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Our pal Jules Näveri (Profane Omen, Enemy of the Sun) will be filling in for Niko at next weeks Qstock festival, as Niko can't make it due to personal commitments. Thanks to Jules for helping us out on such short notice! Qstock's saturday (which we will play) is already sold out, so it would have been a huge bummer to have to cancel...
Just to avoid any confusion: Niko WILL perform with us (for the last time) at Tammela on August 23rd.
We are sad to inform you that Niko is leaving Amoral. A while ago he sat us down and told us that he's having serious motivation problems and feels like it's time to do other things. We were in shock, as none of us saw this coming. We were sure Niko was enjoying the ride just as much as we were. We tried reasoning with him, even offering him a year-long break to do whatever else he feels like he needs to do, but quickly realized he had already made his mind.
Of course we were devastated at first. Niko was just as crucial part of the band as the rest of us, and also our frontman, the voice of the band. Was this the end of Amoral? The rest of us discussed this and were happy to see that we all felt that there's no way we're stopping now. We've worked too hard to get where we are, and we enjoy playing together, so why would we give it all up? We decided to look at the bright side of the situation: this would be our chance to pursue in a more melodic direction, something we've wanted for a long time but weren't able to do with Niko. This shouldn't come as a surprise for you who've been following our doings. The "rock n' roll vibe" has been present in our live shows and songs since our second album Decrowning, and especially on the last album Reptile Ride, which had some melodic vocals and a lot of stuff not suitable under the "technical death metal" –tag we've had on us…
We'll leave it to Niko to explain his decision more specifically. Niko, good luck with whatever it is you decide to do in the future. It was a pleasure having you in the band, and you'll always be "one of us", just like your Amoral tattoo suggests.
Niko's last gig with us will be at the "Thrashia Läpi Yön" –festival at Tammela, Finland on August 23rd. After this we'll take a long break from gigs, and start writing the 4th Amoral album. We already have a lot of material to work on, even a couple of songs 99% ready, and we're hyped about how these sound! No release dates or any kind of deadlines have been decided on, as we wanna get this just right. Oh, and we'll probably need to find a new singer too:
We hereby declare that Amoral is looking for a new frontman! Anyone who thinks he might have what it takes to be the new singer of this band, please contact us. We're looking for a charismatic, skillful singer (just growling won't cut it) who's willing to give this his 100% and able to do long studio sessions and tours. If interested, please send us a mail with some info about you, a pic and a sample of your singing (mp3, Youtube link etc). Again, we're NOT looking for a new growler, but a singer with a strong personal voice. More Sebastian Bach, less Glen Benton, so to speak ;) Yes, the 4th Amoral album will be different…
If you wanna give it a shot, mail us at amoralsinger (at) mail.com.
Thank you all for your support, we'll keep you updated!
-Ben, Juffi, Silver & Pekka
"Now mark my words, I'll raise the bar, I'll walk the line… I've just begun." -Amoral, Decrowning
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Hornz!
After hard thinking I have decided to leave Amoral. Nothing has really "happened", but along the years things have become more and more clear to me. To get off the train of one of the most promising bands is not an easy decision to make but I have realized that I am much more comfortable doing my things at a slower pace. Unfortunately a bit slower than the Amoral-pace.
Taking a break and let the rest of the band wait would've felt a bit selfish to me, hence the decision to leave completely. I would love to go on, but I don't want to hold these talented guys. I think it's better to let them find someone with more motivation than wait for mine to come back. I am sure that eventually this is just another big step forward for the band.
Don't get me wrong, I love doing shows and music, even more than before and in more diverse ways than this far, but I need some time to do something else for a while and let the music bubble somewhere in me and just see if something happens later. Maybe something kick-ass, maybe nothing at all.
That's it folks, Nigel Rocklake wants to chill out a bit. I want to thank the present and past members of the band as well as the Amoral fans from all the unique experience during all these years of apocalyptic sci-fi fun. Without you guys I wouldn't be the punk I am now. And well, I'm also very curious to switch to the audience and one day witness the band more solid than ever!
