Lordi
Lordi is a Finnish rock band from Rovaniemi. The band was formed in 1992 by the band's lead singer, songwriter and costume maker Mr Lordi, and are known for wearing monster masks and using horror elements with pyrotechnics during concerts and music videos. The band rose to fame in 2002 with their hit single "Would You Love a Monsterman?", and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with their song "Hard Rock Hallelujah".
Lordi has toured and recorded actively since 2002, and Mr Lordi upgrades the band's costumes and masks for each album. The band has gone through several line-up changes with Mr Lordi being the only consistent member of the band since their foundation. Members of Lordi have stated their desire for their unmasked faces to remain private.
History
1992–2002: Formation
Lordi was formed in 1992 as a solo project by Mr Lordi. Lordi's first demo album Napalm Market was done in 1993. The album included the song "Inferno", which also got a music video, all done by Mr Lordi. In the music video, Mr Lordi performed unmasked but he had made monster make-up for his friends who played secondary roles in the video. After the video was done, Mr Lordi got an idea of a band of monsters. "Inferno" was later released in the Finnish "Rockmurskaa" compilation album in 1995. In 1996 Mr Lordi organized a Kiss cruise for Finnish Kiss fans from Finland to Sweden. During the cruise, he met musicians Amen and G-Stealer and told them about his music project called Lordi. After the cruise, they joined the band. One year later Enary joined the band on keyboard and the band recorded their first album, Bend Over and Pray The Lord. At the time when the album was recorded, the band didn't have a drummer and they used MIDI drum tracks in place of a real drummer.Ari Tiainen, the owner of their record company, had originally planned to publish the album; however, the company did not have sufficient resources to market it. Tiainen recommended Lordi to the record label Kimmo Hirvonen's Records, owned by Anaconda. The album was planned to release in early 1999, but Anaconda Records went bankrupt shortly before the planned release date and the album was never released.
The band never performed with the original line-up, though they had been promised a record release gig in 1999. During the same year, G-Stealer left the band because of work commitments and was replaced by Magnum, whom Mr Lordi had met via Kiss Army Finland. In 2000, drummer Kita joined and the band got their first drummer.
2002–2006: ''Get Heavy'', success in Europe and ''The Monsterican Dream''
After several failed attempts at obtaining a recording contract, Lordi signed a record deal with Bertelsmann Music Group Finland in 2002. In July, the band released their first official single, "Would You Love A Monsterman?", which rose to number one in Finland and spawned a music video. During the summer the band went under the auspices of producer TT Oksala's Finnvox Studios to record their first official album, though the debut recording ran into several problems.In the autumn of 2002, bassist Magnum was fired and replaced by Kalma. Though Lordi's debut album had already been recorded when Kalma joined, he appeared in the album art and the composition of the accounts. Their debut album Get Heavy was released in November, with a cover design loosely based on Kiss's Love Gun album. The original first sketch of the cover was based on Kiss's Destroyer album. The album won the 2003 Emma award for best domestic hard rock or heavy metal album, and Get Heavy has sold more than 67,000 copies. It was certified platinum in Finland in 2003 and multi-platinum in 2006.
Lordi played their first gig on 8 December 2002, in Helsinki at the Nosturi Club. In 2003, Lordi appeared at several music events in Finland and abroad, especially in Germany, where they played as a part of the Wacken Road Show. During some of the Germany tour, Lordi played as Nightwish's support act. The tour boosted both bands' popularity in Germany and helped them sign a recording contract with the German record company Drakkar. Nightwish had already achieved solid success with joint concerts in Germany and Lordi also raised their profile in Germany.
At the beginning of 2004, Lordi began recording their second studio album. This time the album was produced by Hiili Hiilesmaa, with whom the band got along well. This second album was first released on 14 April 2004 as The Monsterican Dream. Two songs from the album, "My Heaven is Your Hell" and "Blood Red Sandman", had been released as singles. Corresponding with the release of the album, the band's costumes and image were also reformed. The special edition of the album also contained a DVD of the band's own short film, The Kin. The film, despite the success of the album it was attached to, has been poorly received. The album went gold two years after its release.
In February 2005 Lordi's first compilation album The Monster Show was released by Sanctuary Records. Sanctuary had originally intended to market a collection of records in the United States, but these plans were halted due to financial problems. Sanctuary, however, published a compilation album in the UK. In Finland, a collection was published by Sony BMG.
The idea of The Monster Show disc collection has its roots in the spring of 2004, around the release of The Monsterican Dream album. Mr Lordi, while interviewing the band Kiss for Inferno magazine, gave the band's bassist/vocalist, Gene Simmons, a copy of Lordi's debut album, Get Heavy. Later, Simmons' assistant announced that Simmons would be willing to publish Lordi's albums in the United States, but if the band would like to share sales revenue, it would be better to publish with Sanctuary Records. Sanctuary did not want to publish either of the studio albums individually and instead preferred a compilation of the best songs. Thus, songs were picked from Get Heavy and The Monsterican Dream, and collected in the compilation album The Monster Show. The collection was published in the spring of 2005 during the European Monstour.
