Heavy metal is full of concept albums and stories, but Aktor still puts a fresh spin on it. The new record of this Finnish-American band  takes Nordic noir crime shows as a blueprint and turns them into a dark detective saga with helicopters, severed hands and catchy songs. Vocalist and bassist Chris Black walks us through the three-season story arc, the way Aktor works between two continents, and how the band has carved out its own small corner of the metal world for listeners who enjoy things a bit unusual.

HMP:Your album “Professori (Season Two)” has just been released. Can you explain the concept behind this album and especially the TV show that it is based on?

Chris Black:  I had been binging on this type of TV for a while, including for example “The Bridge” or “The Killing” series. By the end of “Deadwind” (another series), I decided I had probably seen the best of the best, and that anything else was just going to be a repeat.  But this happened at the same time as I needed to write my lyrics for the Aktor album, so I took the chance to celebrate (and lightly satirize) the genre in lyrical form.  Not many bands would get away with that, and I guess time will tell whether people appreciate it from Aktor, but it was definitely fun to try.

The album begins with a twist where the lead character disappears and the partner becomes elevated to the main role. I wonder how such a narrative corresponds to your songwriting.

I don’t think it influenced the songwriting at all, but it did make me realize that I was dealing with Season Two of a three-season story arc.  What I’ve done musically on this album is likely nothing different from what it would have been outside of the concept album framework.

Have you already mapped out what other seasons may be about?

Yes.  Season One introduces Professori and his unusual methods for solving crimes, and it also establishes the particulars of the working environments, meaning the city itself as a network of streets, buildings, and humans, but also the city in terms of its power structures, and those same dynamics within the police department, especially between Professori and his young colleague Sylvi. Then the third season is actually the trial for the crimes that occur in Season Two, and a personal trial for Sylvi, whether she can accept certain truths about her mentor and partner.  So that season is a bit more character-driven.

In press release the album is described as combining eighties new wave like  B-52s andTalking Heads with heavy seventies prog and psychedelic vibes. How do you balance these influences?

I believe it is ourselves and our process that makes our music Aktor music, more than any particular influence or influences. Jussi [Lehtisalo, guitar player - Ed.] put a lot of substance already in the demos for these songs before sending them to me, so most of my own inspiration was self-contained in those demos.  He listens to an enormous range of music, more than anyone else I know, so it’s very possible that he was influenced by precisely those bands you mention. But truly I don't know, and actually I don’t care to know, because it might affect me too much.

The band members are located in Finland and USA. How has this distance-based collaboration evolved since you formed Aktor?

I would say it has not evolved or changed significantly. We have always been a “cloud-based” band rather than a one that meets up for rehearsals in a physical space, and this can have a certain effect on the music.  We contribute separately and in different phases to make the songs complete.  There’s a lot that goes unspoken.  In fact, Aktor mostly just happens, without any discussion. We trust each other’s intuition and we trust in our shared process.

You’ve worked with Dan Swanö on mixing and mastering for “Professori”. What does he bring to Aktor’s sound that perhaps wouldn’t be there otherwise?

Here is an exception, because we did have some discussion about the album mix, and we agreed that Professori should have a harder sound, more punch compared to the first two albums which have a more classic rock style mix.  I suggested Dan because I knew he would be able to achieve this.  I also knew that he would not be intimidated by the sheer quantity of sounds and layers, and that he would actually enjoy the challenge of balancing everything both musically and in terms of the soundscape.

Can you walk us through the songwriting process? How does the composition begin, and at what point do all three members feel they’ve completed a song?

Everything starts with Jussi.  He creates demos with guitar, virtual drums, and keyboards. Then he shows the demos to me. At this point they are not songs but they are song-like, because they have several interconnected parts and many unique melodies throughout.  But in the course of writing my bass parts, I can move things closer to an actual song with a beginning, middle, and end, and hopefully also a strong chorus. Sometimes I will take apart Jussi’s structure completely and rebuild it in my own way, but usually I am just adjusting the proportions, getting the surface ready for vocals. The rest can happen somewhat concurrently.

What took five years between the latest release, and how in your opinion has the band’s sound evolved across these all your albums?

I don’t think that our sound has changed that much, because our process stays the same since the first album. We are better at creating that sound, but definitely not faster, hahaha!  But it’s also true in the case of Professori that the amount of tracks and the process to put everything in its place, technically speaking, needed a lot of time.

Each band member is prolific across multiple other projects and bands. How do you find time for Aktor between the other ones?

Right, Aktor is a session project for all of us. It becomes a temporary priority and demands a lot of hard work sometimes, but we also have many other important priorities in our creative lives as well as in our everyday lives.  So the work with Aktor happens in relatively short but very intense bursts, over a longer span of time.  There is no regular rhythm to it.  We are free to work on Aktor when we find the right mood and opportunity.

Given that the band has been described as not having a genre, how do you approach marketing and presenting Aktor to an audience?

This has not been so easy, nor has it been instantaneous.  Aktor has boutique appeal, so I think the pathways to discovering Aktor can be very diverse.  Perhaps we are destined to lurk in whispers, on obscure playlists, and in record shop bins waiting for someone to be drawn-in by the album covers.  And we can be very happy with that, and we can also be very grateful when attentive journalists such as yourself can add to the effort.

The album includes tracks with intriguing titles like “Just One Hand”, “Idiot Brother”, “Children Always Know”, and “Helicopter”. Can you give a glimpse into how some of these “episodes” fit into the overall narrative arc of the album?

Ok, but there may be spoilers involved!  So those who want to experience the story from beginning to end should probably stop reading now.  “Just One Hand” is when Professori’s severed hand arrives on Sylvi’s desk, as if to confirm that he has been murdered. A bit later, as part of her investigation, Sylvi visits Professori’s estranged brother, who has some contacts and experience in the criminal world. “Children Always Know” and “Helicopter” are both based on cliche plot elements in the genre. There seems to always be a child who holds some kind of secret memory or clue that is vital to solving the case, but gaining that child’s trust can be a challenge and often requires uncharacteristic kindness on the part of the investigator.  And there is almost always a helicopter! I guess it’s the best and fastest way to reach the more remote parts of these countries. The helicopter is emblematic of the final chase, when the mystery is solved and all that remains is the final showdown with the perpetrator.

Although you describe your music as “Adult Contemporary Heavy Metal” genre. How do you understand this phrase?

I have invented it, at a time when our instinct was to protect or maybe emphasize Aktor’s heavy metal roots. I think it’s fine to continue under that banner, or perhaps AO-Noir is better when it comes to Professori specifically.  But I don’t intend for it to be a comment about the larger genre.  Those kinds of summations are best left to those with a broader view than I allow myself.