Have a grim summer, and never underestimate the power of the dork side!
Sincerely yours,
Niko Kalliojärvi
A nice little addition to our summer activities: We'll be playing the Qstock festival in Oulu on the 26th of July. Our showtime is 7.20pm on the Koomalava ("Coma Stage"). Other bands playing the same day include Within Temptation, Sturm Und Drang and Witchcraft. See all you Northern metalmaniacs there!
More info at the Qstock website.
We are more than happy to welcome Pekka Johansson to the band as our new bass player! Pekka has been helping us out with our recent live duties, and the vibe’s been great both on and off stage. The dude’s a great bassist, has a killer stage presence and is good company, so we quickly realized we’d need to look no further.
Pekka will be joining the official Amoral forum soon, so you can all pick his brain over there and ask him anything you wanna know...
The Summer is crazy! Well, not that crazy for us this year, as we only have a handful of shows to play, but still. Two gigs for June confirmed:
07.06.08 - Muhelinpurock @ Lieksa (w/ I Walk the Line, Cause For Effect...)
27.06.08 - Nosturi @ Helsinki (Tuska Afterparty w/Battlelore, Morian)
Tickets for the Tuska Afterparty gig are 8€ and are available NOW from Tiketti. The Afterparties have usually been pretty crowded, so make sure you get in and buy your ticket in advance!
Also, Ben will be part of Sweet Little Sister, a Skid Row cover band playing the Tuska Aftertparty on sunday the 29th of June in Virgin Oil Co, so if "stayng out late, doing the rattlesnake shake" is your thing, join the party!
As it’s getting quieter on the gig-front at the Amoral camp, the boys have been amusing themselves with other activites. Juffi joined Crystal Blaze – the prog-metal band he’s been playing gigs with - as a full-time member, and their new demo is available to download on their website. Ben will be standing in for Euge Valovirta on Godsplague’s upcoming gig at Virgin Oil Co, Helsinki on the 11th of April. The Godsplague guys are old friends who Ben just toured with on the Dimebag Beyond Forever tour last December, so even though standing in for Euge is pretty intimidating, he just had to say yes. We’ll see how that one goes...
http://www.crystal-blaze.com
http://www.godsplague.com
We have about a month off, during which we'll continue working on new stuff for the forthcoming album. Or watch a lot of TV, some porn on the web and feel sorry fo ourselves. One or the other... By the end of April it's back to biznez tho, as the rascal trio of King Foo Entertainment - The Amorals, Naildown and Discard - will join forces for two gigs, first in Eurajoki on Friday the 25th and then at Rocktown, Helsinki on Sunday the 26th. Especially the Rocktown gig should be fun: It's been a while since we last played a small venue like this in our home town, so expect a very punk-oriented, intimate & interactive evening with the boys!
Hey hey, my my... just got back from the three-day stint with Amorphis. Damn, that was fun! Thanks to all who showed their support, and a huge thank you to the guys in Amorphis, who couldn't have been nicer to us. It was a pleasure to warm up the stage for you guys! And sorry about that booze-stealing incident...
And now sports: There's a sweet pictorial three pages long in the latest issue of the Finnish metal mag Miasma. Valtteri Hirvonen, our very own Annie Leibowitz, has been travelling with us on our recent Finnish gigs, and some of the better pics ended up in the mag. Lots more can be found from the pic-section on our Myspace site.
Ok, next up is Curium Metal Fest here in our home town. We'll be headlining the second day of the fest, saturday the 15th, with our show starting at midnight. You don't want to miss this one...
Amor x 2! We'll be supporting the legendary Amorphis next week at the following dates:
06.03 Lutakko, Jyväskylä
07.03 Puijonsarvi, Kuopio
08.03 Teatria, Oulu
We have some cool dates coming up in March: Lahti, Oulu, Helsinki and Kerava will feel the love, and some more dates might pop up in the near future. Don't miss the action, buy your ticket in advance from Lippupalvelu (Lahti, Oulu) and Tiketti (Helsinki).
