How can such a sparsely-populated country be such a hive for great metal bands? Here’s another bunch of mad Finns for you…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Khroma was established in Helsinki, Finland.
How did you meet?
We are old friends from the small Finnish metal circles, and we had known each other since the millennium. Originally everyone met each other through common friends or by playing in bands which appeared on the same bills.
How long have you been playing as a band?
Khroma was formed in 2010.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Khroma refers to a river in Siberia where a well preserved mammoth skeleton was being discovered. We thought to honor such a remarkable nature event in our name. It also refers to the spectre of light.
What are your influences?
Nu metal, groove metal, hip hop, drum’n bass, trip hop, music of cinema. To name a few artists: Deftones, Rage Against The Machine, Public Enemy, Noisia, Portishead, Fear Factory, Sepultura, Broken Note, Ennio Morricone, John Carpenter…
If you like what we do, consider joining us on Patreon for as little as £1 per month!
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Khroma convey the decline of our times into an assaulting soundtrack of cinematic atmospheres and ambiences, downtuned guitar patterns and pulsating trip hop and drum’n bass beats. The sound on “Slaves” the single as well as on the forthcoming album is an organized chaotic symphony, heavier than the apocalypse.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Lyrical themes explored are counter cultural issues of disillusionment, fatalism and despondency. If I’ve understood correctly, all the songs on the forthcoming third album are about the end of times.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We will do our best to make the audience slam-dance like there’s no future anymore. Khroma have played some 300 shows in 2011-2020.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Well, we’ve seen some really weird and wonderful places, cities, towns and some really weird and wonderful venues. It’s all about going in to the world and connect with people, the audiences, the promoters, the organisers.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
I’m the guitar player & keyboardist. For live guitars I use Agile & Schecter 8-strings and Ibanez 7-strings, depending on the tuning of the song in question. For “Slaves” it’s the 8-string run through two 100 W tube amps (Engl, Hughes & Kettner) into two cabinets. For keyboards I use the MicroKorg and the Nord Lead 2.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
Khroma brought a new single out in November 2020, “Slaves”, and we will do our best to promote it as well as we can without being able to actually play live shows at the moment.
Don’t fancy Patreon? Buy us a one-off beverage!
What are your plans over the next six months or so?
Release our third album and hopefully tour the world when it’s again possible.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
There’s so many of them… One headliner we’d love to support would be Sepultura on a tour! And can we choose all our friends’ great bands as the co-supports – different band every night!
