Photograph: © Owain Richards

On a mild afternoon in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, we climbed aboard a big Swedish tourbus parked almost right outside Cardiff’s illustrious castle in the centre of the city to have a chat with Finnish metal band Omnium Gatherum. Meanwhile, Dark Tranquillity’s Mikael Stanne slept soundly in a bunk next door.

We spoke to vocalist Jukka, bassist Eerik and guitarist Markus.

Hello and welcome to Cardiff. You’ve been to the UK before with Bloodstock and a tour?

EERIK: Yes, back in 2006.

(To Jukka) You had just joined at that point hadn’t you?

JUKKA: I had. I’d joined the band in May 2006.

So that was sort of your first touring experience with the band. How was that? Did you enjoy seeing the UK?

JUKKA: It was good. We did 11 gigs in Britain and the last one was Bloodstock in Derby. The whole experience, especially Bloodstock, was really good. Everything was organised really well.

EERIK: I, myself, wasn’t in the band at that time.

In Finland metal is regarded as more popular than here. I was wondering how you’ve seen attitudes differ outside of your own country.

JUKKA: It differs a lot but it depends on the people you meet. The general idea of the Finnish people’s attitude towards metal in foreign places is that all the Finnish people like metal. I don’t know. I think the attitude towards metal has been more positive than I assumed. People are like really going along with the gigs and we have good reactions. In Germany we had a really good reaction, and in Estonia too. In Finland it depends who you are touring with or it depends on what day of the week it is.

EERIK: With the Finnish audience, if they’re not drunk, nothing happens basically. I think one thing that is different from my first experience with the band was making this short Portugal-Spain tour last summer. There I think it was sad because in Finland metal is pretty much mainstream nowadays, a lot of people like it, it’s a huge huge thing there. But in Spain you could see that it’s like a small of group of people come to this bar and it’s more like underground. It’s more intense, I’m not saying Finnish people aren’t enthusiastic about metal, but it’s even bigger there I think.

JUKKA: The main thing I think though, from my own personal experience, I don’t consider the amount of people to be so important as long as people are having fun and getting into the music.

This Barfly venue is small - do you play this sort of sized venue at home?

JUKKA: Not so much. It depends a lot on where you’re playing. Basically this kind of place is normal for us at this point as a band.

EERIK: Sometimes there are much bigger venues. In Finland there are only around four or five really big venues aside from arenas and festivals. Just normal gigs on the weekend and in pubs.

Between ‘Years in Waste’ and ‘Stuck Here on Snake’s Way’, a lot has happened. Could you tell me a bit about that?

EERIK: That’s a pretty interesting question to ask us because we’re both new so…

MARKUS: Two years have passed and two members have changed.

And you’ve changed labels as well?

MARKUS: Yeah the label has changed and the musical style has changed a bit.

EERIK: Four years actually, isn’t it?

MARKUS: ‘Years in Waste’ was released in November 2004 and ‘…Snake’s Way’ was released in 2007.

EERIK: Oh, so about three years then.

Did you spend a lot of time writing material in that time or was the band on hiatus over that period?

MARKUS: We weren’t so active at that time. We did some Finnish gigs and a few festival dates abroad. Then we did an English tour when Jukka had just joined.

What sort of reaction has there been to the new album?

MARKUS: … Diverse!

JUKKA: But I think it’s been mainly positive. Because from my opinion at least, the ‘Years in Waste’ album was kind of like technically the most progressive.

MARKUS: The worst response has always been in the media. Of course, our vocalist changed. Many people, almost all Finnish people, said that this is now much much more better. And of course there are people who say that the best album is the first one, always, with every band.

EERIK: Like me, for example. (laughs)

JUKKA: You cannot please them all, you know?

MARKUS: Of course, when some 15 year old hears a band for the first time, it’s a big thing, even though that might not be the best album. It’s the same with Dark Tranquillity, there are people who say that ‘Gallery’ is the best album. I think the new album is a really amazing album.

You’re writing a new album yourselves now, aren’t you?

EERIK: We have written 12 songs maybe. The songs are ready, it’s just a matter of picking out the right ones and doing some minor adjustments here and there.

How do they sound compared to ‘Stuck Here on Snake’s Way’? Do they sound similar?

JUKKA: No. I think it’s more like ‘Spirits and August Light’ stuff.

MARKUS: Yeah, I think it’s more melodic and maybe not so progressive.

Has it been easy to write this time around?

JUKKA: Yeah, this new one has been really fast. They’ve been making songs really quick and then sending them to me through the net and I’ve been writing lyrics for them.

EERIK: When I joined the band I thought that I myself was going to have a busy year so it was good that Omnium Gatherum had nothing big planned. Then a couple of weeks ago I had a call to say, “OK, we have some songs ready and we’re going to record in the spring.” Whatever, it’s OK by me! (laughs)

When will it be out, by the autumn?

MARKUS: Yeah, by August we hope.

Will you be playing any songs from that on this tour?

EERIK: Hmm, perhaps. It’s all new stuff to me so I don’t mind playing anything! (laughs)

MARKUS: I think Eerik joining has been a big influence on why we’re doing so much writing. We’ve been very active, perhaps because of the new members. The fresh blood.

JUKKA: We have nothing against our former bass player of course, we are still good friends and stuff like that but you know, he was getting away from all the metal scene and working a lot and stuff like that and he didn’t have the time. Then Eerik came and it just lifted the spirits up a lot.

Are Dark Tranquillity much of an influence on you guys?

MARKUS: Yeah!

How does it feel to be going on tour with them?

MARKUS: It’s quite… quite amazing.

Have you played with them before?

JUKKA: …no.

MARKUS: To be honest, Dark Tranquillity was one of the biggest influences when we formed the band. Things like ‘Gallery’, and ‘Subterranean’ by In Flames. I think it might be heard in our songs. We don’t sound like Children of Bodom, we don’t sound like Finnish bands.

EERIK: That’s the thing about Omnium Gatherum, it never sounds like Finnish death metal.

Is there much of a crossover between bands from Sweden and Finland?

EERIK: They’re quite separate scenes I think.

JUKKA: There are some crossovers but they’re more spontaneous.

A lot of Swedish musicians move between bands and collaborate a lot…

EERIK: It is the same in Finland but the bands don’t tend to swap over between the countries.

Is that partly a language thing, do you think?

EERIK: That could be a part of it, yes.

JUKKA: We have to learn Swedish in school but nobody can speak it.

Well, I guess you need to be soundchecking soon, so we’ll leave it there. Thank you so much for your time.

ALL: Thank you.