The first
lines of the album Next Chapter were written in the summer 2001. Little
did we know what was ahead of us when we entered our rehearsal place,
but we were committed to write good music and we had only one rule, everything
is possible!!! We kept that open-minded way of thinking through the whole
writing process and I can say with a hand on my heart that Next Chapter
is the best release in the history of Maple Cross!
I still remember when we got together for the very first time. I was nervous
and excited to write new songs again. I thought that it would be a slow
start, but a couple of rehearsals later we had 2 brand new songs ready:
Au Revoir and Invincibles are the guilty ones! Those songs gave us some
idea what to expect from us in the future. Few months later we had 8 songs
more or less ready to be recorded but we felt we still needed to work
on them.
The next few weeks went running by. We were practically living in our
rehearsal place, but little did we care, it was what we wanted to do.
At that point I still wasnt ready to tell the world about Maple
Cross being alive, but I was asked to participate on a TV program about
metal scene here in our hometown. Well, they only used one sentence from
me and that made me happy. But at the end of the program they played an
old Maple Cross song and announced that were going to record a new
album soon, yeah right!!!! We were going to record a demo but an album
so soon, no way. After that I received lots of e-mails and phone calls
about Maple Cross and I just had to admit its true, Were back!
So, we recorded the Promo1, and the first thought was to keep it to ourselves,
but during the session we decided to send it out to various zines, radios
etc. The response was just what we expected: some people liked it and
some hated it but thats just how it should be! I dont want
to write just ok music, I want to write music that I can honestly say
I enjoy listening to and I thoroughly understand that many people dont
like what we are doing. If you dont like metal with aggressive vocals
with minimal melody, Maple Cross is not your cup of tea. There are other
bands out there who have great melodic singers, so just listen to them
and dont tell me to change my voice, because theres no way
in hell Ill ever do that!
The Promo2 was basically recorded just to get some idea how the songs
work. We didnt really distribute it that much, but some of our friends
have it and its been available for everyone to download on our website.
3 great songs showing everyone the other side of Maple Cross, simple straightforward
metal!
In the summer 2002 we played a couple of shows, one behind closed doors
for friends and the other one was at the Jalometalli 2002 metal festival.
We really didnt know what it would be like since these were the
first public appearances with the new line-up and to tell you the truth,
I was nerve wracked, but everything went great and we gained a lot of
positive feedback out of those gigs.
After that we concentrated on writing some new material and right then
we decided that the next step is to record an album. We didnt want
to rush things, so we just kept writing those fuckers and when we had
enough material, we recorded a rehearsal tape and fine-tuned some of the
songs and kept practising them until we were sure they sound just like
they should! Thats when we set the day for the recordings to start.
January 24th 2003 was the very first day of the Next Chapter recording
session. Everything else went according to plan, but I lost my voice when
I started to shout. Luckily I realised it was, because outside it was
38 celsius and inside the air got very dry. So, I took a couple
of days off and after that I had no problems with my voice. During the
session we were working hard and drinking a lot of beer, so when we went
back home I was physically drained and just slept for couple of days.
The name of the album Next Chapter was Ville Hyry´s (our ex-drummer)
idea. He came to see us play live last summer and I can tell you he was
very excited about the new line-up. After the show he told me that hes
really happy that Maple Cross is still alive and kicking and this is like
the next chapter in the history of Maple Cross. Thats been haunting
me since then and finally one day it hit me; the album should be called
Next Chapter!
Im really lucky that I made the decision to reform Maple Cross again
and Im extremely lucky that Im working with such great musicians
like Sami, Aki, Late and Ollari. We have a great understanding when it
comes to writing music and thats all I can ask for so this album
is dedicated to you guys! Cheers my friends in metal!
Ok, enough bullshit. My brothers and sisters in metal, may I introduce
you the NEXT CHAPTER!!!
Marco R.J.
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