Interview with death grincore band from Finland - DGS.
Answered Alpo, Juho and Iain, thank you!
Recenze/review - DGS - Delusional Grasp of Sanity (2026):
Ave DGS! I haven’t been able to find any interviews with you in Czech anywhere. So first, I’d like to ask you to introduce the band to readers who aren’t familiar with you yet. Feel free to start from the very beginning and walk us through the entire bloody history of DGS.
Alpo: Well, to start, we are a deathgrind trio from Helsinki Finland! We are mellow guys with serious passion in playing music in its many forms. DGS was founded in 2021 from the ruins of our previous band with the idea of playing some uplifting and fun deathgrind. Quite soon the idea of playing something fun and uplifting changed into playing something melancholic, crushing and devastating. During the first couple of years we were just playing for the fun of it at the rehearsal space. But once the album started to take its form we wanted to start doing gigs and grow as a band. We started recording the album in 2024 and released the first single from it in 2025. We played our first gig after the release of the single in October 2025.
Juho: We never released any demos or anything before so our recently released debut album pretty much stands as our current histroy. After the album was mixed we were looking for potential labels and reached an agreement with Great Dane Records, so here we are.
This year you released your brand-new album, “Delusional Grasp of Sanity.” It’s dark, raw, and honest death grindcore metal. Did you approach the recording differently than in your home bands, or did you stick to tried-and-true methods?
Alpo: We approached the recording with a bit of a do-it-yourself kind of attitude. We wanted it to sound as authentic as possible. A sound engineer was used for the mixing of the album as well as the drum recordings to make it sound professional while still maintaining the raw and honest feel.
Juho: For me it was a must to have the guitars recorded with an actual amp instead of using plugins. Not that there's anything terribly wrong with plugins, but because I wanted the guitars to sound raw and have all that natural feedback happening whenever needed. Occasionally the guitars ended up feedbacking perhaps a bit too much and sometimes even whenever not needed, hahaha, but as a fan of Celtic Frost’s album Monotheist and that album’s feedback drenched sound, I’d say it ended up sounding nice and definitely raw.
Iain: In the end, everything went quite smoothly with the recording of the album, as we were able to use the skills, knowledge, and experience gained from playing in other bands to really focus on the kind of vision that we had for the album. This also allowed us to work more freely without outside distractions and opinions, as we knew what we wanted to achieve, and how to get there.
Juho: Yeah, but to be precise even we didn’t have everything completely planned out in advance. At one point after the instruments and the vocals were recorded Alpo suggested that a friend of his, Hannes Kaukoranta could play the french horn on the album. I figured that if the french horn worked for Celtic Frost, it would work for us too. So we went to the rehearsal space to record the horn sections without having even a single note composed beforehand. So we started experimenting and a few hours later we headed out for a few beers feeling very satisfied about how the horn parts ended up sounding.
At first, the new album strikes me as perhaps less accessible, rawer, yet at the same time incredibly dark and evil. Was that intentional? How did the album actually come together, and how did you compose the music?
Alpo: I think the dark and evil sound of it started to take its place the more we played together. All of us participate in composing the music. Most songs are (almost) fully composed by one member at home, while some songs get their first notes composed at the practice place. All songs are finalized together to make them sound like they fit our musical style.
Iain: It all came together instinctively , and the direction sort just kind of evolved to what it is now in a very natural way. We never really tried to pigeonhole ourselves into any one style of music, nor did we try to limit ourselves with the kinds of elements that should be included.
Juho: As Alpo said, we compose songs separately but the final arrangements are quite often polished and finalized together and everyone adds his personal touch playing his own instrument slightly different than originally written. Some songs came out pretty much the way as initially intended, but some songs went through a whole lot of re-arranging.
And talking about songwriting, I usually write stuff all the time: while on the bus or train, while driving the car, while I'm at work and so on. I have riffs going on inside my head, I think about how the drums should be played, maybe how vocal lines could go and then I try to memorize it until I get to sit down with my guitar and figure out if I imagined the riffs correctly. Sometimes I tend to forget stuff, which really sucks and pisses me off, so I also try to write some ideas on paper or on my phone if I don't have my guitar at hand.
