Jussi Sydänmaa (born 26 June 1972) is a Finnish guitarist and a former founding member of the rock band

Lordi Lordi () is a Finnish Rock music, rock band. Formed in 1992 by the band's lead singer, songwriter and costume maker Mr Lordi (Tomi Petteri Putaansuu), Lordi are known for wearing monster masks and using horror elements with pyrotechnics during c ...

, performing by the stage name of Amen until his departure in May 2022. He graduated as an Information Technology engineer in 2001 and worked on Lordi's website. Sydänmaa plays Schechter guitars (specifically the Solo II Custom and the Hellraiser Solo II). The municipality of

Mäntsälä Mäntsälä () is a municipality in the province of Southern Finland, and is part of the Uusimaa region. It has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The municipality is unilingually Finni ...

granted Sydänmaa with a statue named "Hard Rock Stone" on 26 June 2006. Sydänmaa has been featured as a special guest on Markus Striegls concert in 2011 and Doro Pesch's concert in 2014. He has also recorded guitar riffs which were used by Ari Pulkkinen to create the soundtrack for the video game '' Shadowgrounds''. His acoustic guitar solos "Amen's Lament to Ra" and "Amen's Lament to Ra ll" were included on Lordi's albums '' Babez for Breakfast'' and '' Scare Force One.''

Biography

Jussi Sydänmaa was born on 26 June 1972 in Espoo, Finland, but spent his childhood and youth in Mäntsälä. He was interested in the guitar even before he began school. Sydänmaa's first contact with the band

Kiss A kiss is the touching or pressing of one's lips against another person, animal or object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely; depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sex ...

was in 1983 with the ''

Lick It Up ''Lick It Up'' is the eleventh studio album by American rock band Kiss (band), Kiss. Before its 1983 release, the band members appeared on MTV without their trademark make-up. It was the first public appearance without make-up by the band, and ...

'' album. He was a passionate fan of Kiss, and he was bullied at school because of this. At the age of 5, Sydänmaa got his first acoustic guitar and started guitar lessons. He enjoyed learning the instrument and how to play songs he liked, but he was too embarrassed to participate in his guitar play test. This experience shook young Sydänmaa, who gave up playing the guitar. Sydänmaa picked the guitar back up ten years later, when he began taking an interest in

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

music. As a young man, Sydänmaa played in various bands. The most promising was the Rag Flag, but they did not attain success. At the age of 25, Sydänmaa had come to the conclusion that the various rock-projects he participated in contributed to his failure. He went on to study newspaper and work in radio and later, commercial media communications. Sydänmaa completed a degree in 2001 in media technology engineering. After graduation, Sydänmaa did not go on to work in that field, as he had joined

in the late 1990s under the stage name "Amen", and they had made their breakthrough in 2002. Because of Lordi's success, Sydänmaa decided to leave the IT engineering work to focus his career with Lordi. In May 2022, he was asked to leave Lordi due to growing tensions between members in the band.

Discography

Lordi

Studio albums * '' Get Heavy'' (2002) * '' The Monsterican Dream'' (2004) * '' The Arockalypse'' (2006) * ''

Deadache ''Deadache'' is the fourth studio album by Finnish rock band Lordi, released in Finland on 29 October 2008. For the release of the album the band renewed their monster outfits. ''Deadache'' was released during the same week in about thirty co ...

'' (2008) * '' Babez for Breakfast'' (2010) * '' To Beast or Not to Beast'' (2013) * '' Scare Force One'' (2014) * '' Monstereophonic (Theaterror vs. Demonarchy)'' (2016) * '' Sexorcism'' (2018) * '' Killection'' (2020) * '' Lordiversity'' (2021) Live albums * ''Market Square Massacre'' (2006) * ''Bringing Back the Balls to Stockholm'' (2007) * '' Recordead Live – Sextourcism in Z7'' (2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amen 1973 births Living people People from Mäntsälä Lordi members Finnish heavy metal guitarists Finnish rock guitarists Lead guitarists 21st-century Finnish guitarists