Norther

[nawr-ther]

Norther is a melodic death metal band from Espoo and Helsinki, Finland whose style incorporates elements of heavy metal and power metal. Many critics often compare Norther's sound (particularly of their first album) to that of Children of Bodom.

History

The band began in early 1996 under the name of Requiem, and was assembled by guitarist Petri Lindroos and drummer Toni Hallio, accompanied by two other musicians. In the beginning, the band suffered from the lack of a proper rehearsal place, but in late 1997, guitarist Alexander Kuoppala (ex-Children of Bodom) found a suitable place for them to practice at Lepakko; around this time the band decided to change their name from Requiem to Decayed. Their luck was short-lived, however, as their new rehearsal place was soon to be demolished. The musicians who played with Lindroos and Hallio soon lost their motivation and quit Requiem.

After a few months, the band managed to find another rehearsal place, and began looking for members to complete their line-up. After quite a few auditions, they were unable to find musicians that they deemed fit to play with them, and thus went on a hiatus, which lasted until the beginning of 2000, when they met guitarist Kristian Ranta. The band became active once more, and with the help of two guys who were friends of Ranta - Sebastian Knight and Joakim Ekroos - the band recorded their first demo in November 2000 entitled Warlord, for the first time using the name "Norther". A promising demo led them to signing a deal with Spinefarm Records.

Due to internal problems, Ekroos and Knight left the band; this lead Norther into finding its first stable formation when bassist Jukka Koskinen and keyboardist Tuomas Planman joined the band.

When the album Dreams of Endless War was recorded and released in 2002, Norther received a positive response from the specialized press and began playing gigs in the Helsinki area. Following this, the band maintained a prolific release schedule, releasing the albums Mirror of Madness (2003), Death Unlimited (2004), Till Death Unites Us (2006), and N (2008) as well as the singles Released (2002), Unleash Hell (2003), Spreading Death (2003), and Scream (2006), the Mini-DVD single Spreading Death, and the EPs Solution 7 (2005), and No Way Back (2007).

In October 2005, drummer Toni Hallio left the band, leaving guitarist/vocalist Lindroos as the only remaining original member. Hallio was replaced by Heikki Saari, drummer of Virtuocity.

Norther entered Astia Studios in Lappeenranta, Finland in August/September to record their next full length album. The follow-up to 2006's "Till Death Unites Us" will be produced by Anssi Kippo. The album, N, was released on February 13, 2008. On November 21, 2007, Norther announced they had signed a new record deal with Century Media Records, while Marquee Avalon will distribute albums in Japan. The video for "We Rock" produced by Tunne Productions of Helsinki was released and is available for viewing.

Norther has so far played tours with Dimmu Borgir, Finntroll, Amoral and Turisas.

Other notes

Petri is also a part time guitarist/vocalist of folk metal band Ensiferum, taking the place of former vocalist Jari Mäenpää who left to work on Wintersun. Jukka Koskinen is also the bass player of Finnish Metal band Wintersun.

Band line-up

Current members

Petri Lindroos − harsh vocal, guitar (1996−present)
Kristian Ranta − guitar, clean vocals (2000−present)
Heikki Saari − drums (2005−present)
Jukka Koskinen − bass (2000−present)
Tuomas Planman − keyboards, synthesizers (2000−present)

Former members

Toni Hallio − drums (1996−2005)
Tuomas (Stubu) − bass (1996−1997)
Roni Korpas − guitar (1996−1999)
Sebastian Knight − keyboard (2000)
Joakim Ekroos − bass (2000)

Discography

Studio albums

Demos and EPs

Warlord (2000)
Solution 7 (2005)
No Way Back (2007)

Singles

Released (2002)
Unleash Hell (2003)
Spreading Death (2004)
Spreading Death (DVD) (2004)
Scream (2006)

Warlord

Warlord is the first and only demo by the Finnish melodic death metal band Norther, which was self-released in November 2000. Warlord was mixed in only a few hours and features a cover song of Skid Row, "Youth Gone Wild". The song "Warlord" was renamed to "Endless War" and is identical to the song from, Dreams of Endless War.

Track listing

"Towards the Storm" (Instrumental) − 2:14
"Warlord" − 6:42
"The Victorious One" − 5:33
"Youth Gone Wild" (Skid Row cover) − 3:04

Videography

Video	Album	Length
Released	Dreams of Endless War	4:12
Mirror of Madness	Mirror of Madness	4:32
Death Unlimited	Death Unlimited	4:55
Frozen Angel	No Way Back	4:07
We Rock	N	3:57

Covers

"Youth Gone Wild" (Skid Row) − found on Dreams of Endless War, Released (CD single) and Warlord (Demo)
"Final Countdown" (Europe) − found on Dreams of Endless War
"Smash" (The Offspring) − found on Mirror of Madness and Unleash Hell (CD single)
"Tornado of Souls" (Megadeth) − found on Death Unlimited and Spreading Death (CD single)
"Sabotage" (Beastie Boys) − found on N (Japanese version)