Nebula Arcana: The pre-apocalyptic opera before the end

The end of Eternal Tears of Sorrow was the big bang for Nebula Arcana. The band combines melodic death metal, progressive and theatrical end-of-the-world-elements in their dystopic debut album The Last Ember. The guitarist Jarmo Puolakanaho and the vocalist Jussi Kaarnekaiku are explaining what the new band is all about.

The world has just recovered from the pandemic… At least somehow. Artificial intelligence is taking a bigger role in everyday life. The risk of nuclear all-out war is probably greater than ever. Or at least it feels like it. No one seems to be interested in climate change anymore. Somewhere far away, an asteroid might already be on its way towards the Earth.

“From the cosmos, a fireball will rise, a harbinger of fate, the world pleads… Science and fate in a cosmic dance, The fate of the Earth, a second chance”, Nostradamus predicted regarding the year 2025.

Guitarist Jarmo Puolakanaho (ex-Eternal Tears of Sorrow) started to wonder how people would react, if they learned that the world would come to an end in a few months. Now, his thoughts have formed the theme of a new Finnish metal band Nebula Arcana. The debut album is titled The Last Ember.

The group explores the dark and dystopic theme through fictive characters. Each of them sees the unavoidable end in their personal way. The characters are interpreted by the vocalists Aso Brännkärr (Obscured Within) and Jussi Kaarnekaiku (Where’s My Bible).

The band brings together members of rising Finnish metal acts. The lineup includes guitarist Harri Hytönen (Amorta, Armada North, Clown Parade, Fenyx Rising, Hammerhed), keyboardist Christian Pulkkinen (Simulacrum, Adamantra, Eden’s Curse, James LaBrie), bassist Olli Hakala (Simulacrum, Cras Course Highway) and drummer Ville Miinala (Mors Subita).

In this Chaoszine’s in-depth interview, Puolakanaho and Kaarnekaiku explain how the story of Nebula Arcana began, what the group stands for, and how they will continue their journey toward the apocalypse.

Armageddon

When something comes to an end, something else begins. The big bang for Nebula Arcana came when Northern Finland born band Eternal Tears of Sorrow went on indefinite break in 2023. Puolakanaho started to wonder whether he should even keep on writing music at all.

Jarmo: “I think I made a mistake, when my first thought was to keep on working on some songs I originally meant for EToS. It was a wrong way. EToS wrote songs during COVID-times, but they were pretty lazy and tired – as was the whole group. We just weren’t able to write songs good enough for us. I decided to do something else.”

In the autumn of 2024, Puolakanaho even questioned whether he wanted to play gigs anymore. Or just to run a solo project. He was a bit surprised to realize he actually wanted an active band where other members are sharing the responsibility and freedom. EToS officially disbanded in early 2025.

Jarmo: “I was tired of people asking when EToS would come back. My thoughts had been in the new band for 18 months at that time. It was the turning point. I already had written half of the demos of the upcoming album. And when I started searching for people during the spring, the whole thing just avalanched.”

Puolakanaho had two guiding principles. He wanted to create a theme album. Eternal Tears of Sorrow never made one, even if they could have. The other one was to reach toward a more progressive, heavier sound.

Jarmo: “It reflected, when I chose the other members of the group. I wanted there to be diversity. Jussi is amazingly talented growler and a frontman of a melo-death band. As a vocalist, he is very different compared to for example Altti (Veteläinen).”

Jussi: “When they asked me, they didn’t reveal much. But once I saw the framework, I was intrigued. When it became clear how big this was, I was thrilled. I’m kind of a megalomaniac myself.”

Jussi Kaarnekaiku saw a chance to show what he’s able to do. He had previously spent a year touring with Where’s My Bible for a year. He realized that it was possible to do things on a bigger scale. Neither had he ever been in a group with two vocalists. His bandmates were supportive.

Jussi: “At first, I was damn nervous to tell the guys that hey, the situation is that I’d be in a third band from now on. I quickly noticed that it was a way bigger deal for me than it was for them. I was even a little disappointed at how cool they were with it.”

Ragnarök

Theories about the end of the world surged after the pandemic. Current events have affected the band’s mental state of mind, but they’ve never worked as a direct source of inspiration. The news are too stressful and too close.

Jarmo: “I don’t even like to turn on the TV anymore. This whole decade has been… Sometimes I just feel I simply can’t do it. There are wars and old guys mansplaining things, and they are trying to find clarity through undemocratic ways. It all comes out as melancholy, but I got to let it out somehow.”

Instead of real-world events, the band has used fiction as their source of inspiration. Puolakanaho watched a lot of dystopic TV shows in the beginning of 2020’s: Good Omens, The Last of Us, Black Mirror and Station Eleven.

Jarmo: “I thought: what if created an album about the different ways they world could end, about all the different ways how the humankind could destroy itself. A very cheerful theme. At first it sounded a bit bad, but it got really interesting through the characters and certain topics.”

When Kaarnekaiku is writing lyrics, he cites ancient mythologies and history among movies, series and games as his source of inspiration. People have always predicted how and when everything will end. He highlights the human mind itself.

Jussi: “It’s capable of doing, creating and destroying so much. How the human mind works and is pressurized itself over even the simplest things. And it does it to itself. All the darkness around the human mind is probably my biggest source of inspiration. There’s a psychological aspect as well.

