IN PROFILE: ULTIMATIUM

 

Band Name: Ultimatium

Country: Finland

Label: Independent / varies :D

Let's start at the beginning then. When did the band form?

It was late fall, probably around September / November, not really so sure anymore, since it was way back back in 2001, in Suomussalmi Finland, when the name “Ultimatium” first came to be

2. Who's in the band?

At the moment: Tomi Viiltola (vocals), Harri Niskanen (guitars), Matti Auerkallio (drums, vocals) and me, Matt Pulkkinen (keyboards / managing / producing etc)

And in last album, we had a bunch of visitors: Emily Leone, Jukka Nummi and Peter James Goodman in vocals and Petteri Gullsten in bass

3. Were any of you in bands before?

There was couple of groups, I think ‘Mephisto’ was the name of one, we played covers dressed up as costumes and ‘Triolity’ was powermetal band, we did one demo and also one gig, which was at the same time our debut, reunion and farewell-gig :D 

4. How would YOU describe your sound?

We sound quite natural, we don’t fall into the regular pithole of sounding like every note is fixed with Pro tools, but we try to keep it so that you actually hear the musician behind the instrument. So, that means we avoid over-production and sound unique and not like every other band. But while keeping high production value, that's always quite hard to balance.

5. What are your musical influences?

In the early days, our influences were pretty much on the power metal & symphonic metal, with some 70’s Rainbow mixed in it. On our later albums, we’re taken more influences from bands like Dream Theater, Symphony X, Pagan’s Mind and not forgetting, Ayreon (and Start One)

6. What have been up to lately? any new stuff to delight our ears?

We’ve been making a new album, hopefully we can reveal more details of it later this spring. In the meantime, I have been doing music videos for us. The latest AI music video ‘Mindcaptives’ was just released on youtube. 

7. How about live dates? What have you been doing and what ya got planned for 2024?

Nah, after ‘Vis Vires Infinitus’ we decided we’re gonna focus solely on the albums and forget about live completely. That has opened up new possibilities to express us better and make epic albums we always dreamed of. 

8. Name something about yourselves that fans won't know

For the past ~15 years or so, I have missed only a handful of episodes of Emmerdale!

9. What's the most embarrassing moment you've had?

I don’t get embarrassed easily… Well ok, I was playing in Dio cover band called ‘Angry Machines plays Dio’ (that’s where I met Jukka Nummi, who in one of the characters in ‘Virtuality’) and on one gig, I just suddenly forgot how the ‘Holy Diver’ goes, I think I played some other song for quite a while :D

10. Do you have any superstitions? Any things you do before a show?

No, I’m not  superstitious at all. Mostly before the show we took a beer or two, sometimes more, which was not always a good idea. It’s like turning a slider, where on one end is the absolute best keyboarding capabilities and on the other side there’s total showmanship and you can’t have both at the same time :D

11. Are there any musicians or bands you'd love to work with?

A bunch, of course, but I’d like to hear how Damian Wilsons sound would fit to any of our songs, some day 

12. Any final thoughts?

Thank you for reading and follow us on social media’s!

https://www.ultimatium.com/

https://www.facebook.com/UltimatiumMetal/