The Sandman arrives on January 24, 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh43rT8ejI0

https://rintaperala.bandcamp.com/

New album The Sandman will be out on January 24, 2026 - 250 years since the birth of E.T.A. Hoffmann.

This short story was published in 1816.

Imaginary Horror Comedy #5

 

Ink drawing by Rinta-Perälä, 2025.

Mike Pence stars in this full-blown erotic horror comedy that was directed by Steven Mnuchin, under the pseudonym Just Smoochin.

Previous installments:

The Seventh Sense

You Gotta Wash Your Zombie Ass

The Silence of the Slaps

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mambo Number Five

Countering White Supremacy in Metal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDVpl5mlkdk

35 minutes.

This documentary was made by a person who has been listening to metal since the 1990s. It was made in defense of creativity in metal, including black metal.

The documentary is not a nazi database, every fascist and racist idea is countered with an argument.

Prologue: Counter-Arguments to Fascism and White Supremacy
Chapter I: Satanism and the Far-Right
Chapter II: Prospects of Metal
Chapter III: "Satanic Skinheads"
Chapter IV: "Join Us! We Are the Future!"
Chapter V: The Force-Feeding of White Supremacy
Epilogue: Willful Ignorance

Turva-alue - Safe Zone

 

Wax crayon / wax on paper. Rinta-Perälä, 2025.
Drawing 447.

Äänestys - Voting

 

Wax crayon / wax on paper. Rinta-Perälä, 2025.
Drawing 446.

Sodanjälkeinen - Post-War

Wax crayon / wax on paper. Rinta-Perälä, 2025.
Drawing 445.

Taiteiden yö - Night of the Arts

Wax crayon / wax on paper. Rinta-Perälä, 2025.
Drawing 444.

Thalasstorm - Ostrobothnian Metal

1. Final Breath of Fate
2. Uprising
3. Trident Stirs the Sea
4. Creation of Fire
5. Aureole Invincible
6. The Fortunate Far Away
7. Elysium

Written between 2002 and 2025. Recorded in Silence & Desolation Studio, June-July 2025.

Music, lyrics, artwork and production by Rinta-Perälä.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTlXaKqsWmw

https://thalasstorm.bandcamp.com

Elysium

Second track from Ostrobothnian Metal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dntNUjvAO2I

The Thalasstorm story

The main ambition with this project was to create metal that is less dark. Fairly positive-sounding heavy metal with powerful synth arrangements.

The first song I wrote in 2023 was Creation of Fire. The project didn't have a name at that point, but the album title was always the same. Ostrobothnia, or Pohjanmaa, is my home region. I'm originally from South Ostrobothnia and the coat of arms has three ermines on it. The sign I designed has three dragonlike demons instead.

Thalasstorm is a sea storm. The Finnish word for that is uhama, but I decided not to use that. Most of the songs are completely new, but some are examples of the kind of music I made 25 years ago.

I found a bunch of old demos from 2002, both CDs and notes. I barely knew how to burn a CD back then, so the tracks had the maximum amount of clipping and too much bass. It sounded like dogshit inside a cardboard box, but thankfully most of the written notes gave me a head start.

A song called Elysium was one of the last additions to the tracklist and this song based on old material from 2002 wasn't changed that much.

Black Sabbath is my favourite metal band. The first six albums from '70 to '75 are the best followed by Mob Rules. NWOBHM is a related archetype in this case.

Ostrobothnian Metal was also inspired by some soundtracks - Assault on Precinct 13, the 1981 animated Heavy Metal movie and Conan the Barbarian. I was always interested in mythology so that became the guiding light for the frame of reference.

Unlike most modern mythological metal, Thalasstorm was never going to sound like a mixture of Helloween and Hans Zimmer.

For a long time this kind of material seemed too conventional and heroic to me. It's time to cut back on the shadows.

First Thalasstorm track

 

Final Breath of Fate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvdEL6Zvn4Y

The first Thalasstorm album, Ostrobothnian Metal, will be out August 1, 2025.

Todellisuus - Reality

Wax crayon / wax on paper. Rinta-Perälä, 2025.
Drawing 443.

My last metal project, I swear

 

Thalasstorm is the name of my fourth and final metal project. I wanted to challenge myself and write music that sounds more positive (without being nauseating.)

The specific category is heavy metal, but not power metal with high singing. Even though I'm diversifying, the darker stuff will always be more prominent.

This adventure is once again partially fueled by my disappointment in other people's music. It's possible to write archetypal and hard hitting metal without jumping on a bandwagon or losing the wild energy.

The album will be released later this year.

Hootie & the Blowfish + Eurodance = the new Amorphis

 

I just experienced one of the most depressing low points in 2025 music.

Fans of the older material already know that this band's downfall started a long time ago. "I should have seen it coming" is a line from their song Wrong Direction.

Tales from the Thousand Lakes is one of the best albums from the 1990s. Who knew that one day they would debase themselves with some of the worst 90s influences.

I listened to a song called Light and Shadow. The song played as an ad. That was already horrifying. I thought "they're still using a term like metal, how bad can it be?" It was so abhorrent they couldn't even save it with superficial references to the old stuff.

I hope people really learn something from this monstrosity. You can't just use the word change as a justification. Things can change for the worse, and they have.

From this point forward I'm going to be calling this band Hootie & the Amorphis.

Boreal Chimeritales

1. Arboretum
2. Pale Inner Chamberlight
3. The River of Life
4. The Isle of the Dead
5. Alone in Bonfire Night
6. Vision

https://rintaperala.bandcamp.com/album/boreal-chimeritales

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKH1gqLrkSI