows, can people expect something exciting from the shows ?

Ville - We haven't really had time to think about them from all the promo work, but I think we'll soon start prepairing the setlists and drink some booze...(laughs) and rehearse. But overall they're unique shows since the band and the audience knows they're our farewell shows. That alone will be an experience and should create special action there. But we've got the coffin and the band, we don't need nothing else.

Sami - Of course we'll plan the setlist well, it's not going to concentrate only on the last album, but it will also be a trip down the memory lane. But mainly they're the last moments for us and the fans and hopefully will be unforgettable. The funeral theme will be present live as well. But like Ville said we haven't decided on anything yet. When we get back home we start practising and giving more thought to it.

RockUnited - You'll be using that second hand coffin on stage also ?!

Sami - Yeah, we're not gonna get a new coffin just for the shows. We'll go with that and the stench that follows with it...

RockUnited - Then you also gotta have a tombstone, but what about the priest's blessing ?

Sami - (Goes quiet and a little uneased) No, we haven't invited a Priest.

RockUnited - You will be playing in festivals, but what about club shows ?

Sami - We will have those too, especially in Finland. We'll play our last show in Oulu (the hometown of Sentenced) in September and the last shows will probably last some two hours or so. The showtime in festivals varies from one hour to an hour and a half, so you can't have all 16 years of our career in those minutes.

RockUnited - Is it a big place in Oulu where you play in ?

Ville - It's the new club Teatria and it holds about 2000 people. (the finnish ice-hockey player Janne Niinimaa is involved with the club)

Sami - We'll also record the show and release it later on as a DVD, so those who can't make it there can also share our last evening somehow. But we'll also have a friend travelling with us on the tour and he'll be recording especially the backstage scenes. But then we'll have to see if we can use any of that material for the DVD. Maybe we'll just sit nice and quiet and that's it, but we also have old material we've been shooting ourselves from our tours and in the studios, so we'll probably include something from those too. We also plan to include all our music videos there.

SPIKY NECKS AND GRANNIES

Ville - We still have two more videos coming out from "The Funeral Album", of "Ever-Frost" and "Despair-Ridden Hearts".

Sami - The coffin will be on one of the vids, then we'll put on black suites and go out into the northern wilderness. Our director Petri Veijalainen will be in charge of the projects and what form they'll eventually take. The funeral is included at least on the "Ever-Frost".

RockUnited - When you look at some of the latest DVD releases from bands, they're quite boring from the backstage scenes. But when I think about the specific year in Wacken where you guys also were in great shape, some of the backstage footage can be found from Jens Johansson's (Stratovarius) homesite. Do you remember what happened there ?

Ville - I can't remember much.

Sami - I think I've seen that stuff and we also have something on video from that trip. If only we had the courage to go through the material...

Ville - You have to be critical about yourself and use some censorship once in a while.

RockUnited - But it's kind of natural when you see finns drunk.

Sami - That's part of this job. But we try to cover many sides to the DVD, the main thing being the funeral night, along with some history and weird backstage stuff. I think it'll be worth seing.

RockUnited - Of all your videos "Killing Me, Killing You" touched me personally with its scenery reflecting to my uncles fate, a man dies and the dog is left behind, of course your song having a deeper meaning about love, but also because the first time seing the video I was desperately craving to see happened to be on the same day I heard about my uncles passing and as I saw the video I could barely watch it. Also the video coincidentally presents a newfoundland dog, which plays a big role in my life. You shot the video in Norway in the freezing outdoors at wintertime. How did the story come about ?

Ville - We used a local man in the video, but the dog belonged to someone else. The idea came from Pasi Paunio, there were a few script choises for it, but this one felt like it could bring something new to the song. We've always thought it's stupid to translate the lyrics to the video, so this has a new point of view to it and brings something new to the lyrics and the song itself. Pauni came up with a really good idea for it, though it was hellish to shoot it right next to the arctic ocean, wearing only shirts and trying to play in that temperature. You played once and then had to warm up a little in a car. It took us one full day to shoot it.

