Jaska Raatikainen | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Jaska Ilmari Raatikainen |
Also known as | Jaska W. Raatikainen |
Born | Lappeenranta, Finland | 18 July 1979
Genres | Melodic death metal, power metal, neoclassical metal, extreme metal |
Occupation | Drummer |
Years active | 1993–present |
Member of | Mercury Circle |
Formerly of | Children of Bodom |
Website | cobhc |
Jaska Raatikainen (born 18 July 1979) is a Finnish musician, he is best known as the former drummer and co-founder of the melodic death metal band Children of Bodom from 1993 until his departure in 2019. He is currently in the project called Mercury Circle.
His first instrument was the piano, and during most of his childhood also played the French horn in a big band – a fact which later led him to be introduced to Alexander Kuoppala. It was only at the age of 12 that he began playing drums; he had his first double bass pedals before he owned a drum kit. He was inspired by musicians such as Scott Travis (from Judas Priest) and Mikkey Dee (from Motörhead).
When Raatikainen met Alexi Laiho at school in the year of 1993, they realised that they had similar ideas and musical taste. Thus, they began playing together and idealizing their band Inearthed which would one day become Children of Bodom. The band released their first demo, Ubiquitous Absence of Remission, which he contributed some keyboards. Jaska played a vital role in the formation of the band, since he was the one who brought both Alexander Kuoppala and Janne Wirman to their line-up. Jaska also provided backing vocals on the songs "Warheart", "Black Widow", and "Children of Bodom" from his band's album, Hatebreeder .
He has also helped quite a few bands when they needed a competent drummer. During Sinergy's 2000 European tour, he replaced Tommi Lillman, who had injured his leg. The problem, however, was that this happened three days before the start of the tour, which meant that Raatikainen had to quickly learn how to play ten of Sinergy's songs. Despite the high degree of difficulty, he managed to perform very well, and fans of both bands enjoyed seeing both Raatikainen and Laiho on stage together with Sinergy. On the Suicide by My Side album's booklet, the band wrote a dedicatory to Raatikainen for, on to their own words, "saving [their] tour".
Raatikainen has also played in Virtuocity and Evemaster albums, but since those are both studio bands, he does not have to worry greatly about Children of Bodom's tour schedule, which already has to be calculated ahead to some extent, due to Laiho's previously active participation in Sinergy.
On the 2002 tribute to Chuck Schuldiner – mastermind of one of the most notable death metal bands of all time, Death – Raatikainen, who is a fan of the band, played a couple of cover songs with Norther. A year later, Raatikainen formed a side project with Norther's guitarist Kristian Ranta entitled Gashouse Garden, which has not yet been signed to any recording label.
Up to the recording of the album Hatebreeder, Raatikainen was endorsed by Sonor drums and by Sabian cymbals. He eventually lost the deal with Sonor and for some time played with different drumsets, until settling with Pearl drums in 2003. His drumsticks are custom Millennium II sticks from Promark with his name engraved on them.
Pearl Reference Redline – Piano Black with Black Chrome Hardware
8"x8" Tom Tom
10"x8" Tom Tom
12"x9" Tom Tom
14"x12" Floor Tom
16"x16" Floor Tom
22"x18" Bass Drum x 2
14"x5" Snare
Cymbals
14" Meinl Byzance Traditional Heavy Hi-Hat x2 (both sides)
20" Meinl Mb20 Heavy Ride (left)
8" Meinl Byzance Traditional Splash x2
18" Byzance Brilliant Medium Thin Crash x2
20" Meinl Byzance Traditional Heavy Ride (right)
20" Byzance Brilliant Medium Crash
18" Byzance Brilliant China
Pearl Hardware
DR-503 Icon Rack + PCX-100 and PCX-200 Rack Clamps
H-2000 Eliminator Hi-hat Stand
Pearl Demon Drive Double Pedal
CLH-1000 Closed Hat
S-2000 Snare drum stand
CH-1000 Cymbal Holders
TH-100S Tom Holders
D-220 Roadster Throne
Sticks
Promark Evelyn Glennie 740 drumsticks
Raatikainen has had some side projects, some of them unrelated to music. In the year of 2000 he was asked by the director of a popular Finnish soap opera (Siamin Tyttö) to play a special part on it. He played a character named Rauli for three episodes, until the character's death. He did have the chance to show some of his drumwork before that happened, though. According to Raatikainen, he had always dreamed of acting, but does not plan to take his career further.
