Finland's Counting Hours have inked a deal with The Vinyl Division to release their debut full-length "The Will" on October 23rd, 2020 on Black and Red Vinyl, and on 6-panel Digipak as well.
Choosing the term "depressive dark rock" to describe themselves doesn't do Counting Hours enough justice as the debut album from this Finnish five-piece not only links their sound to game-changing acts such as Katatonia, Paradise Lost and October Tide but succeeds on evoking the lost feeling of the 90s dark and gothic music scene, mainly because part of what you get to hear on their fresh and intriguing 2018 demo was written during that era, embodying the original atmosphere and vulnerability only a band from those times could materialize.
Now, and in order to successfully explore this territory, Counting Hours have tightened the screws with the aid of Jussi Hämäläinen (Hanging Garden, The Chant, Mercury Circle), who handled production and mixing duties, and Jaime Gomez Arellano, a producer well-versed in their brand of dark music and known for his work with Paradise Lost and Primordial, who took care of the mastering process, to offer their debut album "The Will", a truly exciting combination of varying elements brimming with dark-stained riffs and the melancholy yet powerful vocals of The Chant's Ilpo Paasela.
Counting Hours were founded by guitarist Jarno Salomaa (Shape Of Despair, ex-Rapture) and vocalist Ilpo Paasela (The Chant), and later completed by Tomi Ullgren (Shape of Despair, Impaled Nazarene) on guitars, Sameli Köykkä (ex-Colosseum) on drums and Markus Forsström (The Chant) on bass.
Salomaa comments on the debut full-length: «When we first started with Counting Hours, I basically went to our rehearsal room with Ilpo and had some beers along to record some vocals on the demo stuff I had made. Basically, nothing else besides creating music from the grounds I had made for Rapture back in early 2000. But anyway... Beer, good ideas (or damn bad ones) with a touch of Finnish-sweet melancholy combined with depressive music did hit us at last. After a while rehearsing and just a couple of shows, there was this very clear vision of continuing this path but definitely without any labels to own rights to our own music. That’s where The Vinyl Division enters as its founder David is very open-minded on these matters and wanted to help us out. A group of friends whereas passion for this kind of music does its job.»
On the production work, the guitarist adds: «Our first album is produced by our friend Jussi Hämäläinen and it’s actually the first time I'm involved in such process. New approaches and slightly different sights were very welcome even though we did a lot of arrangements ourselves. This album is surely something we were very excited to create and see its birth one day. On this album, you’ll hear pieces of something old but from something new as well... As if it was a wedding but more of a... Funeral wedding.»
"The Will" is due out on October 23rd, 2020 via The Vinyl Division. You can preorder the vinyl edition at this location: http://www.thevinyldivision.com/