Occasionally I come up with songs while playing the guitar too like the case was with ‘Obliterate’. I was just playing random stuff at rehearsals and Alpo asked “what was that?” and I said I just started jamming some notes by myself. He then suggested we should make it into a song. Then we added blastbeats and Iain's rumbling bass guitar on top of it. So we had the intro/verse riff ready and jammed through the beginning of the song. Then when we were approaching the point when the chorus riff would logically start, I came up with the chorus riff without thinking about it. So it took maybe 5 or 10 minutes to write the whole song starting from scratch, haha. We didn't want to prolong the song too much so the structure was kept very simple to have maximum effect.
Usually I bring my own riffs, ideas or complete songs to rehearsals and show them to the guys and then we collectively work on the arrangements. For some songs I prefer doing MIDI drums at home and recording demos, but usually I use this method for songs that have more details and are more difficult or feel like too time consuming to explain.
As musicians, you’ve played in bands like GOD DISEASE, NEUROSURGERY, PUTRID DEFECATION, ELEGEION, FRAGILE HOLLOW, DIABLERIE, RAPTURE, and STRANGLE CHAIN. Each of you is experienced and has your own style. The advantage is probably that you know what and how you want to play. But don’t you have trouble agreeing on things? You know, egos and such. By the way, how do you manage to keep up with concerts, for example?
Alpo: Haha, we don’t have very large egos, so it hasn’t been an issue to agree on things at all. All of us are experienced musicians and quite busy with our other bands, so scheduling is sometimes a bit difficult. However, DGS is still quite a new band with little experience in gigging, so scheduling hasn’t been a huge issue yet.
Iain: We also are in the fortunate position in that we all work very well together. I don’t believe that we’ve ever had any disagreements about the direction of the music (although Alpo and Juho may disagree). We went with the attitude that everyone brings something to the table, and that we can try any and all ideas that may be presented. As for concerts, as Alpo previously mentioned it hasn’t really been a problem yet. Let’s see what the future brings, but as long as we are all well organised, then I feel that there shouldn't be any major scheduling issues for shows.
Juho: Trouble with agreeing? Well just as Iain hinted, I just hate it when I have an awesome idea regarding some song's arrangement and Alpo disapproves of it and has another idea. Iain has suggestions too but he is generally more laid back and adaptive and usually doesn't try to start questionizing stuff I write, hahaha. But then if Alpo and I can't decide which way to go, we decide it by voting. And yeah, I think I should mention that Alpo is usually right but I only realise it afterwards, haha. But of course for us having three dudes discussing structures and arrangements will have a better outcome than someone of us just figuring out stuff on his own. I think that's what being in a band is all about: expressing yourself and your creative side and having a good time with your friends to make the best of it. And of course having more ideas to choose from might lead you to doing something you would never have thought about otherwise. But no, there's no ego bullshit going on and in my opinion occasionally disagreeing about something only shows that we have passion for what we are doing.
I have “Delusional Grasp of Sanity” on my MP3 player, and I have to say I’m literally absorbed by it. It’s not just great ideas, but also the sound, which is, in a word, devastating. I’ll be sitting on the tram, for example, and suddenly catch myself tapping my foot. I’m dying to start dancing. If I weren’t already a bit older, I probably would have. Where did you record the album, and who handled the mastering?
Alpo: Thank you for the kind words! Everything was recorded at our practice place. Atte Karm (from Fearmonger) took care of recording the drums and mixing while all the other instruments and vocals were recorded by ourselves. And I have to say, Atte did a fantastic job with the mixing! Mastering was done by our guitarist Juho.
Iain: Thank you so very much for the awesome feedback! We were discussing not so long ago that the response has been surprising and very humbling, as DGS started just by wanting to hang out and play together without any thoughts on where we wanted to take it. We are very pleased with the end result, and Atte and Juho did a fantastic job with mixing and mastering the album respectively.
Juho: I also want to highlight the mix Atte did. Anyways, after Atte had finished mixing the album, we were talking about the mastering and were supposed to have it done by a professional even though I had done some experimenting and was trying to learn more about mastering. Suddenly we were in a bit of a rush since we had our first gig coming up and needed at least one song published online. So we ended up using my mastering for it. Iain and Alpo liked the master so we decided to have the album released that way with slight adjustments. Then when we had handed out the master to our label Great Dane Records for the album to be pressed, I was on a vacation in London and the label was asking for the master in a fancy industry standard format which I hadn't unfortunately checked in advance. Luckily we got Peter from Putrid Defecation to help us out with that so thank you very much Peter!
