Ajattara is a

sextet A sextet (or hexad) is a formation containing exactly six members. The former term is commonly associated with vocal ensembles (e.g. The King's Singers, Affabre Concinui) or musical instrument groups, but can be applied to any situation where six ...

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...

band from

Helsinki, Finland Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city' ...

led by

Pasi Koskinen Pasi Koskinen (born January 1972) is a Finnish metal vocalist and musician, currently the vocalist and guitarist of the band Datura Nemesis (2013–), but he is perhaps best known as the vocalist of the band Amorphis (1995–2004). Koskinen wa ...

(ex Amorphis). They formed in 1996, split up in 2012, and reformed in 2016. They were signed to Spinefarm Records and have released eight albums, their most recent being '' Lupaus'', which was released in May 2017.

History

Ajattara formed in 1996 as a side project of Amorphis singer

.Rivadavia, Eduardo " Ajattara Biography, Allmusic, Macrovision Corporation Their first release was a demo tape entitled ''Helvetissä on syntisen taivas'' which was released in 1998. The band then signed to

Spikefarm Records 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 ...

and went on to release three albums - ''

Itse ''Itse'' (Finnish "self") is the debut studio album by the Finnish dark metal band Ajattara. It was released in 2001 on Spikefarm Records. Track listing Personnel * Ruoja - vocals, guitars, keyboards * Atoni - bass * Malakias I - drums Additio ...

'' in 2001, ''

Kuolema ''Kuolema'' (''Death'') is a drama by the Finnish writer Arvid Järnefelt, first performed on 2 December 1903. He revised the work in 1911. The play is notable for its incidental music: a group of six compositions created by the author's broth ...

'' in 2003 and ''

Tyhjyys ''Tyhjyys'' (Finnish for ''"emptiness"'') is the third studio album by the Finnish dark metal band Ajattara. It was released in 2004 on Spikefarm Records. Track listing Personnel * Ruoja - vocals, guitars, keyboards * Atoni - bass * Malakias II ...

'' in 2004. These albums were met with largely good reviews. Ajattara released the Christmas singles "Ilon juhla" in November 2004 and "Joulu" in November 2005. The band then went on to release another album in 2006, entitled ''

Äpäre ''Äpäre'' (Translation from Finnish to English: Don't Worry) is the fourth studio album by the Finnish dark metal band Ajattara. It was released in 2006 on Spikefarm Records. Track listing Personnel Ajattara * Ruoja – vocals, and rhyt ...

'', which was met with similar reviews as their last three albums. The band continued with the Christmas single tradition of 2004 and 2005 by releasing a single entitled ''Sika'' in 2006. The band entered the studio on 1 June 2007 to begin recording on the album ''

Kalmanto ''Kalmanto'' is the fifth studio album by the Finnish dark metal band Ajattara. It was released in 2007 on Spikefarm Records. Track listing Personnel * Ruoja - vocals, guitars, producer, cover art (painting) * Tohtori Kuolio - bass, backing v ...

'' which was released on 5 September 2007. However, this album was not met with such good reviews as Ajattara's other albums, as some critics said the album sounded chaotic and forced. In April 2009 Ajattara released their sixth album entitled ''

Noitumaa ''Noitumaa'' is the sixth studio album by the Finnish dark metal band Ajattara. It was released in 2009 on Spinefarm Records. The album differs from the other Ajattara albums by being fully acoustic. Track listing Personnel * Ruoja - vocals, ...

'', this time being an all-acoustic album, which received clearly better reviews than the previous release. In 2011 the band released their seventh studio album ''

Murhat ''Murhat'' (Finnish for ''"murders"'') is the seventh studio album by the Finnish dark metal band Ajattara Ajattara is a sextet black metal band from Helsinki, Finland led by Pasi Koskinen (ex Amorphis). They formed in 1996, split up in 2012 ...

''. The band made an announcement on its

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page on 15 April 2012 that it had split up for reasons unknown. On 23 March 2016 the band made an announcement on their

page that they will be playing at the Norwegian Blastfest in February 2017. Shortly after, on 9 May 2016, Pasi Koskinen announced the reunion of the band, announcing further live dates including Nummirock 2016 in Finland and Satan's Convention 2017 in Germany. In May 2017 the band released '' Lupaus'', their eighth studio album and first since their reformation.

Musical style

Ajattara combine elements of

to produce a style of black metal not dissimilar to

Celtic Frost Celtic Frost () was a Swiss extreme metal band from Zürich. They are known for their strong influence on the development of extreme metalBukszpan, Daniel. ''The Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal''. Barnes & Noble Publishing, 2003. p.43 and avant-ga ...

, and to a lesser extent Samael. The combined use of synthesisers and heavy guitar sounds give Ajattara a distinct sound. The lyrical themes of Ajattara usually deal with death, evil and

paganism Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christianity, early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions ot ...

Line-up

Current members

* Ruoja ―

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

(1996-2012, 2016-present)

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

(1996-2009);

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

(1996-2004) * Kalmos (Vesa Wahlroos) ―

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

(2006-2012, 2016-present) * Tohtori Kuolio ―

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, backing vocals (2007-2012, 2016-present) * Raajat (Janne Immonen) ― keyboards, backing vocals (2007-2012, 2016-present) * Tartunta (Mynni Luukkainen) ― rhythm guitar (2009-2012, 2016-present) * Malakias 6,8 (Rainer Tuomikanto) ―

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

(2011-2012, 2016-present)

Session member

*Lempo (Iiro Illman) ―

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

(2018-)

Former members

Guitar

* Ismonster ( Ismo Liljelund) - ? * Samuel Lempo ( Tomi Koivusaari) - (2005-2006)

Bass

* Atoni ( Toni Laroma) - (1996-2007)

Keyboards

* Ikkala ( Jarmo Ikala) - ? * Akir Kalmo ( Aki Räty) - ? * Irstas ( Kalle Sundström) - (2004-2007)

Drums

* Orpo ( Pekka Kasari) - ? * Malakias I ( Pekka Sauvolainen) - (1996-2003) * Malakias II ( Jan Rechberger) - (2003-2004) * Malakias III ( Atte Sarkima) - (2004-2007) * Malakias IV ( Tonmi Lillman) - (2007–2011) † (died in 2012)

Timeline

Discography

Studio albums * ''

'' (2001) * ''

'' (2003) * ''

'' (2004) * ''

'' (2006) * ''

'' (2007) * ''

'' (2009) * ''

'' (2011) * '' Lupaus'' (2017) Compilation albums * ''Joululevy'' (2009) Demo albums * ''Helvetissä on syntisen taivas'' (1998) Singles * "Ilon juhla" (2004) * "Joulu" (2005) * "Sika" (2006) * "Tulppaani" (2007)

References

External links

Ajattara's official website

Ajattara's page on Spinefarm Records

Ajattara's page on MySpace

Ajattara's page on the Encyclopedia Metallum

Ajattara's page at Last.fm

Ajattara
at Metal From Finland {{DEFAULTSORT:Ajattara Finnish black metal musical groups Musical groups from Helsinki Musical groups established in 1996 Musical quintets