Lillmåns’ retrospective ‘Remains’ album out now!

Finntroll and … And Oceans‘ frontman Mathias “Vreth” Lillmåns released his retrospective album Remains at the end of last month. Covering 17 tracks and three decades, the album offers a look into the depths of the desk drawer – raw experimentation, changes of direction and gradually taking shape, which later became a significant part of Finnish metal.

At the same time, a sample of bands that have been buried over the past years will be heard. There is material from bands such as Twilight Moon, Remains, Degenerate, Chthonian, Vere and Observant. The album’s lead single is Chtonian‘s song Sanguine Sadism, which is released with a visualizer . The album was released by Stormbound Records.

“Most people think of me first and foremost as a singer, but through this compilation, I wanted to show what kind of change I went through: how a musician who thrived in the shadows grew into a singer who rose to the front row.”

Collecting material for the album was an adventure of its own. Material has been rescued from cellars, MiniDiscs, unmarked cassettes and old hard drives. Remains forms a timeline of them in which Lillmåns searches for a way to express herself. The journey goes from a musician who started with the bass to a reluctant vocalist and finally to a brilliant figurehead.

For those listeners who want a deeper context, the physical version contains texts written by Lillmåns that recount memories and curiosities about the different sessions. In them, he opens up about the adventure that began with the tape days of Twilight Moon, the roughness recorded in the garage of Remains, his first visits to a professional studio with Degenerate, and the deliberate coarseness of Chthonian. There is also the story of the Vere project that was created during one evening and Observant‘s even more polished self-produced expression.

The album was remastered by Owe Inborr at Wolfthrone Studios. Remains was released on November 28 digitally and in CD format via Stormbound Records.

Track listing:

01 Twilight Moon – Wanderlust
02 Twilight Moon – Spirit Lord
03 Twilight Moon – Shattered Reflections
04 Twilight Moon – Stuck in Eternity (Live 1999)
05 Remains – Forced into Lies
06 Remains – Leaving the Path of the Blind
07 Remains – The Life That Passed (Slowly Fading)
08 Degenerate – Blinded
09 Degenerate – Displacement
10 Degenerate – Lost in Glass and Stone
11 Chthonian – Ill
12 Chthonian – Larvae, Nymph, Decay
13 Chthonian – Sanguine Sadism
14 Vere – The Silver Lining
15 Vere – Ignite, Enflame
16 Observant – As Corroded as You
17 Observant – Still Nameless