Who wrote the lyrics for *Delusional Grasp of Sanity*? And what are they about? Where do you get your inspiration for the themes?
Alpo: All of us take part in writing the lyrics. The lyrics revolve around themes including alcoholism, depression, existentialism, society. The lyrics are often dark and gloomy, but so is our music! The inspiration for the lyrics come from our real life experiences and how we view the world around us.
Iain: As I said previously, we all work very well together, and so coming up with lyrical ideas happened quite easily and naturally. I guess that it’s quite fortunate that we feel the same way about people, society, and the world as a whole.
Who designed the cover art for *Delusional Grasp of Sanity*? I really like their work. How did you go about choosing the cover art in the first place?
Alpo: The cover art was designed by Niilas Nissilä (from Sepulchral Curse)! A talented artist and a friend of ours. Looking at his previous work we knew he would do a great job for our cover art!
Juho: Niilas first made a sketch according to how he felt the album sounded. Then we threw in a few additional ideas and he worked on them but eventually the cover art started taking a slightly different direction and I really love how it turned out. It pretty much looks as dark, desperate and grimy as the album sounds like. Really beautiful.
If we go back to the beginning… What was actually the initial impulse that led you to form the band? And why death/grindcore metal specifically? I’d guess some good pub, one thing leading to another… or am I wrong?
Alpo: I think the initial impulse was that we were practicing with our previous band, but only the three of us showed up at the practice place week after week. We decided to start making our own music just the three of us instead of continuing with the other band. The initial idea was to play uplifting grindcore, but it quite quickly evolved to something darker and gloomier. We are all fans of fast and heavy music, so having lots of blast beats was non-negotiable! A lot of ideas for the band and its musical style came up at a good pub, though.
Iain: On a personal level I really enjoyed playing with and hanging out with Alpo and Juho, and we were all quite frustrated with what in our previous band. I suggested to them that we just get together to hang out and play some grind, as grind is always fun to play and DGS just kind of started to evolve from there.
Juho: In the beginning after playing for some while as a three-piece we were thinking of getting a vocalist and had one rehearsal with a friend of Alpo’s auditioning for vocals. He eventually declined joining because he felt he was after all too busy at the moment. For me it felt like a total bummer because I really liked his vocals. After that Alpo suggested that he himself could try doing vocals and playing the drums simultaneously because he had been doing backing vocals in other bands. My jaw then pretty much dropped to the floor upon hearing him playing and singing at the same time without even having any lyrics at the moment, you know: just improvising with vocal patterns and singing random words. Iain then started doing backing vocals so the final touches of our sound started taking its shape.
Iain: We’ve never limited ourselves to what should be in our music. If there was something that we liked then we used it. It’s been a really refreshing process, as we don’t really write to a formula. We just play what we enjoy, and if other people like it, then that’s a bonus. However, as Alpo has already said: blast beats are mandatory!
You’re from Helsinki, Finland, and you play extreme death grindcore metal. Our readers would definitely be interested in how the death grind metal scene works in Finland. To tell you the truth, lately I’ve been hearing nothing but great bands from you guys (CONCRETE ICON are excellent!, INFERIA (I still love this band!)). Does that mean the scene is really strong over there right now? What about shows, how many people show up?
Alpo: The death metal scene in Helsinki (and generally in Finland) is alive and well! A good example of this is the great Helsinki Death Fest! There are also new death metal bands popping up in Finland frequently. The amount of people showing up to death metal shows varies a lot by the band, though.
Juho: I think the scene is currently vibrant but not only just death metal but also on a wider scale with bands from different kinds of underground subgenres playing in the same events and so on. And I like it that way because listening to different kinds of bands at the same event has a bit more to offer for everyone in the audience and also for those who are on stage. Like playing this year at the same venue with three bands, a doom metal band, a sludge band and a hardcore punk band. I think it was fun because we ourselves have at least some elements from each genre.
Your music clearly shows that you’re influenced by both the Finnish death/grindcore metal scene and older European bands. What about you as fans? Do you prefer the original death metal of the ’90s, or do you also draw inspiration from newer albums? If so, I’d be curious to know which bands have had the biggest influence on DGS.