Meanwhile, the internal atmosphere of the band increased in intensity and led to a dispute between members. Later that year, bassist Kalma wanted to resign because of family and financial problems. Mr Lordi tried to persuade Kalma to stay and suggested that he just play the biggest tours and other contractually obligated performances. Kalma, however, did not relent, because he wanted to be involved with the band either in full or not at all. Kalma did, however, play the bass units for the future The Arockalypse album. Kalma left the band just before Lordi entered the Eurovision Song Contest qualifier.
Two new members joined the band, OX and Awa. This change in members spawned more alterations to the band's costumes.
2006–2008: ''The Arockalypse'' and Eurovision
Lordi's third album The Arockalypse was released on 1 May 2006. On 20 May 2006, Lordi made history by winning the Eurovision Song Contest held in Athens with the song "Hard Rock Hallelujah", becoming the first Finnish group to win the contest and consequently, the first rock/metal act to win; Finland would then send power metal band Teräsbetoni in 2008. The song scored 292 points, which was then an all-time points record. Pasi Rantanen from the band Thunderstone performed backing vocals, wearing a Gene Simmons Kiss mask.Lordi opened the fall of 2006 with the Bringing Back the Balls to Europe tour; the concert DVD was released in February 2007 as Bringing Back the Balls to Stockholm 2006. The tour ended with a surprise: during the last gig in London, on 31 October 2006, the band's former bassist, Kalma, was seen as a guest on stage.
In November 2006, Lordi headlined the MTV Europe Music Awards, and Mr Lordi presented the "Best Rock" award. Around the same time, Bill Aucoin, best known as the original manager of Kiss, became Lordi's manager. In the spring of 2007, Lordi created the Bringing Back the Balls tour, which toured Japan and the Baltic countries. In May, the band was involved in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 held in Helsinki, and opened the competition with their winning song "Hard Rock Hallelujah".
In early summer 2007 in Oulu, the members of Lordi participated in filming of the horror film Dark Floors, which premiered on 8 February 2008. In July 2007, Lordi toured North America with the Ozzfest festival, but ended up canceling off-date shows during that tour.
After the Ozzfest tour ended in late August, Lordi went on a short break. In September, it was announced that the band would go on a new tour of the U.S. with the band Type O Negative, beginning on 12 October 2007 and ending on 31 October 2007. At the end of the tour the band returned to Finland to record the theme song, "Beast Loose in Paradise", for the 2008 film, Dark Floors.
2008–2012: ''Deadache'', ''Babez for Breakfast'' and Otus' death
Lordi began recording their fourth album in the spring of 2008 and the album was released on 29 October 2008. The album, Deadache, was produced by Nino Laurenne. The release spurred yet another change in the band's costumes. The album was similar in style to its predecessors, melodic hard rock and heavy metal, though with more of a horror theme. Prior to the completion of the disc, it was revealed that it featured more piano solos than its predecessors, and that the recital "Missing Miss Charlene" featured a child singing. The album's first single was called "Bite It Like a Bulldog", and it was published on 3 September 2008.Lordi announced before the release of the album that Deadache would be marketed internationally, like its immediate predecessor.
Shortly after the publication of Deadache, Lordi made a tour of the United States in November in conjunction with Lizzy Borden. Lordi performed "Bite It Like a Bulldog" on the NBC show Late Night with Conan O'Brien on 6 November 2008.
Mr Lordi spent a week in Los Angeles with Jeremy Rubolino and former Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick writing two new tracks, "Cut Off My Head" and "Call Off The Wedding". In March 2010 Mark Slaughter and Bruce Kulick played in a part of their new song. Babez for Breakfast was recorded in Nashville, and produced by legendary Michael Wagener. The first single, called "This is Heavy Metal", from the album was released in August 2010, with the album following in September.
On 4 October 2010 it was announced that drummer Kita had left the band, and on 16 October, OX posted on his Twitter account they had found a new drummer. On 26 October 2010, it was announced on Lordi's website that Otus had become their new drummer. Otus joined the band just before Lordi's Europe for Breakfast tour started.
In 2011 Mr Lordi took part in Finnish TV-series "Kuorosota" and because of that reason the band could not make a long tour. However, they played at a few metal festivals.
On 15 February 2012, it was announced that Otus had died. Due to the death of Otus, Lordi canceled all their concerts scheduled for the beginning of 2012, but they had some summer festival concerts that they couldn't cancel. Lordi got help from Jimmy Hammer, the drummer of Finnish band Ironcross, who played drums for Lordi's 2012 concerts. Jimmy Hammer used a monster disguise to fit in the band, and was only called "the drummer". His identity was told after.
In September 2012, Scarchives Vol. 1, a compilation CD+DVD, was released to celebrate Lordi's 20th anniversary. The CD contains previously unreleased old Lordi songs, including all the songs from the unreleased album from 1997, Bend Over And Pray The Lord. The DVD contains Lordi's first concert in Helsinki 2002. The video was edited by Otus.
Keyboardist Awa left the band in the fall of 2012. She was seen for the last time during Lordi's 20th anniversary concert, at Simerock in Rovaniemi, Finland on 11 August.