Raatikainen has two brothers; Jussi, who plays for numerous professional Finnish metal bands, as well as Julius, who plays for melodic death metal band Kauna. In early 2010, he became the father of a baby girl.
Raatikainen is a quiet and reserved person who spends a lot of time by himself. Most of the time, he stays in single rooms in hotels and generally picks the beds on upper corners while travelling on tour buses. Interviews with him are rare, and despite being one of the founding members, he lets Laiho and Henkka Seppälä do most of the talking.
Although his last name is Raatikainen, he is not related to Finnish guitarist Sami Raatikainen.
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Alexi Laiho was a Finnish guitarist, composer, and vocalist. He was best known as the lead guitarist, lead vocalist and founding member of the melodic death metal band Children of Bodom, and was also the guitarist for Sinergy, the Local Band, Kylähullut, and Bodom After Midnight, which formed just prior to his death. Laiho had previously played with Thy Serpent and Impaled Nazarene on occasion, as well as Warmen and Hypocrisy.
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Alexander Kuoppala is a Finnish musician who was the guitarist for the melodic death metal band Children of Bodom from 1995 to 2003. He played on their albums Something Wild, Hatebreeder, Follow the Reaper, and Hate Crew Deathroll. He also plays on the Timo Rautiainen album Sarvivuori.
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Trashed, Lost & Strungout is a single and an EP released by the Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom on Spinefarm Records. It was released on 25 October 2004. Unlike most EPs, it was released on CD and DVD. The CD includes 3 other songs and the DVD includes the single and 9 other songs. This track has also appeared in Children of Bodom's album Are You Dead Yet?.
The discography of Children of Bodom, a five-piece melodic death metal band from Espoo, Finland. Throughout their career, the band has been known to incorporate many different musical styles, leading critics and fans to label them as everything from melodic death metal and black metal to thrash metal, progressive metal and even power metal. The band's final line-up before they officially disbanded in 2019 included the founders Alexi Laiho and Jaska Raatikainen (drums) along with Henkka Seppälä, Janne Wirman (keyboards) and Daniel Freyberg. Children of Bodom have released ten studio albums, two live albums, one compilation album, seven singles, two EPs and two split singles. Moreover, in the period 1994–1996 they released three demos under their old moniker, IneartheD. This list includes the material released as IneartheD.
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Children of Bodom was a Finnish melodic death metal band from Espoo. Formed in 1993 as Inearthed, the final line-up of the group upon their split in 2019 consisted of frontman Alexi Laiho, drummer Jaska Raatikainen, bassist Henkka Seppälä, keyboardist Janne Wirman and rhythm guitarist Daniel Freyberg. The band released ten studio albums, three live albums, two EPs, two compilation albums and one DVD.
Skeletons in the Closet is the second compilation album by Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom, released on 22 September 2009 through Spinefarm Records. It consists of various covers of songs, most of which have been released on other releases such as B-sides on Children of Bodom's singles. The album only contains four unreleased covers for the songs "Hell Is for Children", "Antisocial", "War Inside My Head", and "Waiting", but the previously released songs are remixed and new details can be heard. The Japanese edition is pressed in SHM-CD format.
Holiday at Lake Bodom is the third compilation album by Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom, featuring one song from Something Wild, three from Hatebreeder, three from Follow the Reaper, four from Hate Crew Deathroll, four from Are You Dead Yet?, one from Blooddrunk, two from Relentless Reckless Forever, and two previously unreleased cover songs. The DVD portion of the package includes "candid touring and backstage footage from around the world", plus the music video for "Shovel Knockout". The album was released on 22 May 2012.
Halo of Blood is the eighth studio album by Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom. It was released on 7 June 2013 in Europe and 11 June in North America on Nuclear Blast Records. In Japan, the album was released by Marquee Inc. on 29 May 2013. This would be the last album with guitarist Roope Latvala before he was kicked out of the band in May 2015.
Hexed is the tenth and final studio album by Finnish melodic death metal band Children of Bodom. It was released on 8 March 2019.
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