Lost Society – Samy Elbanna

Coming all the way from Jyväskyla, Finland is a band of young thrashers with a desire to write fast music and party hard. Forming in 2010, Lost Society have already made a big name for themselves, gaining attention from Nuclear Blast Records and releasing their first album ‘Fast Loud Death’ in 2013, and their follow-up album ‘Terror Hungry’ just a week ago.

Metal Obsession recently spoke with lead vocalist, guitarist and speed metal enthusiast, Samy Elbanna about the new album, touring and all things thrash.

Metal Obsession: For those in Australia who haven’t heard Lost Society, introduce yourself and tell us a bit about the band.

Samy Elbanna: Alright, I’m Samy and I play guitar and vocals for Lost Society. We are a thrash and speed metal band coming from Jyväskyla, central Finland. Basically, what the band is all about is four laid back guys who love playing fast music, and we incorporate groove metal stuff, crossover stuff, and of course, the thrash metal stuff. Our music has something for everyone.

We released our first album last year, entitled ‘Fast Loud Death’ through Nuclear Blast Records and our second album is coming out at the start of April, and it’s called ‘Terror Hungry’.

Metal Obsession: So tell me a bit about ‘Terror Hungry’. How long did you spend working on the album?

Samy: Well the surprising thing is that after we recorded Fast Loud Death, when we came back to our hometown and started practicing again, we were trying to practice the current songs just because of the upcoming tours. But, almost accidentally, we just started making new material. I think altogether, it took about 5 months in total and then we had all the songs ready for the second album. So we got them done pretty fast this time.

Metal Obsession: So I’m guessing you’ve been writing a lot on the road, and even after recording?

Samy: Well it’s weird for us because all the riffs and stuff pile up into our minds, and we practice a lot. We always try and go to the rehearsal room five times in a week. Everytime we turn our amps on, we just start riffing. We start doing some new riffs, and we teach it to the other guys and start jamming off that. Basically, the songs start to take their form pretty quickly after that. So we actually don’t write often, unless we’re together in the rehearsal space, which is weird.

Metal Obsession: As a young band, have you started to see a maturing point in the music you write?

Samy: I would say that you can definitely see a difference between Fast Loud Death and Terror Hungry, mainly in the music though. All of us have matured and progressed with our own instruments since the first album, so kind-of accidentally some of the riffs have become a bit more technical, but of course there is still those basic, spontaneous, simple riffs influenced by Scott Ian or someone like that. As for the humorous and lyrical part of the band, I’m pretty sure that’s never going to change totally. Because we’re just having such a good time right now, we’re having the time of our lives. We’re not afraid to show that we’re actually enjoying this stuff, so we’re keeping it really laid back.

Metal Obsession: I know what you mean. A little like Municipal Waste; they’re always going to be a party band that writes fun stuff, while there are bands like Warbringer who might head into a more “serious” territory and experiment a little.

Samy: Exactly. With the lyrical side where there might be a bit of political themes, we never really took that road, because personally, I think there are enough of those bands. They know their stuff, whereas none of us really know anything about anything important, so it’s bad for us to talk about it like that [laughs]. I’m sure that in the future, we’ll find good subjects to write songs about. But we’ll just keep it interesting, fresh and humorous.

Metal Obsession: It’s only been a couple of years since you started Lost Society, and you’ve already toured over some of the world, and you’ve released your first two albums on one of the biggest metal labels in the world. Did you see this happening so quickly, or even happening at all?

Samy: Hell no, dude. I never would have thought that this could happen. I’m so shocked that in the music business nowadays, you can still do something with thrash metal, and you’ll get some recognition for it. Because atleast for what I’ve seen and heard myself, the music industry isn’t doing very good. But you can trust in Finland on this sort of stuff!

We’re really grateful for everything that happened to us through Fast Loud Death. And as I said, we’re just living the dream and it’s such an amazing feeling right now. We won’t ever let the fans down, we’ll keep on playing more gigs and stuff like that, so fuck yeah.

Metal Obsession: Are there any plans for Lost Society to tour Australia anytime soon?

Samy: Dude, I hope so. It’s like the same problem with Australia as America; it’s really expensive. We just have to wait for a good deal, but once we get a good offer, we’re definitely flying out there. Cause for me, it’s one of those personal goals. It would be so sick to come down under.

Metal Obsession: So you’ve only toured Europe at the moment?

Samy: Well basically, we’re heading on a Finnish tour in a couple of weeks to promote the new album. But we started a year ago doing our first ever European tour with Suicidal Angels and Fueled By Fire. We were going around for 31 days, so that was the first real European tour we did. We enjoyed the shit out of it, and we’d really love to hit the road again soon.

Metal Obsession: What are some of your favourite memories from your first year of heavy touring?

Samy: I’ve gotta say that one moment that will stick with me for the rest of my life is when we played Japan and did Loud Park Festival, last year in October. To me, that was just fucking crazy. For us, Japan is one of those personal goals we always had. And for it to happen so quickly after the record came out is crazy. It was a killer show and the crowd was absolutely amazing, so we enjoyed the hell out of that.

Of course, another great moment was when we were touring with Children of Bodom, because for me they’ve been one of my biggest influences ever since I started listening to music. Meeting the guys was cool, and they were a very friendly band, so I really appreciated that. And of course, last year when we did a lot of festival shows in Finland, including the legendary Tuska Open Air. I had the pleasure of meeting the guys from Testament, that was amazing.

Metal Obsession: Who are some newer thrash bands from over the world that you think need to be heard?

Samy: There are a couple from Finland actually. From Helsinki, the capital city, there’s this band called Nuclear Omnicide. They released their debut album like a year ago, and now they’ve released their new EP very recently. It’s fuckin’ killer speed/thrash metal.  And from our hometown of Jyväskylä, there’s this band called Forest Kill. They’re recording a new demo at the moment. So those are two bands you should definitely check out.

Metal Obsession: I believe we’re out of time. Is there anything else you’d like to say?

Samy: I’d like to say thanks to all of the Lost Society supporters out there. I really hope that everyone checks out the new album, and hopefully they’ll like it as much as I do. I’m proud of this beast. Hopefully we can come and play the songs to you as soon as possible!

Metal Obsession: Awesome, mate. Pleasure talking to you, hope to see you soon.

Samy: The pleasure was all mine, dude. Take care!

Lost Society’s new album ‘Terror Hungry’ is now available worldwide through Nuclear Blast Records.

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