Tag Archives: Finland

(new single) Finnish Dark The Suns released new single and music video featuring a prominent guest!

Picture: Dark The Suns feat Paavo Laapotti

Finnish melodic metal band Dark The Suns released a new single and music video Raven. The track is featuring Paavo Laapotti (Before The Dawn & Defiled Serenity) on vocals. The track is taken from the upcoming fifth studio album ‘Raven and the Nightsky’ which is released later this year via Inverse Records

Comments from the band: 

MikkoRaven is the 4th single from our upcoming Raven and the Nightsky -album. In Raven single we have a special guest vocalist Paavo Laapotti (Before The Dawn and Defiled Serenity). Paavo has an amazing voice and his voice brought really beautiful and melancholic athmosphere for the single! Jani also played acoustic guitar for the song, so we got more good new elements for the song. I’m really proud of the results!

Inka: We had talked with Paavo about making a song together, and when one night I played the piano and made the chorus to this song, I immediately thought that this would sound great with Paavo’s vocals. He is super talented and he has such a great voice. The result sounds exactly like what I thought at the time. I thought about the single cover for a long time and made many sketches of ravens and black wings to catch the right feeling; in the end it felt like all the pieces fell into place, melodies and words, Jani’s acoustic guitar, painting, video… this was a really great project with a great team, and I am so happy for the results.

PaavoMaking of this song was very easy with seamless teamwork and a great, clear concept. I really like the song and it has the great distinctive sound of Dark The Suns but with a twist. It was an honor to be a part of this release and I think we succeeded in bringing the nordic feel to the listeners around the world.

JaniAs usually, working with Mikko and Inka was at the same time professional and easy-going, it is always a pleasure to spend time with them. The new song ”Raven” is super catchy with beautiful melodies in it, and the vocals by Paavo are outstanding. I was honored to be involved in this one.

LISTEN Raven singlehttps://push.fm/fl/dts-paavo-laapotti-raven

BIOGRAPHY:

In 2005 Dark the Suns was founded by Mikko Ojala. In 2006 the band grew when three new members (bass player InkaJuha on the keyboards and drummer Markus) joined the band, which signed with Firebox Records that same year.

During 2007-2010 Firebox Records released the band’s three full-length albums (In Darkness Comes Beauty, All Ends in Silence and Sleepwalking in a Nightmare). The band performed many live shows during these years.

There have been some changes in the line-up over the years, but Mikko and Inka have been continuously together, making music. The band was inactive for 2013-2020 but in 2020 Mikko and Inka decided to resume making music together. It was a really natural way to continue the band as a duo, because they have written almost all the band’s music and lyrics during all these years.

In 2020 and 2021 Inverse Records released four singles from the band’s 4th album Suru Raivosi Sydämeni Pimeydessä. The album includes ten songs of melancholic and melodic Finnish metal music. The band has always described their music as ”Beautiful piano melodies and dark vocals”.

Jani Moilanen joined the band in March 2023. Fifth studio album is set to be released later in 2023 via Inverse Records.

Line-up on Raven single:

Mikko Ojala: vocals, guitars, drums
Inka Ojala: bass, keyboards
Paavo Laapotti: guest vocals
Jani Moilanen: acoustic guitar

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/darkthesunsofficial

https://darkthesuns.bandcamp.com
https://spoti.fi/2Jmh5kW
https://www.instagram.com/darkthesunsofficial

(review) Mustan Kuun Lapset – ‘Suruaika EP’

Finnish cult band Mustan Kuun Lapset celebrates thirty years of existence and what better way to celebrate it than with new EP. This new opus contains three new songs and one rendition of old classic, one of the best known in their existence called ‘Morfiinisiivet ‘. This EP provides guest performances by for example, French professional cellist Axel Salmona, guitarist of the Norwegian metal band In the Woods... Kåre André Sletteberg, and Voice of Finland finalist and Before the Dawn vocalist Paavo Laapotti. Cello. piano and violin give richness and sweetness to dark music and darkness provided by this band. ‘Kirstunkantaja’ is a kind of instrumental intro, but ‘Muistoa kunnioittaen’ is a lesson in dark metal that only this band can do, mixture of perfect extreme black and death metal with melody and melancholy. Clean vocals interplay perfectly with growls and melodic heavy metal influenced hooks and passages, yet retaining enough darkness in the music. ‘On suruaika täytetty’ is for me the best song on this little opus, Paavo Laapotti delivering such great vocal performance as guest on this song, also violin and cello made goosebumps on my skin listening to this haunting melody and song as a whole. The new rendition of ‘Morfiinisiivet’ gave new vision and life to this anthem, thus finishing this celebratory EP. Great and best wishes!

8/10

(review) Agarwaen – ‘Channel:Lunacy’

Now, that’s what I like! A mixture of metal and horror. Agarwaen are hailing from Finland and this is their second full length opus. There are intro and eight more songs on this opus. I love the use of samples, orchestrated keyboard and symphonic parts. This is basically melodic black death metal with modern thrash metal and symphonic black metal influences thrown in for good measure. Vocals are dual, from black metal/Gothenburg death metal screaming vocals to death metal growls and clean spoken word parts. Lyrics are horror based on a story about bloodthirsty cult so the album has some kind of loose concept behind the music. Heavy hitters like ‘Channel Of Lunacy’ with blast beats and melodic hooks, also ‘Graveyard Shift’ and ‘Delirium’ are sure to win you over and let you know that not only King Diamond plays horror metal. There are more extreme yet melodic bands full of energy that do this style of metal and I really enjoyed every single minute of this opus. This album creates a great cold atmosphere, so go grab this one.

8/10