Ben Varon (born 18 November 1983) is a Finnish guitarist. He is known as a member and one of the founders of the Finnish

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

band Amoral that was active from 1997 to 2017. In the beginning of 2018, he founded a new heavy metal band, Oceanhoarse.

Early life and influences

Varon started playing guitar when he was 11–12 years old. He had been begging for an electric guitar for about a year, and finally got a Strat copy as a birthday present from his parents. The first few years went by without much progress: He did take a few lessons to get started, but did not really practice much at all. Varon tells in his bio that it was only later when he understood, that if he wanted to go anywhere with his playing, he should start to work on it. Varon is mostly self-taught, but he has taken some lessons over the years. First, when he got started to learn to tune the guitar and to form a

power chord A power chord (also fifth chord) is a colloquial name for a chord in guitar music, especially electric guitar, that consists of the root note and the fifth, as well as possibly octaves of those notes. Power chords are commonly played on am ...

. Then, a few years later when he started actually to practice, he took lessons for a while at Pop & Jazz conservatory in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

. Varon was taught also by Finnish guitarist

Roope Latvala Roope Juhani Latvala (born 25 June 1970) is a Finnish guitarist, best known as the former rhythm guitarist for the band Children of Bodom from 2003 to 2015 and the co-lead electric guitarist for Sinergy. He was also one of the founding members ...

around 2001 about scales and modes, including some of Stone licks in which he was very interested at that time. The biggest influence on Varon's music has been

Slash Slash may refer to: * Slash (punctuation), the "/" character Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slash (Marvel Comics) * Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'') Music * Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band * Nash ...

, guitarist of

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1985. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band comprised vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKa ...

, and

Pantera Pantera () is an American heavy metal music, heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas formed in 1981, and currently comprised of vocalist Phil Anselmo, bassist Rex Brown, and touring musicians Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante. The group's best-kn ...

guitarist

Dimebag Darrell Darrell Lance Abbott (August 20, 1966 – December 8, 2004), best known by his stage name Dimebag Darrell, was an American musician. He was the guitarist of the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan, both of which he co-founded alongside his ...

. Slash, with the pompous ''

Use Your Illusion ''Use Your Illusion'' is a 1998 compilation album by American rock band Guns N' Roses, drawing from the ''Use Your Illusion I'' and '' II'' studio albums. It was only released in the United States, and was primarily sold at Walmart and Kmart, t ...

'' songs, blew Varon's mind up and was the reason for him to start to play guitar. A bit later on, Varon got into Pantera, but Darrell's playing affected him until now. Both the lead and rhythm work of Darrell greatly inspired him. Some other sources of inspiration include

Nuno Bettencourt Nuno Duarte Gil Mendes Bettencourt (born September 20, 1966) is a Portuguese-American guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, and businessman. He became known as the lead guitarist of the Boston rock band Extreme. He has also recorded ...

Randy Rhoads Randall William Rhoads (December 6, 1956 – March 19, 1982) was an American guitarist. He was the co-founder and original guitarist of the heavy metal band Quiet Riot, and the guitarist and co-songwriter for Ozzy Osbourne's first two solo alb ...

and

Zakk Wylde Zachary Phillip Wylde (born Jeffrey Phillip Wielandt; January 14, 1967) is an American musician. He is best known as the lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne and as the founder, lead guitarist, lead singer, songwriter and producer of the heavy meta ...

Career

Amoral (1997–2017)

In 1997, at the age of 14, Varon started to play with Juhana Karlsson (drums), with whom he went to the same school. They started by jamming on a couple of

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

songs. That was the first time Varon played together with another musician. They went jamming as often as possible. Silver Ots joined soon after. Amoral was founded 1997. The band played technical, progressive, melodic, hard rock-oriented metal. The band's fourth album was an about-turn, replacing the dominance of quirky

death metal Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...

with an exemplary display of

riff A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or accompani ...

-driven, heavy, yet melodic power groove and the occasional sing-along chorus. Amoral performed extensively in bars, clubs, festivals and other venues in Finland, Europe, Japan, China, Philippines and the US. The band split up in 2017, after 20 years together. Amoral at Peking Midi Festival 29

Varon has always been involved in the songwriting for Amoral's music. Whilst he contributed alongside Silver Ots on the first four albums, he took after the main responsibility of songwriting and was accompanied by guitarist Masi Hukari on the fifth and sixth albums. The music and lyrics for Amoral's last album ''In Sequence'' Varon wrote mainly alone. In Amoral's first years, Varon had contributed lyrics to a few songs for the band's music. After singer and main lyricists Niko Kalliojärvi's departure in 2008, Varon took over the main responsibility to write lyrics.

Oceanhoarse (2018–present)

In 2016, once Amoral's closing decision was made, Varon started with a new band from zero. After two years work with its music, in the beginning of 2018, the new heavy metal band Oceanhoarse was announced. Oceanhoarse has told they will not use any backgrounds or

synthesizers A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

in their music. The emphasis would be on live-oriented heavy metal. The other members beside Varon are Tommy Tuovinen (MyGrain) on vocals, Jyri Helko (For the Imperium, Warmen) on bass, and Oskari Niemi on drums. The debut single, "The Oceanhoarse", was played first time on Radio Rock on 17 January 2018 and the video was published a day later.