Alpo: To me personally, the biggest influences to DGS music are Rotten Sound and Ulcerate. Rotten Sound due to the sheer brutality and the exceptionally good drumwork in the early albums, and Ulcerate due to the chaotic and gloomy atmosphere. I personally listen to anything that sounds good and am not that much limited to certain genres.
Iain: On a personal level I can say Napalm Death, Nasum, and Teethgrinder would be my biggest influences from the world of grindcore, but it was Portuguese grindcore band called Axia that really showed me that there’s no limit to the kinds of influences that can be used in this style of music. I highly recommend that you check them out! But generally speaking I tend to pick up musical ideas from all over the place, regardless of genre, and have been listening to a lot of dark industrial music lately for some reason.
Juho: Talking about death metal, I pretty much grew up with the 90's death metal stuff but I like newer stuff too and the same goes with grindcore. I’ve got many influences but instead of carbon-copying them it’s usually like some single riff might remind me of some band. For example: “this riff sounds like Rotten Sound or Nasum and the next one sounds like Anti Cimex”. Then I might be using a riff that reminds me of Bolt Thrower, Autopsy or whatever. Still I wouldn't say there's a single biggest influence for DGS because we get inspired by many bands and genres.
What about you and concerts in general? Are you a band that plays as many shows as possible, or are you pretty selective? Do you have any dreams, like a band you’d like to tour or play a festival with, or a city where you’d like to perform? The Obscene Extreme festival is a must for you!
Iain: I can’t speak on behalf of Alpo and Juho of course, but personally I absolutely love to play live, and will happily play anywhere anytime with anyone.
Alpo: We are quite a new band and haven’t had many shows yet, but we would like to do as many shows as possible. It would be amazing to tour or play festivals with bands like Rotten Sound. Any good metal festival would be a dream come true for us, though. In Czechia we would like to play for example in Obscene Extreme, Brutal Assault and Nice to Eat You deathfest!
Juho: The lineup of Obscene Extreme looks very enticing so I'd definitely be thrilled to play there. And what comes to bands, playing with bands like Napalm Death and Rotten Sound would be very awesome.
What does music mean to you? I’ve been listening to extreme metal since the ’90s, and I can’t imagine a day without playing something new or even something old. I love going to concerts, I enjoy the atmosphere, I like the people hanging around actually, you could say it’s my lifestyle, hobby, and addiction all at once. How about you? Feel free to get philosophical.
Alpo: Music is the air we breathe. Playing music, listening to music and going to concerts of various musical styles is a great passion for us. The atmosphere in metal concerts and festivals is amazing, and one of the best parts of it is hanging around with people who enjoy the same music and atmosphere. One of my favourite parts of gigging and touring in general is meeting the people who play in the other bands with us and to have a beer with them. It is a lifestyle generated by the love of music but also by the love of playing the instruments.
Iain: To me music is like the blood in my veins, in that I can’t live without it. Words cannot explain the joy that music gives to me, and I feel very fortunate in that I’ve found two very like-minded people to play with like Alpo and Juho.
What does DGS have planned for the near future? How about a tour for the new album? If you have a message for fans, labels, or promoters, this is the place…
Alpo: Our plans for the near future is to do gigs and work on our second album. We would love to tour with the debut album, but I think we still need to grow our fanbase to get more people coming up to our shows. The message we have to our fans is: thank you for listening to our album! Tell a friend and come to our shows! For promoters: if you are interested in booking DGS for an event, contact us via our email dgs.grind.official@gmail.com, instagram (dgsgrind) or facebook (DGSgrind)!
Juho: Currently we have a few shows coming up in Finland and possibly a few shows abroad. And we have some new songs already written and quite a lot of sketches to work on, so as soon as we get them finished, we’ll be heading to the studio to record our second album.
I’m going to listen to your new album, “Delusional Grasp of Sanity,” again. I have to say that, for me personally, it’s essentially a perfect death grind metal masterpiece. A total inferno. I hope the album does well and reaches as many fans as possible. It deserves it. I wish you all the best in your personal lives as well. Good luck, cheers!
Alpo: Thank you very much for the kind words! We really appreciate it!
Iain: Thank you for the interview! It was a pleasure to do!
Juho: Thank you very much and hopefully we’ll get to play in Czechia some time soon!
Recenze/review - DGS - Delusional Grasp of Sanity (2026):
CD ORDER HERE: https://www.greatdanerecs.com/eshop/web/1608-dgs
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