A Q&A with Ultimatium
Progpower, out of Finland…
What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?
The title is Virtuality and it’s named so because it’s the theme album about a virtual world gaming incident in a near future setting. It tells the story of four gamers getting stuck in a virtual world due to a small incident with vr-devices. Album features five lead vocalists, the fifth being the villain of the story. It’s a progressive powermetal album, with influences from symphonic metal also. And a lot of drama from opera.
What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why?
Making and recording vocal lines for five vocalists, that was the most hard part. And mixing them all together, to make it sound like a solid story. Of course recording 65min prog album is always a challenge itself, but the vocals made this one particularly challenging.
Who produced the release – what did they bring to it?
We’ve been producing our albums ourselves for quite some time now. It’s satisfying to try to make the best of each song, taking some time off and then coming back to it and immediately realising what should be added or changed. So, it’s long lasting effort for us.
What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?
I hope they feel satisfied and relaxed, they have just spent over an hour focusing on one thing alone, hopefully, so that they should feel comfortable and focused by then 🙂
How does a track normally come together? Can you tell us something about the process?
Usually the track starts by me playing some keyboards, then a riff or two pops out and the songs start to form. I then use midi / virtual instruments to compose the song together, until to a point it’s either finished or I’m out of ideas. In the latter case, I come back to the song later. Then, when all the songs are done, I’ll introduce those to the rest of the guys. And usually after that, everybody just starts recording them, giving the songs a splash of themselves. Lyrics to the songs come either right away or later, as I have done on ‘Virtuality’, write the whole album lyrics at once.
What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?
In the early days, it was mostly Stratovarius, Rainbow, Helloween etc that influenced us. Later on a lot more progressive acts have had influence on us, like Dream Theater, Ayreon, Symphony X, Threshold, Pagan’s Mind and such.
What countries would you like to tour? Are there any standout venues you’d like to play in?
We don’t tour at all. We decided before making ‘Virtuality’ that we stop pursuing for live shows and focus solely on the albums from then on.
If you could pick one track for our readers to listen to in order to get a taste of your music, what would you pick, and why?
I think our newest video is perfect to know us, it’s an AI music video of track 4, ‘Mindcaptives’. It’s 11 and half minutes so if that’s bit too much, then there’s couple of easier ones also to get to know us.
What ambitions do you have for the band/your career?
We just want to make absolutely epic albums, that’s our main goal. Everything else is just bonus, what comes along.
Finally, as you leave the stage, what are your parting words?
Thank you for reading and keep following us for news about our next album!
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