Alcyona Sky (2014–present)

In 2013, after ending Amoral's fifth album ''

Fallen Leaves & Dead Sparrows ''Fallen Leaves & Dead Sparrows'' is the sixth studio album by Finnish heavy metal band Amoral. It was released by Imperial Cassette in Finland on February 14, 2014. It was published by G-Regords and released in the rest of Europe on March 28, 20 ...

'', Varon went on composing the summer-long material that did not fit to Amoral's style (90s rock and acoustic-driven sound of the 70s). In 2014, he founded a new group, Alcyona Sky, to play this music. The other members beside Varon are Micko Hell (Denigrate, Million Dollar Beggars) on vocals, Rale Tiiainen (The Black League, The OHO, Ancara) on drums, and Jyri Helko on bass. Alcyona Sky has released one album, ''Alcyona Sky'', in April 2017. The band later told that the album was released as a one-off project.

Other

From 2007, Varon played at

Dimebag Darrell Lance Abbott (August 20, 1966 – December 8, 2004), best known by his stage name Dimebag Darrell, was an American musician. He was the guitarist of the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan, both of which he co-founded alongside his ...

Beyond Forever tribute act. In 2011, he performed at Tornado's album ''Amsterdamn, Hellsinki''. Varon also plays in Andy McCoy's band Grease Helmet, which was created 2012. Grease Helmet released one album in 2012. 2017 Varon joined to a new musical project, to play guitar in Panorama. Their first single was written by Varon. In 2012, Japanese ''

Young Guitar Magazine ''Young Guitar Magazine'' is a Japanese guitar magazine first published in May 1969 by Shinko Ongaku Shuppansha (now Shinko Music Entertainment), with a focus on folk music. Starting from the 1970s, it started covering hard rock in the 1970s, an ...

'' published 10 pages of Amoral's notes with Varon demonstrating them. Varon was chosen at "Finnish Metal Awards" i
2009
6th
2010
4th an
2011
5th best metal musician in Finland.

Discography

;Studio albums * '' Wound Creations'' (Amoral 2004),

Spinefarm Spinefarm Records is a Finnish independent record label focusing mainly on heavy metal artists. It is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. History Spinefarm Records was originally founded in 1990 by Riku Pääkkönen as a mail-order distrib ...

* '' Decrowning'' (Amoral 2005), Spinefarm * '' Reptile Ride'' (Amoral 2007), Spinefarm * ''

Show Your Colors ''Show Your Colors'' is the fourth studio album by Finnish metal band Amoral. Background Amoral's fourth studio album was announced in November 2008 when the band announced Ari Koivunen as their new front man. On January 21, their first single ...

'' (Amoral 2009), Spinefarm * ''

Beneath Beneath may refer to: * ''Beneath'' (2007 film), directed by Dagen Merrill * ''Beneath'' (2013 film), a thriller film by Larry Fessenden *''Beneath'', a 2013 film directed by Ben Ketai * ''Beneath'' (Amoral album), 2011 *Beneath (Infant Island alb ...

'' (Amoral 2011), Imperial Cassette * ''

'' (Amoral 2014), Imperial Cassette * ''In Sequence'' (Amoral 2016), Imperial Cassette * ''Alcyona Sky'' (Alcyona Sky 2017), Imperial Cassette * "Dead Reckoning" (Oceanhoarse 2021), Noble Demon Records ;Singles * "Leave Your Dead Behind" ( Amoral, 2007) * "Year of the Suckerpunch" (Amoral, 2009) * "Gave Up Easy" (Amoral, 2009) * "

Same Difference Same Difference were an English bubblegum pop duo from Portsmouth, England, made up of siblings Sean Smith and Sarah Smith. They came to prominence in 2007 when they finished third in the fourth series of the ITV talent show, ''The X Factor'' ...

" (Amoral, 2011) * "

Silhouette A silhouette ( , ) is the image of a person, animal, object or scene represented as a solid shape of a single colour, usually black, with its edges matching the outline of the subject. The interior of a silhouette is featureless, and the silhou ...

" (Amoral, 2011) * "If Not Here, Where?" (Amoral, 2013) * "No Familiar Faces" (Amoral, 2014) * "Rude Awakening" (Amoral, 2015) * "The Next One to Go" (Amoral, 2016) * "Around the World" (Panorama, 2017) * "The Oceanhoarse" ( Oceanhoarse, 2018)

References

External links

Oceanhoarse's official webpage

Amoral's official website

Soundschock Interview 2009

RM Media Interview 2012

Guitarhoo! Interview with Ben Varon and Masi Hukari guitarists for Amoral (video) May 1, 2013

Rock Brigade - Interview with Ben Varon, January 22, 2014

Soundscape Magazine - Interview with Ben Varon, March 14, 2014

A guitarist's evolution – Ben Varon's rise from teenage hopeful to playing with Andy McCoy, August 13, 2014
{{DEFAULTSORT:Varon, Ben Living people 1983 births Finnish rock guitarists 21st-century guitarists