Throne of Chaos (TOC) were a heavy metal band from

Espoo Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, active from 1996 to 2005. Their early sound, as recorded on their debut album ''Menace and Prayer'', has been described as

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 ...

, having musical characteristics reminiscent of fellow Finns

Children of Bodom 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 Alexi Laiho (lead guitar, lead vocals), Jaska Raatikainen (drums), Henkka Sep ...

. For their second album, ''Pervertigo'', the band migrated to a sound more heavily influenced by

thrash Thrash may refer to: *Thrashing (computer science), where increasing resources are used to do a decreasing amount of work *Thrash (surname) *Thrash, mascot of the Atlanta Thrashers *''Thrash Rally'', a top-down perspective rally racing video game ...

and

progressive metal Progressive metal (sometimes shortened to prog metal) is a broad :Fusion music genres, fusion music genre melding heavy metal music, heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified electric guitar, guitar-driven s ...

. For their final album, the progressive-leaning ''Loss Angeles'', released on

InsideOut Music Inside Out Music is a German independent record label originally based in Kleve, North Rhine-Westphalia, and dedicated to the publication of progressive rock, progressive metal and related styles. In 2009, it formed a partnership with Century Me ...

, the band shortened their name from Throne of Chaos to TOC. Taneli Kiljunen originally performed all vocals before damaging his throat and being unable to sing for an extended period. Because of this, ''Pervertigo'' was performed with the help of two session vocalists: Pasi Nykänen, also of

Warmen Warmen is a Finnish heavy metal band assembled by keyboardist Janne "Warman" Wirman. Wirman has played with Children of Bodom from 1997 until their disbandment in 2019, and in 2000 created a musical project focused on instrumental work, which ...

, and

Niklas Isfeldt Dream Evil is a Swedish heavy metal band, assembled by producer Fredrik Nordström in 1999. History Producer Fredrik Nordström had the ambition of creating a power metal band of his own for a long time, but had difficulty finding anyone ...

, vocalist with

Dream Evil Dream Evil is a Swedish heavy metal band, assembled by producer Fredrik Nordström in 1999. History Producer Fredrik Nordström had the ambition of creating a power metal band of his own for a long time, but had difficulty finding anyone ...

, and

Pure X Pure may refer to: Computing * A pure function * A pure virtual function * PureSystems, a family of computer systems introduced by IBM in 2012 * Pure Software, a company founded in 1991 by Reed Hastings to support the Purify tool * Pure-FTPd, F ...

. For ''Loss Angeles'', Tuomas Nieminen was added to the band with Taneli offering occasional bursts of harsh vocals. Despite the radical evolution of their sound over their decade of existence, as well as favourable reviews for their final album, the band, unable to make commercial headway, called it quits in August 2005.

Discography

Albums

* ''Menace and Prayer'' (2000) * ''Pervertigo'' (2002) * ''Loss Angeles'' (2003)

Singles, EPs & demos

* ''Equilibrium'' (Demo, 1996) * ''Fata Morgana'' (EP, 1997) * ''Truth and Tragedy'' (Single, 2002)

References

External links

* Finnish heavy metal musical groups Century Media Records artists Musical groups established in 1996 Musical groups disestablished in 2005 {{Finland-band-stub