Juffi is happy to announce that from now on he will use Sabian cymbals exclusively. After some serious pondering on which ones will deliver the most Amoral sound, a list of cymbals belonging to his setup will be updated to his member profile. Check them bronze discs out here!
Okay folks, time to let people know who rocks the most. There are two different polls, be a true metalhead and check 'em both!
You've got to feel Berlin... Come one, come all to celebrate the end of the year with us at club Amnesie in Berlin, Germany on the 31st of December. Other bands on the bill are Coercion from Sweden and some local bands we don't yet know more about. The tickets for the event are 18 euros (including one drink), or - for more serious partying - 45 euros, including 25 drinks! Now, is this the best way to end 2007 or what?
More info:
http://www.amnesie-online.de
http://www.bonkers-production.de/kalender/index.php
Hohoho muthafuckas! We'll be playing a special Xmas gig in Helsinki on the 22nd of December. The venue is Virgin Oil Co, and the stage shall be shared with Abduktio. Tickets go for 6€ and are available at the door. We're gonna change the setlist quite a bit from the last Helsinki gig, so it won't get boring to those of you who were at the recent Nosturi show. Come and get yourself into the holiday spirit with The Amorals!
Get your ticket in advance from
Tiketti
Lippupalvelu
Hey hey... it's been a bit quiet here on amoralweb.com lately, sorry about that! There haven't been that much going on after the tour (which was killer - see the tour blog for more on the subject!), everyone's kind of doing their own thing at the moment. It's been a long time since we last had a few weeks break. Some of us are gonna be abroad for a while, some of us are just chillin' at home taking it easy. I have the honor of being part of the annual Dimebag Beyond Forever -tour this year, 8 gigs in tribute of the pink-bearded legend, with all the profits going to charity. So my time is spent on practicing Pantera songs at the moment, mostly...
We have a couple of gigs coming up by the end of the year, and right after new years we'll continue to tour Finland. Dates to be announced soon. Some plans for later 2008, we'll keep you posted.
-Ben & the boys
He'll be this week's guest on YleX's (91.9 mHz) Todistaja X -program from 9pm to 10pm. Tune in to hear what bands and albums along the way have made him the metalhead he is today. You can also listen to it online.
Follow the ass-clowns on tour at http://amoralontheroad.blogspot.com/. We try to update the blog whenever there's an internet access...
The (first) Finnish leg of the "Reptile Ride the Universe" -tour was brought to an end last weekend, when Lahti and Seinäjoki got their share of hard rockin´ & turbo lovin´, Amoral-style. Great fun once again, thanks to all who showed up! And a huge thank you to Eerik Purdon (from Crystal Blaze), who played bass for us for these past eight gigs. Bourbon, you rocked our world!
The European tour will start this saturday, and needless to say we are psyched! Hope to see as many of yous as possible on tour. The bass duties for this tour will be handled by Yrjö "Gäggeri" Gävert, from Chaos Infinitum. We're lucky to have all these talented bass players as friends...
Below some pics from last weekend. Taken again by Valtteri "Anton Corbijn of Finland" Hirvonen.
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MetalFromFinland.com, internet's no. 1 resource on the subject, has named Amoral band of the week! Check it out, there's also a competition going on, they're giving away Reptile Rides...
I want my MTV! Niko and Silver will be guests on this week's Headbanger's Ball (Finnish edition), airing sunday 07.10 at 23.00, re-run wednesday 10.10 at midnight. Dumb-ass jokes guaranteed!
Booya! The album release party with Norther was sold out! It was unbelievably heartwarming celebrating the release of our new album with 900 of our closest friends and family. Thank you guys so much! And a big thank you to our pals Norther for the good company. Friday at Inferno, Tampere was also killer, small club packed with crazy moshpitters. This weekend has been the perfect start for the Reptile Ride touring, fo' shizzle...
