Miika Tenkula (6 March 1974 – 18 February 2009)Former Sentenced Guitarist's Cause Of Death Revealed
. 26 June 2009. Retrieved on 2009-07-02. was a Finnish heavy metal musician. He was the lead guitarist and the main songwriter for the band

Sentenced Sentenced was a Finnish gothic metal band that played melodic death metal in their early years. The band formed in 1989 in the town of Muhos and broke up in 2005. History Early years (1988–1991) Sentenced started in 1988 as Deformity and c ...

until it disbanded in 2005. He was also the band's original vocalist from 1989 to late 1992.

Death

After Sentenced disbanded, Tenkula withdrew from publicity. On 18 February 2009 he died, in his home town of

Muhos Muhos is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Oulu half an hour's drive (35 km) on route 22 from the city of Oulu, the capital of Northern Finland, and is part of the Northern Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a ...

, of a sudden heart attack caused by genetic heart disease. On 22 February, his former band members remembered him in an obituary published on the official Sentenced website as, "a dear friend, a truly remarkable artist and musician, and the very soul of what used to be Sentenced. Rest now, brother – in your music and our hearts you will live forever." An open memorial was held in the Club Teatria in the city of

Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...

on 18 April 2009. The ceremony featured music and a concert film, ''Buried Alive'', which was the band's last concert and had been filmed in the same location in 2005. Music included Tenkula's favourite artists and cover versions from the Sentenced songs by various Finnish artists. Finnish

melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...

band

Insomnium Insomnium is a melodic death metal band from Joensuu, Finland. The sound and lyrical themes of their music portray darkness, sorrow, loss, pain, and nature. They are primarily a melodic death metal band with occasional elements of doom metal and ...

's song "Weighed Down with Sorrow" from their 2009 album '' Across the Dark'' is dedicated to Tenkula.

References

1974 births 2009 deaths People from Muhos Finnish heavy metal guitarists Alcohol-related deaths in Finland 20th-century guitarists {{guitarist-stub