Finnish modern melodic metal band Unén return with “Dancing In Flames,” a heavier and more direct single that opens the next chapter after last year’s debut album Forever Winter. In interview singer Stina Girs and guitarist Kimmo Pitkänen share more.
For the band, Forever Winter still carries the feeling of a first major step finally becoming real. Girs says the album came together surprisingly quickly once the members found each other, and what began as new songs became a shared dream that suddenly had a finished shape.
Pitkänen hears the same period through a slightly more practical lens. The material was finished fast, but the release itself required around a year and a half of waiting, which tested the band’s patience. When the album finally came out, the feeling was rewarding, but it also left them with a clear sense that Unén could still push further.
That waiting period also shaped the next phase. The band kept writing while Forever Winter was still waiting for release, and by the time the debut was out, new songs were already moving forward in different stages.
The basic working method has stayed close to what gave the first album its shape. Pitkänen says the band usually builds the instrumental side first, taking riffs and ideas until the song is far enough along to send to Girs. From there she creates the vocal melodies, lyrics and emotional world around the track.
Girs describes it as receiving a foundation that is mostly formed, but still open enough for her own imagination. She then starts building her own world on top of it, bringing in the story and the voice that make the song feel like Unén.
Forever Winter also opened a lyrical path she had been waiting for. Girs says writing those songs felt easy and relieving because there was so much inside that needed to come out. After years of not writing in the same way, returning to English lyrics and heavier music felt like a moment she had grown toward for a long time.
That personal side is part of why “My Love’s Broken” still stands out to her as the song that best captures the first album cycle. It was the first single because it carried several sides of the band at once: heavier riffs, growls, calmer passages and a strong melodic center. For Girs, it also began from the feeling of being broken and having to open that story from the bottom.
Pitkänen chooses “Sky” as his own marker of the same period, because he hears in it a wide picture of the band’s melodic and emotional range. That difference in choices also says something about the album itself, which was built from several moods rather than one narrow idea.
The opening “Prelude for the Wicked” helped frame that world. Pitkänen says the band wanted it to set the listener’s mind before the album truly began, while Girs sees it as a doorway into the dreamlike space around the record. The band also used it as a live intro, giving audiences time to step into that atmosphere before the heavier material arrived.
“Black Heart” came from a title that had stayed in Girs’ mind before the right song appeared. Once she heard the music, she knew where to aim the lyric and did not feel a need to soften it. Pitkänen remembers the song as one of the earlier pieces they worked on together, with progressive touches, shifting rhythms and darker instrumental details giving it its own place on the album.
With the new material, the band have not thrown away that process, but the collaboration has become more open. Pitkänen says the members know each other better now, which makes it easier to challenge ideas and pull more out of the songs.
Girs sees the same change when she brings vocal and lyric demos to the studio. The others have started calling that moment a kind of candy day, because her melodies and texts arrive as a surprise. At the same time, Pitkänen and keyboardist Petteri Sinervä now feel freer to suggest melodic details or additions once the vocal world is in place.
The direction is becoming wider and more energetic. Pitkänen talks about a broader scale, more sharpness, more tempo and more growled parts than on the debut. Girs adds that development has clearly happened inside the band, and “Dancing In Flames” was chosen because it makes that development immediately audible.
The single was meant to create a clean step away from Forever Winter without abandoning the band’s identity. Girs says they wanted something faster and more defiant, a song that says the band is coming forward with new energy. Pitkänen connects it to the same wish to raise the pace and show a more explosive side.
Lyrically, “Dancing In Flames” continues the emotional world around the band rather than starting from nothing. Girs says the female figure seen around Forever Winter has become a kind of imaginary heroine, built around parts of herself but able to carry stories beyond literal autobiography. Some of the new songs continue threads from the debut, while others open new parts of that world.
The second Unén album is already being made. Girs says the work is quite far along because the band had so much time while waiting for Forever Winter to be released. Pitkänen describes the writing as iterative, with a few songs already close to finished and more than ten ideas in reasonably strong shape.
The release rhythm is one thing they want to change. Both feel that a long pause is difficult for a new band, especially when there is pressure to stay visible but not enough music out to build live activity around. This time they want to keep a steadier pace, with more singles and more shows rather than another long wait.
Unén interview 23.06.2026
Stina Girs & Kimmo Pitkänen
Producer: Janne Vuorela
https://unenband.net/
Picture: Elsa Wellamo Arts / Unén
