Korpiklaani will release their 9th album, Notia, in May as part of re-signing a new deal with Nuclear Blast Records.
The follow-up to 2012’s Manala was recorded at Finland’s Petrax Studio with producer Aksu Hanttu, and is the first album to feature new accordionist Sami Pertulla, who played an active role in the folk arrangements along with fiddler Tuomas Rounakari.
Vocalist Jonne Järvelä says: “We have finally managed to create the balance between folk and metal in the way I’ve always dreamt it to be. Thanks to Sami’s arrangements and Tuomas’s crazy shredding of the violin.”
Bassist Jarkko Aaltonen explains the meaning behind album’s title.
He says: “Noita in the traditional Finnish meaning is different than what people associate it with nowadays. ‘Noita’ is a person with wider knowledge and understanding of the nature and who also was believed to possess paranormal or unnatural abilities. ‘Noita’ is someone that you turn to when you need help of some kind.”
“Finnish Noita had the ability to heal, just like their North American counterparts, medicine men. They were very respected members of the society. Only later, Christianity changed the word to mean something negative since those people were considered rivals by the church. Even in Finland this turned into a Witchhunt every now and then.”
Aaltonen adds: “Anyway, most people using Google Translate or similar will find the word ‘Witch’ and will probably get a bit wrong idea of the meaning, since most will probably connect it with the black sabbaths, devil marks and such, when a way more correct translation would probably be medicine man or Shaman.”
Korpiklaani opened a UK tour for Sabaton in November/December and recently performed as part of the 70,000 Tons Of Metal cruise. The band will headline the Paganfest Extended Shows in March before playing a series of European festivals and returning to the UK to play Bloodstock Open Air in August.
