Sonata Arctica is a Finnish power metal band from the town of Kemi, Finland. Created as a hard rock band named Tricky Beans, they later changed to Tricky Means and finally to Sonata Arctica, when they shifted to power metal. The current lineup consists of drummer Tommy Portimo, lead singer Tony Kakko, keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg, guitarist Elias Viljanen and bassist Pasi Kauppinen. All the musicians of the band's history except Portimo also acted as backing vocalists.
Ensiferum is a Finnish folk metal band from Helsinki. The members of the band label themselves as "melodic folk metal".
Finnish rock refers to rock music made in Finland. The initial rock and roll boom of the 1950s was preceded by a long tradition of popular culture. Suomirock may refer to Finnish rock music in general or more narrowly rock music sung in the Finnish language.
Spinefarm Records is a Finnish record label focusing mainly on heavy metal artists. It is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group.
Jani Allan Kristian Liimatainen is a Finnish guitarist. He came to prominence as the guitarist for the power metal band Sonata Arctica between 1996 and 2007, and has since played in and founded bands such as Cain's Offering and The Dark Element. Liimatainen's playing style is well known for his meticulous and fast soloing and riffs.
Tuska Open Air Metal Festival, commonly shortened to Tuska, is a Finnish heavy metal festival taking place annually in Helsinki. The first Tuska took place in 1998 and the festival has since grown larger every year. The location of the festival has been in Kaisaniemi park in the middle of the city from 2001. However, since 2011, Tuska has taken place at the Suvilahti event field in the Kalasatama neighbourhood of the Sörnäinen district. The festival dates have always been in either June or July.
Unia, released on 25 May 2007, is the fifth full-length studio album by the power metal band Sonata Arctica, following the album Reckoning Night. The first single from the album was "Paid in Full", released on 27 April 2007. This is also the last album that features guitarist Jani Liimatainen, who was later replaced by Elias Viljanen after the album was released.
Anssi Kippo is a Finnish record producer and sound engineer, known for his work in the Finnish Heavy metal music scene. Kippo founded Astia Studios in 1994 and has produced and engineered many musical acts over the years. Kippo continues to manage both Astia A and B studios.
Sauna Open Air Metal Festival, shortly Sauna Open Air or just Sauna, was one of the largest music festivals dedicated only to heavy metal and related styles of rock music in the Nordic countries. It was first arranged in 2004 and takes place in the Ratinanniemi park in Tampere, Finland. From 8 June to 10 June 2006, over 20,000 people arrived to watch such bands as Cradle of Filth, Finntroll, Iggy & The Stooges, Lordi, Twisted Sister and W.A.S.P.
This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal in the year 2001.
Summer Breeze Open Air is an annual German heavy metal music festival. It was first held in 1997. The festival had been held in Abtsgmünd until 2006 when it was moved to its new location of Dinkelsbühl, Bavaria. The festival draws around 40,000 attendees annually.
MetalDays is a heavy metal music festival held annually in Lake Velenje, Velenje, Slovenia. From 2004 till 2022 it was held in Sotočje, Tolmin, Slovenia. The festival has been more popular every year with more media coverage, and has seen bands like Megadeth, Slayer, Amon Amarth, Volbeat and Sabaton and many more play at the festival. In 2010 the tickets were limited to 12,000, but with the new location, the limit has been increased to 25,000. MetalDays is also known for its sustainability and ecology initiatives and has won a greener future award 5 years in a row.
Jalometalli Metal Music Festival was a Finnish heavy metal festival held annually in Oulu since 2002. The festival mainly featured old school thrash metal, death metal, and black metal bands.
Ankkarock was a Finnish rock and metal festival held annually in Korso, Vantaa, in the Greater Helsinki area. It literally translates into Duckrock. The first Ankkarock was held in 1987. The festival was free of charge until 1998.
Mikko Härkin is a Finnish power metal keyboardist, who has performed with Sonata Arctica and Kenziner.
The Starlite Room is a 1925 brick building in Downtown Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, one block south of Jasper Avenue, the city's main street. The building was originally built as a "citadel" for the Salvation Army. By 1965 it was converted into the first venue of the Citadel Theatre company, with the company taking its name from the name of the building. After the company moved to a new purpose-built theatre building on Churchill Square in 1978, the building was converted to a concert hall and bar. The concert venue inside was for many years named the Rev Cabaret. Under this name, it hosted a variety of concerts including early 1990s shows of then-unknown American bands Nirvana and Green Day. In 2003 the Rev closed, and was reopened as the Starlite Room in 2004, which operates as a members-only club. The lounge/bar downstairs is called "River City Revival House" which opened in 2018.
Pariah's Child is the eighth studio album by Finnish power metal band Sonata Arctica. It was released on 28 March 2014 by Nuclear Blast. It is the first Sonata Arctica release with new bassist Pasi Kauppinen, who replaced Marko Paasikoski.
Qstock is a two-day music festival organised annually at the end of July in Kuusisaari, Oulu. In way, the event is a successor to Kuusrock Festival which took place in the same surroundings from the 1970s to early 1990s.
