Henrik "Henkka" Klingenberg (born 21 October 1978) is a Finnish keyboardist, keytarist and singer. He joined the Finnish

power metal Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contra ...

band

Sonata Arctica Sonata Arctica is a Finnish power metal band from the town of Kemi, Finland. Created as a hard rock band named Tricky Beans, they later changed to Tricky Means and finally to Sonata Arctica, when they shifted to power metal. The current lineup c ...

in late 2002 and currently resides in Kemi, Finland, when not on tour. Keyboardists he has listed as his favourites include

Kevin Moore Kevin Moore (born May 26, 1967) is an American keyboardist, composer, and founder of the Chroma Key music project. He is also a former member of the American progressive metal/ rock band Dream Theater, co-founder of the progressive rock supe ...

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Jens Johansson Jens Ola Johansson (born 2 November 1963 in Stockholm) is a Swedish keyboardist and pianist who currently plays in the Finnish power metal band Stratovarius and Ritchie Blackmore's rock project Rainbow. He is notable for his high-speed neoclas ...

and Matt Guillory. He claims that his musical inspiration is taken from life itself.

Career

Although his main involvement is with Sonata Arctica, he is also a member of the band Silent Voices and a

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 gam ...

/ groove metal band called Mental Care Foundation (in which he is the vocalist rather than the keyboardist). He has also recently started a

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 heavine ...

side project In popular music, a side project is a project undertaken by one or more people already known for their involvement in another band. It can also be an artist or a band temporarily switching to a different style. Usually these projects emphasize ...

called Graveyard Shift as vocalist with his former Sonata Arctica bandmate

Jani Liimatainen Jani Allan Kristian Liimatainen (born 9 September 1980) is a Finnish musician, songwriter and backing vocalist, currently a member of melodic death metal band Insomnium. He is the former guitarist and one of the founding members of the power m ...

. Before joining

, he had participated in a large enough number of bands that he does not list on his bio page on the official

website. His most well-known previous band was a progressive power metal band called Requiem, with whom he recorded two albums and contributed keyboards. Henrik plays a shoulder-mounted controller keyboard (formerly the Roland AX-1, then the

Roland AX-7 The Roland AX-7 is a keytar that was manufactured by Roland Corporation from 2001 to 2007. This modern instrument contains many more advanced features than early keytars such as its predecessor, the Roland AX-1, and the Yamaha SHS-10. It runs on ...

, then AX-1 again and now the Roland AX-Synth) and a Kurzweil, Korg KARMA or

Korg Triton The Korg Triton is a music workstation synthesizer, featuring digital sampling and sequencing, released in 1999. It uses Korg's HI Synthesis tone generator and was eventually available in several model variants with numerous upgrade options. The ...

synthesizer. Recently he started to use Korg M3 instead of the Korg Karma. August 2009 in Lowlands his gear was just painted Roland AX-1 and Korg M3 and no racks. This seems to be his live gear from now on. He is endorsed by Korg and Roland (updated 16 September 2009) On a European leg of 2009 Henkka started using new Roland AX-Synth (painted violet) instead of his old AX-1 (updated 24 December 2009). In February 2012 he released his first solo album, ''...And the Weird Turned Pro'', in which fellow Sonata Arctica bandmates Elias Viljanen and Pasi Kauppinen play the guitar and the bass, respectively (though Kauppinen was still not a member of the band). They are also joined by Finnish drummer

Jari Huttunen Jari Huttunen (born 28 February 1994) is a Finnish rally driver from Kiuruvesi. He currently competes in the World Rally Championship-2, the premier support category of the World Rally Championship, for M-Sport Ford World Rally Team. He gained ...

Personality

Sonata Arctica chose Klingenberg to join after spending time

drinking Drinking is the act of ingesting water or other liquids into the body through the mouth, proboscis, or elsewhere. Humans drink by swallowing, completed by peristalsis in the esophagus. The physiological processes of drinking vary widely am ...

with him and another candidate, since they wanted the newcomer to fit in with the other band members' socially as well as musically. During live shows, Klingenberg's keytar allows him to add more energy and movement to the band's performances and he often wanders the stage whilst playing, in the same way that guitarists often do. On the Sonata Arctica live DVD '' For the Sake of Revenge'', Klingenberg smashed his hand painted Roland AX-7 several times into the floor of the stage in an event that was referred to as 'The End of this Keyboard' (a reference to the band's song 'The End of this Chapter'). This act mirrored the instrument-destroying antics of

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...

as well as being a cliché of rock and

metal music Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With roots in blues rock, psychedelic rock and acid rock, heavy metal bands developed a ...

and it showed Klingenberg to be a more traditional rock or metal performer. In the documentary ''Men of the North in the Land of the Rising Sun'', Klingenberg is shown wearing a

traffic cone Traffic cones, also called pylons, witches' hats, road cones, highway cones, safety cones, channelizing devices, construction cones, or just cones, are usually cone-shaped markers that are placed on roads or footpaths to temporarily redirect tra ...

on his head, which has become a trademark of sorts for fans.

References

External links

Official Sonata Arctica websiteHenrik's profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klingenberg, Henrik 1978 births Living people People from Mariehamn People from Kemi Finnish heavy metal keyboardists Finnish keyboardists Swedish-speaking Finns Finnish heavy metal singers Sonata Arctica members