Interview to The Way Of Purity: 'Human beings have never owned, and will never own, this planet...'



The Way Of Purity is a Finnish band that earlier this year released their fourth album "Schwarz oder Rot" through the WormholeDeath label. A band that falls outside the "established canons" of what a rock band should be and whose love for animals and misanthropy reaches liturgical levels.

Thanks to the label, we had the opportunity to speak with the band who kindly told us everything related to their latest work, the current situation and the uncertain future that befalls us.




Hello, first of all thank you very much for your time. How are you, how are you going through the pandemic?

Hello! Thanks for reaching out to us, really appreciate it. We are all doing fine, thank you.



It is your fourth album, but you are unknown to the Spanish public, tell us what is The Way Of Purity, how and when was it born?

The Way Of Purity is a path that you choose to follow when you respect your body and other sentient living beings. When you decide to keep your body pure like a temple and not nasty as a mass grave for rotting animal parts and bodies, then you simply follow the way of purity. We met because we are all animal rights activists, so our paths converged towards the way of purity. We have been working on this project since 2010.



Your project is based above all on the defense of animal rights and on how man has gone against everything natural on this planet. Is it a way of claiming that human beings do not own this planet?

Human beings have never owned, and will never own, this planet. You see the difference between humans and animals is, that if you remove the animals the planet will die. But if you remove the humans, the planet will flourish. Will there ever be a balance? Not if humans believe that they own the planet.



Some of you hide your faces, is it part of the props or does it have any meaning?

Our message is the most important thing. It is about nature, animals and the perfection of their creation. We don't really give a flying shit about fame, money or ego. This is why we cover our faces. We never want our ego to become bigger than our message.



Unfortunately in Spain, these days we have seen images of full bullrings, while concerts were canceled. Bullfighting is even compared to culture; I suppose I can imagine your opinion about it.

Yes, you can. And all that is still only a fraction of all the messed up things in this world.







On the other hand, I have to say that you make very eclectic music and you have shades of different styles. Where do your influences come from?

Yes, we are in a constant evolution of styles and genres. You could say our main influences are Wave/Rock bands from past and present like Sonic Youth, Christian Death, Interpol, The Cure, Joy Division, Sisters Of Mercy, and hardcore bands, like Neurosis, Converge, Integrity, Morning Again. We also listen to some black metal bands like Marduk and Immortal. A lot of Ambient/Dub/Downtempo stuff too. The combination of these genres is our music.



At the beginning of the year you released your fourth album “Schwarz Oder Rot”, tell me a little about the composition and recording process. I have read that you had different guests on the recording.

The songwriting techniques on this album were quite unique. The whole album was written one way, but then we reversed everything and recorded it like that. So every intro became an outro, and every outro became an intro. Every riff is reversed. We did this to reach a sound that otherwise would have been unreachable for us. It all came out great, fresh and original.

As for guest appearances we have Bolverk from Ragnarok, Rachel Aspen, Polina Larsen and Phil from Final Coil. All of whom have contributed greatly to the devastating sound of the album.



Now we are suffering a pandemic on a global scale, do you think it is a message from nature to human beings due to the destruction of habitats? How do you see the future, do you think humanity will reconsider after all this that is happening?

This pandemic was nothing we ever could have imagined happening. But it really is what our latest album is all about - mother nature kicking back. One could only hope that humanity would reconsider. And I do believe that we will see some change after this. However it will all only be short term. Because for some strange reason humans have a very bad memory and never seem to learn from history. That is why all great civilizations in the past have collapsed.







What is the immediate future of the band, are you writing new material, will you continue promoting the album ...? Do you have any closed dates for 2021?

We are always writing new music. At the moment we are focusing on promoting the album. Later we will probably try to play live. But we are not the kind of band that plays in shitholes just to play a gig. .We only play at very professional venues, so it’s not that easy to get offers that can meet our requirements.

 Even if we are very picky, we have played a lot of concerts, even a 3 month european tour with Negura Bunget. We have also toured with Gorgoroth, Belphegor, Cattle Decapitation, Decrepit Birth and at quite a lot of good festivals like Exit in Serbia, Bloodstock in UK, SWR in Portugal and many others. If we get good offers, we will play.



In countries like Spain, for example, it is very difficult to live exclusively from music, and now with the issue of the coronavirus it has become much worse, in your case, can you dedicate yourself exclusively to music?

No. And we are not doing this for money or fame.



Have you ever played in Spain?

Yes, during our 2011 tour as support for Romanian Folk Metal band Negura Bunget.



For our part it is all, we wish you good luck with your album and that you continue in such a noble fight. We hope to see you in Spain.


Thank you!!