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| Born |
1980 / Sep / 09 |
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| Instrument |
Guitar, Keyboard |
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| Hobbies outside the band |
Music =) |
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| Favourite bands/artists |
Dream Theater, Freak Kitchen, Pain of Salvation... |
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| Favourite guitarists |
John Petrucci, Steve Vai, Mattias "IA" Eklundh, Michael Romeo, Paul Gilbert,
Yngwie |
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| Musical background |
Some guitar lessons a long time ago, lots of self studying... |
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| Born |
1974/ Feb / 19 |
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| Instrument |
Bass |
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| Hobbies outside the band |
Movies, listening to good music, concerts... |
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| Favourite bands/artists |
W.A.S.P., Queensryche, Stratovarius, Danger Danger, Yngwie, Dio, Ratt... and so on... |
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| Favourite bassists |
Eddie Jackson, Jimmy Bain, Jari Kainulainen, Marco Hietala, Blackie Lawless =) |
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| Musical background |
Blaa blaa blaa... and then came Altaria... =) |
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| Born |
1974/ July / 15 |
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| Instrument |
Drums |
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| Hobbies outside the band |
Records, movies, sports (been a little lazy lately) |
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| Favourite bands/artists |
Legendary metal bands... too many to mention... |
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| Favourite drummers |
Tommy Lee, Cozy Powell, Eric Singer, Bobby Blotzer |
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| Musical background |
Been banging on drums since the late 80's in bands like Dreamhunter, SAH,
Blindside and several projects. |
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| Born |
1966/ Feb/ 6 |
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| Instrument |
Vocals |
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| Hobbies outside the band |
Football, Sauna, doing gigs with cover bands |
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| Favourite bands/artists |
Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Queensryche, Whitesnake, Van Halen, Manowar, Government Mule, Thin Lizzy, Ozzy of course... mainly old school stuff. |
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| Favourite vocalists |
Bruce Dickinson, Dio, Halford, Geoff Tate, Ozzy, Ray Gillen, Sebastian
Bach, Seal, Timo Kotipelto, Marco Hietala, P. Rantanen... There's so many
great singers especially in Finland |
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| Musical background |
Started somewhere in 84. Few bands in the 80's. About 100 cover bands in the 90's... Hevinkelium, Kilpi. |
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Altaria's story
began in the beginning of year 2000 when Marko Pukkila and Tony Smedjebacka decided to form a new outfit. Both musicians have participated in the
band called Blindside in the past.
Blindside wasn't active enough, so with the arsenal of few songs and many
aspirations, the duo decided to form the new band.
At the same time, the search for other members has begun.
The first addition
was Johan Mattjus, an old auqintance of Marko, whom Pukkila accidently met on a train. Johan's singing talents were not being used in any band at the time, so Altaria was lucky to obtain a great vocalist.
Next member
to join Altaria was a monster guitar player Jani Liimatainen, of Sonata Arctica fame. Jani was excited about joining Altaria, which
at the time was shaping up as a project. But, what started as fun, quickly
turned into a real band, as great songs began to form and live performances
were very well received.
After the first studio session
was behind, a 3-track demo/promo cd called "Sleeping Visions" was distributed to medias and record companies.
The response was quite good and it made the band to proceed further.
In the beginning of 2002
there were some scheduling problems with Mattjus, so Jouni Nikula was called to help the band during their 2 live shows. Because the gigs went extremly well and both the audience and the band really liked what they heard, Altaria voted for getting Jouni as a permanent member of the band. So, there it was - the first line-up change in Altaria's history.
During the spring 2002
Altaria went again to the studio, recording eight kickass songs. Four of them was released under the name "Feed The Fire", and the whole demo was once again put freely downloadble on the
Internet. Since releasing the new demo, all Altaria's songs leaped on top
50 at MP3.com's charts at the same time! The heavy metal audience can't
be wrong - there's truly some magic on Altaria's songs. In four weeks people
downloaded over 1700 MP3 songs of Altaria.
In June 2002
Altaria signed a promotion & show booking contract with GerMusica. This, with extremly well received new demo, opened some more passages towards getting a record deal. In August, 2002, Altaria signed a contract with AOR Heaven and the debute album called "Invitation" were scheduled to be released in spring 2003.
The Autumn 2002
was busy time for Altaria. The recording sessions of Invitation took their time and the band also made several kick-ass live shows during October and November. The live shows also featured second guitarist, Emppu, and because of the great chemistry between him and the rest of the band, Emppu became soon a permanent member of Altaria.
The recordings of the debute album
were completed in January 2003 and it was mixed after that. Both were completed
at Sonic Pump Studios by Nino Laurenne (Thunderstone, ex-Antidote). The
final touch of the album was the mastering at Finnvox Studios by Mika Jussila.
The release date of Invitation was set for April 28th, 2003.
2003 August
The vocalist Jouni left the band. The new voice for Altaria is Taage. Altaria
plays some gigs in Finland on September.
And ready to prepare for their 2nd album which will be out 2004 May!
2004 January
The guitaist Emppu Vuorinen left the band.
2004 Febuary
Altaria has started the recording of their upcoming new album "DIVINITY".
2004 May
2nd album "DIVINITY" is out to the world.
2005 June
Jani parted ways with Altaria.
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| Sleeping Visions |
Feed The Fire |
Invitation |
Divinity |
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(demo 2002) |
(1st album 2003) |
(2nd album 2004) |
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Emppu Vuorinen
(Guitars)
2002-2004 |
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Jouni Nikula
(Vocals)
2002-2003 |
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Johan Mattjus
(Vocals)
2000-2001 |
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