Korpiklaani

The foundation of Korpiklaani in 2003 in Lahti, Finland brought the traditional folk music back to life. No one could have foreseen that such a large audience would be interested in Finnish and English mythological texts.

The Folk Metal band rose up from the ashes of the former act Shaman and released their debut ”Sprit Of The Forest” in November 2003 via Napalm Records. Korpiklaani quickly prepared and recorded a new album called ”Voice Of Wilderness” which came out in January 2005.

Their third album ”Tales Along This Road” was released the next year, followed by a successful promotion tour through Europe. The band kept on untiringly working on new songs, took part to the Wacken Open Air in 2006 and released both DVD and album ”Tervaskanto” in 2007.

After a few sessions in studio came out the album ”Korven Kuningas” in 2008. A music video to the song ”Keep On Gallopping” was shot and broadcast on different channels.

Even in 2009, the band didn’t lazy and released their sixth album ”Karkelo”.

After some tours and appearances in festivals, the album ”Ukon Wacka” was published in February 2011 under the label Nuclear Blast.

One year and a half after the previous release ”Ukon Wacka” came the workaholics back from their refuge in the Finnish forests to bring us into a fascinating trip in the underworld. Alongside Tuomas Rounakari, successor of former fiddler Jaakko Lemmetty, and his impressive violinist skills, Korpiklaani proudly reveal”Manala” their eighth studio album. The summarized story of Jonne gives a good of the concept behind the album: ‘Manala’ is the land of the dead, the Finnish underworld. This place has been mentionned several times in the finnish national epic ‘Kalevala’, which is the basis of many songs. In the 16th Kalavala’s poem called ‘Väinämöinen’, a shamanic hero travels into the Manala in order to acquire knowledge from the dead. He meets there a girl named ‘Tuonen tytti’ or ‘Tuonen piika’ (maid of the dead), who will make him cross the river Tuoni. However, he does not find on the island Tuoni the spells he was looking for, and could only just escape. Now, the shaman curses every survivor who tries to enter the underworld.

As special gift for every fan outside their homeland, Korpiklaani released the original finnish version of ”Manala” with a bonus CD including the album in English in August 2012.

The band came back once again from the Finnish forests in May 2015 to deliver their new effort ”Noita”. It is the first album featuring newcomer Sami Perttula and his accordion, after Juho Kauppinen left the band. As well as fiddler Tuomas Rounakari, Sami was very involved in folk arrangements. The album was once again recorded at the Petrax Studios with producer Aksu Hanttu.

In 2017, they released their debut DVD/Blu-Ray “Live at Masters of Rock”. This debut release captures everything they stand for; pure live energy, combined with their tales of Shamanic history and Finnish culture, to their world-renowned drinking habits which have been immortalised in a few songs dedicated to their favourite drinks.

Jonne was not just behind the editing of this release, he also took on the duties of mixing. As a knowledgable fan of music DVD’s he spent a lot of time working with the mastering legend Svante Forsbäck, who recently mastered the RAMMSTEIN DVD, ensuring that the perfect ambience and surround mix was achieved. Jonne‘s goal was to make the viewer feel like you are right there, live in the middle of the crowd.

»Live at Masters of Rock« was filmed in 2016, capturing the band’s performance at Masters of Rock Festival in Vizovice, Czech Republic. The performance was also a special event for another reason, achieving another of the band’s visions; Tero Hyväluoma (second fiddle) and Toni Perttula (second accordion and identical twin of Sami) both joined the Finnish masters live on stage, making it an unforgettable and unique folk show. Korpiklaani’s vision of a bigger production is to have more folk musicians on stage with them. As Sami joked, having more folk musicians is a lot cheaper than pyro. He convinced his brother to play this show for just a few beers and Toni does not drink much…

Jonne comments, “This is our first ever DVD release, which we are very proud of. It has no backing tracks, no choirs, no samples, and all of the mistakes are included. It is just us, Korpiklaani, pure live rock ‘n’ roll.”

Korpiklaani have set the standard for entertaining any audience, no matter their age, musical preference or style. Korpiklaani will get you dancing no matter what!