RockUnited - Would you concider this being one of the most unforgettable moments in your video making career, shooting for hours in the cold ? Or what would it be then ?

Sami - It's a tough pick, but "Noose" sucks, there's no sense it that. "Nepenthe" was what it was, the director wanted to say something with the video, but it doesn't quite reach its viewers. We also have a video of "Suicider", which is mainly a video where the band plays, a live video. But "Killing Me" looks good. Then we have "No One There", which also has older folks in it and gives a new meaning to the song. I like that one too.

Ville - The best video is "Bleed". We made this interesting video shoot of that song for ourselves and the outcome is unforgettable.

Sami - We've got about fifty different ideas in it which aren't connected to each other at any times. Maybe that's the reason it was never shown anywhere.

ville - They did show it once in the finnish Moon TV. I just woke up to see the video from tv and was like what the fuck...we've got nothing against the people who made the video, but somehow we just lost it while shooting it.

Sami - It was a bunch of students working on it and each of them had their own vision and the final result included everything, so it didn't make sense anymore. 700 themes and so on.

Ville - There were these really long finger nails, spikes on the neck...

Sami - We also shot underneath an aquarium and Ville put his head in the water and sang in there, bubbles rising from it. There were also some old men fighting in a table. Fucking confusing !

Ville - That video really gave a new meaning to the song.

RockUnited - Will we see that video on the DVD ?

Sami - No. (laughs)

HER LAST FIVE MINUTES

Not only is it one of the songs on the final Sentenced album, but we've finally reached the end of this interview. It's time to release the guys from the interview agony to another one. To this day Sentenced has released seven albums, 2 mcd's and it's been 14 years since their first album was released. We all wanna know how do they see their career now and how have they evolved during the years ?

Sami - When we started out we were a bunch of idiots who didn't know nothing about things. We were about 13 to 15 years old, young guys who were listening to Slayer, Metallica, Death and Entombed and the likes and wanted to play that sort of music. We got the first record deal with our first demo and it's grown bigger and bigger from there all the time and has been a musical journey as well. We've also grown as musicians and hopefully as humans as well. The music's changed along the way a lot and now we're burying this long period. All that time feels more like a life than a band. It's been a long journey from all aspects and we're really pleased to end it so gracefully. It will always be remembered with importance. Hopefully others will feel the same way.

RockUnited - So you leave in good spirits ? (NOT a booze-reflecting question)

Sami - There's nothing to be ashamed about.

RockUnited - What about spare time, have you guys spent much time together outside the band, do you think you'll still be seing each other after the burial ?

Ville - Sure we'll be seeing each other, but as you probably realize since we've been touring together for so long and done so much things together, when you come from a tour and wake up the next day the first thing on your mind isn't ringing to your buddies in the band.

Sami - And we all like to spend time alone in a way, we keep a tight contact but then again we're also couchpotatoes. The relationships that have grown in the years aren't going to end here.

Ville - I've been in the band for nine years and buddies with all of them since then, so they're all like brothers to me. You don't just call them to say I love you, you have more to discuss than that.

RockUnited - To conclude this memorial many people probably wish to express their feelings of gratitude of all those years you've been giving your music for everyone's pleasure and fans are left with a warm memory, missing your presence and music. What would you like to say to those fans who feel desperate about the situation in this moment when the last grains of earth are thrown into the grave ?

Sami - It's been a long journey and we want to thank the fans also. We've done this together, but lived it all with the fans. We've had great times. Welcome to the funeral.

Ville - All kinds of emotions are being shared from people who've fell in love with the band during the years. We thank you. For those who feel desperate and maybe might lose their will to live, just take it easy, you can always go back in time to the music. We wish good life for each one of you.

RockUnited - Thank you for the interview and rest in peace.

Sami - Thank you and goodbye.

The boys then headed to a taxi to meet up with one of the most famous, if not notorious even, finnish music journalists, who was already waiting with his booze in his home. Don't know what happened there, but I'm sure he had some special tricks up his sleeve for the Sentenced. We should be getting some liveshow reviews later on this summer how the funerals went, so stay tuned.