He finds The Last of Us especially compelling in how it shows survivors behaving after the world end in a post-apocalyptic setting caused by a parasitic fungus.

Kali Yuga

The characters of the theme album are located across the world facing the end during the last 12 months of humanity. All of them see it through their own eyes and they act accordingly. According to Jarmo Puolakanaho, the stories are written to be timeless. One example is a priest who has lost his faith near the end. His God does not seem to care at all.

All the characters have their own colors, and they face the end not only through their personal life but also reflecting the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Kaarnekaiku has had all the liberty to interpret the songs of Where’s My Bible and Anima Hereticae as they are. Now in Nebula Arcana, he has to interpret the songs through the stories of the characters, and the stories and the stories and lyrics may come from multiple writers.

Jussi: “This is so cool! Writing my own lyrics has always been easy. I’ve known what they are about and where the song is going. Now, I kind of need to fill someone else’s shoes, the characters. There’s acting and theatricality involved.”

The stories and the color palettes will add a visual element to future shows. Nebula Arcana is about to release their first music video and single in spring 2026 and hopes to play their first live shows later the same year.

Jarmo: “It’s not probably the most Finnish thing in 2020’s to do things as well as possible, to aim as high as possible. But I have lived half a century now. Why slow down or hold back, whether it’s about the album or the live shows?”

Kaarnekaiku agrees. If the bar has been set high enough, it is easier to reach it as well. Or at least approach it. According to Puolakanaho, the band has been talking about the possibility that Nebula Arcana might be able to do shows outside of Finland as well. And they are prepared to do it.

Jarmo: “All of us are aware that it’s possible. If not with this album, then maybe with the next one. We are ready to hit the world, if someone is asking.”

Yawm al-Qiyāmah

Puolakanaho coined the name Nebula Arcana, inspired by the film and novel Contact by Arthur C. Clarke. He imagined a signal emerging from a nebula, clearly sent by an intelligent civilization. Humanity tries to decipher what it means. Possibilities abound.

Jarmo: “It might be a message from God. That something big is about to happen. A sign to repent. It might be a trap or a bomb. Decrypt the message, and the Earth would be destroyed. Some people see it as something holy or sacred or holding really confidential information to bring the humankind closer to the universe.”

Ultimately, the story is about a civilization that destroyed itself. They did something to their own Sun, and it eventually went supernova, an enormous explosion of the star. But they managed to send devices and messages into space before that.

Jarmo: “The message was basically: ‘Please, don’t do what we did. Our Sun blew up to shit. Try to be a bit smarter than us.’ Even if this story isn’t directly connected to the theme of the album, it’s apocalyptical as such. People are foolish and they always do foolish things. And it reflects these recent decades. People are becoming more and more foolish everywhere in the world.”

The band also has a strong group of people behind it. Puolakanaho laughs and says it was nice to have a stylist, a make-up artist and a hairdresser for the promotional shoot session. Eternal Tears of Sorrow did almost everything by themselves. Even if it was freezing -20 degrees outside.

Jarmo: “It’s been such a big help. People are bringing their own regarding the characters and the stories. This is a creative group, and it’s just wonderful that everyone’s interested in the music, the concept and the characters. I’m grateful my little whim has grown this big.”

Nebula Arcana

The apocalyptic theme has made both men think, how they would personally react, if they would receive the information that the world would come to an end in a nearby future. Jussi Kaarnekaiku says that the topic is a difficult one.

Jussi: “Of course it’d be a shock at first. After that, I think that I’d just live day by day. And I might hope the apocalypse wouldn’t come after all? Hope hidden in the darkness, living in the moment.”

Puolakanaho notes that people don’t wake every morning thinking about what matters most. If we knew everything would soon be gone, maybe we’d think harder about how we want to spend the time we have left.

Jarmo: “You would finish what’s left undone. Or do something that matters to your beloved ones, or to your own peace of mind. So, you can’t drown when you’re waiting the end, but there would be days, when you’d just go to sauna or fishing. If you’d think about it all the time, the negativity could take over. Or like they say in my old hometown of Oulu: ‘I wish I had a rope. If I don’t have even the rope, things
would be really bad.”

Both men are comparing hearing the apocalypse being near to receiving news about a terminal illness. Some would be depressed, but some would start to live their lives and to do things they love, when it is clear, what they want to do during the time they have left.

Jarmo: “They are truly inspiring people. Of course it’s sad, but eventually all of us will face it at some point. We just don’t know when. And that raises the question, if there would be a specific date for our personal demise, how many of us would like to hear it? I think some would not even like to know, when the Reaper taps on your shoulder.”

Jussi: “It’s really interesting that after getting such news, they truly start living. They’ve woken up. They’re doing things they enjoy and want to do. Those who have survived against all the odds, have kept on living and told, that people shouldn’t think things through other people, but think about themselves as long as we are here.”

Puolakanaho hopes that the debut album of Nebula Arcana would inspire people to think, what they would do or act if they knew that the apocalypse would come during our lifetime.

Jarmo: “It might clear up their thoughts and shakes them from routines, like hey, I really want to live! If the apocalypse came in say, ten years, what would you want to do before that happens?”

Jussi: “I really like the Gauls’ fear. The end of the world is coming tomorrow, but not today. And they truly lived the moment.”