Immortal Souls
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Immortal Souls is a melodic death metal band from Kokkola Finland. For years they were quite unknown because their first label Little Rose didn't have enough resources to promote Immortal Souls too well. It wasn't until 2002 that Immortal Souls begun achieving world wide attention with the help of Dutch label Fear Dark which released their second album. After several years of touring in Middle Europe they created a solid fanbase that made it possible for them to play bigger festivals such as Tuska Open Air Metal Festival. Their musical style is characterized by their use of melodic guitar riffs and singing which shifts between growls and shouting. Their music has been called winter metal since Immortal Souls utilizes frosty metaphors in their lyrics and usually creates a cold, wintery atmosphere. Their new album Wintereich was released in Europe on June 1, 2007 through Dark Balance and in the USA on August 21, 2007 through Facedown Records.
History
Beginning
December 1991 Aki Särkioja (bass, growl) and Esa Särkioja (guitar) founded Immortal Souls. In the years 1992-1994 Immortal Souls recorded some demotapes including a tape called Vision Of Hell (1993). These demos have never been officially published. In the year 1994 drummer Antti Nykyri joined the band. At the end of January 1995 the band recorded a demo tape called Immortal Souls, which included six songs. The demo made 100 copies and it contained straightforward heavy metal with growl vocals. After the Immortal Souls demo, all of the band's album covers have had a wintery theme in the artwork. Nykyri left the band after one year due to other personal interests.
Doom metal period
In the years 1995-1996 Immortal Souls wrote new songs and shaped their musical style. At the time, band members were interested in doom metal-style and with that influence they recorded their most depressing and oppressive demo called Reflections Of Doom in November 1996. The most stylish output of the doom metal experiments was a song called “Realm Of Hatred”. In the recording sessions Immortal Souls had to use a drum machine, because a new drummer Jupe Hakola was signed in a couple of months after the recording sessions. The song “Hate Sender” was published in the TOB zine's 7- inch vinyl record. The song “I`am Me” was published later in the From Kaamos To Midnight Sun – compilation album. Also songs Hate Sender, I am Me and Realm Of Hatred can be found in Once Upon A Time In The North – compilation album as a remastered versions.
Record deal with Little Rose
After the release of the demotapes, Immortal Souls signed a record deal with a Finnish record label called Little Rose Production. At that time the band had already left behind the doom metal influences and their musical style had changed to fast, melodic death metal and the winter theme in the lyrics had settled as a regular. Their first recording with the new style was Divine Wintertime EP in the year 1998. It was published as a split –CD with the dark metal band called Mordecai (Through The Woods, Towards The Dawn - EP). This publication got a lot of appreciation among the metal fans and the song “Snow Soul” became one of the most top-rated Immortal Souls song.
Growing amount of gigs required an increase in band members. In the year 2000 Pete Loisa (rhythm guitar) joined the group when the band was preparing to record their first full length studio album. From the material of the February 2000 studiosessions at the Studio Watercastle, was first published the Cleansing EP which gave a taster of the forthcoming album. Debut album Under the Northern Sky was published in the year 2001 and it's perhaps still the most top-rated Immortal Souls album. At that time Little Rose Productions was closing their operation, so the band started to search for another publisher.
Record deal with Fear Dark
Immortal Souls had already connections (as a distributor) to the record label called Fear Dark from Netherlands, so the deal was easy to make for the band and for the record company. After signing the deal, the band made a Central European tour. They also became a regular performer in the record labels` annual Fear Dark Fest - events. After the tour Immortal Souls started to wrote new material and in November 2002 they went to Studio Sonic Pump to record the next album called Ice Upon the Night. This album made the band more known also in Finland and it opened the opportunity to perform in the Tuska Open Air- metal festival in Helsinki. This album is licensed to the US and Canada by the Facedown Records in the year 2004.
Band made occasional gigs through the year. Drummer Jupe Hakola decided to leave the band and he was replaced by Jukka-Pekka Koivisto. But Jukka-Pekka Koivisto had to leave the band after Germany-Switzerland tour `cause he was busy with his other band Silent Voices new album recordings. The band found a new drummer from the close friends circle, in early 2005, when Juha Kronqvist joined Immortal Souls. Because the Immortal Souls publications had been sold out long time ago, the Fear Dark decided to publish them as remastered versions in the Once Upon A Time In The North 2 CD-compilation album at the end of 2005. From the label request, Aki Särkioja wrote the publication history in to the compilation CD cover booklet.
New album
The band started to write new material and played occasional gigs at the same time. In 2006, Immortal Souls announced at their website that they were working on a storybased concept album, which was to be called Wintereich. The band went to the studio in December 2006. The album was mastered in the first quarter of 2007. The new label Dark Balance based released Wintereich on June 1, 2007. Like the album Ice Upon The Night in 2004, Wintereich has been distributed by Facedown Records and was released in the U.S. in August 21 of 2007.
Music
Immortal Souls music is typically fast, technical melodic death metal of Scandinavian school. The lead guitar solos sets as a part of the accompaniment in both singing and virtuoso riffs and fast playing techniques. Riffs, tones and licks are melodic and stick to classical harmonies. The drumming is based on double bass and blast beats. The vocals are guttural and atonal in the middle pitch.
The texts of Immortal Souls deals experiences and motives of the Christian faith, and the visual language is based on the Nordic winter nature and sometimes on Finnish folklore.
Discography
- 1995 – Immortal Souls
- 1997 – Reflections of Doom
- 1998 – Divine Wintertime
- 2000 – The Cleansing EP
- 2001 – Under the Northern Sky
- 2003 – Ice Upon the Night
- 2004 – Ice Upon the Night - US Version
- 2005 – Once Upon a Time in the North
- 2007 – Wintereich
Members
Current members
- Aki Särkioja – Vocals, Bass
- Esa Särkioja – Lead Guitar
- Pete Loisa – Rhythm Guitar
- Juha Kronqvist – Drums
Former members
- Antti Nykyri – Drums (1994-1995)
- Jupe Hakola – Drums (1996-2004)
- Jukka-Pekka Koivisto – Drums (2005)
References
- Van Pelt, Doug (1999). "Indie Album Reviews: IMMORTAL SOULS / MORDECAIB". HM Magazine (77). ISSN 1066-6923. Retrieved 2007-04-24.
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