Below you'll find some pics from Nosturi, courtesy of Valtteri Hirvonen:
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The dynamic duo will do three clinics together in the near future, Juffi promoting Pearl drums and Ben Jackson guitars. The dates are as follows:
07.09. DLX Music, Tampere
20.09. DLX Music, Kuopio
03.10. DLX Music, Helsinki
All three clinics will start at 4.30pm. Expect demonstrations of some of the new songs, discussion about gear and Q&A. Free entry, welcome!
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Reptile Ride is still hanging tough on the Finnish top 40, now at no. 34. We're positively surprised, as usually smaller metal albums like this spend only the first week in the chart and quickly disappear into oblivion. So again, kudos to all of you who bought it! And if for some weird reason you haven't bought it yet, do so now!
And the good reviews they kept a rollin'... Noise.fi gave Reptile Ride a smooth 5/5, declaring it as "one of the best metal albums of the year". Uutislehti 100 (a free Finnish newspaper, circulation 334 000) gave the album 4/5, with quotes like "the band is is tight shape and in a mood to kill... astonishing guitar playing". Some more new ones:
pavillon666.fr (French): 8,5/10
desibeli.net (Finnish): 4/5
passzio.hu (Hungarian): 9/10
MetalNews.hu (Hungarian): "one of the best albums of 2007"
Also, here's the offical posters for the upcoming Norther/Amoral/Drone european tour:
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Darn people! We were hoping for a spot in the top 40, but this... this is unbelievable! How the hell did we make it into the friggin' top 5?? Thanks so much for everyone who rushed out to buy the album, you really made our day! Let's hope this inspires a few more to go and get the CD, and that the record stores who didn't have the balls to stock it right away will do so now. You can see the official Finnish album chart here.
The response to RR has been really good, it seems like you guys really like it! Keep the comments coming, either to our guestbook or the forum.
Anyway, last friday we played at Jalometalli, which was big fun. Good audience, nice weather and a jacuzzi backstage... what more can you ask for? Thanks to the crazy moshpitters in the front, and everyone else who showed their support! You'll find some pics from the festival here, here and here.
It looks like the lion's share of the media have enjoyed The Ride: Japan's Burrn! gave it a 87/100 (one of the best scores in that issue!), while Finland's no. 1 Metal website Imperiumi declared it "album of the week" with a sweet 9/10. Other good ones:
Metalreview: 5,5/6 ("One of the year's most satisfying albums...")
Stalker: 8/10
Planetheavymetal (German): good!
Evilrockshard (German): very good!
Idioglossia (German): 12/15
Heavyhardes (German): good!
FFM-Rock (German): very good!
U-zine (German): 8/10
Auxportesdumetal (French): 16/20
Badsectors Records (Indonesian): 4/5
It is on now! If you can't find the album from your local record shop, make them order it for you! Or just order it from here, here or here and let us know how it works for you, either on our myspace, guestbook or messageboard...
Spinefarm has put together an e-card for Reptile Ride. Including clips from every song on the CD. Check it out here!
The rumors are all over the net, so we might as well release this official statement ahead of schedule... Yes, Erkki is leaving the band. No big drama behind the scenes: he is simply involved in too many projects to keep up with our hectic pace. And especially now, with a new album coming out and tons of gigs and promotion to do, we need every member's undivided attention on Amoral.
Not one gig will be cancelled because of this: we have a few qualified bass players in line to help us out if needed, and already some very potential candidates for a permanent band member. Though we are gonna take our sweet time before making anyone an official member of the band, that's for sure. You don't just walk right in the Amoral famiglia, you have to earn it...
Erkki will play his last gig with us at Jalometalli, Oulu on August 17th. We wish him all the best with his future projects.
-Ben, Silver, Niko & Juffi
The new Official Amoral webshop is now open! We have lots of new t-shirts, girlies and hoodies coming up so stop by every now and then to check for new gear. Pimp yourself up with AmoralWear here!
The video for "Leave your Dead Behind" is now on Youtube. Take a look and let us know what you think. A high-resolution version can be downloaded from here (Quicktime, right-click and "Save file as...").
Also, the tickets for the Reptile Ride release party are on sale now! Get yours from Tiketti.
2007 © Amoral