logo Amoral

Biography : Amoral

AMORAL is a band hailing from Helsinki, Finland. The band's style is a healthy mix of different styles of metal, the most obvious ones being death and thrash, with just enough technical parts to keep things interesting.
It was late 1997, when guitarist Ben Varon and drummer Juhana Karlsson, both studying in the same school, decided to jam on some mutual favourites. Soon they got some other schoolfriends to complete the line-up, most notably guitarist Silver Ots. The following two years or so went by as the young five-piece gathered to goof around on cover songs every saturday.

Even though some original songs were already starting to come up, it was still far from serious, as the band never even bothered to come up with a name.

Somewhere during the year 2000, Ben Varon, Silver Ots and Juhana Karlsson decided that they wanted to take this to the next step. The rest of the band members were fired, as neither their musicianship nor seriousness was near the others'. This is when one could say Amoral - even though the name came along much later - was born.

The threesome started to seriously work on their originals, and at the same time started looking around for a singer and a bassist. The singer's slot was filled after a while by a friend Matti Pitkänen, but finding a decent bass player seemed to be impossible. Tired of waiting around, the band decided to record their first demo without a bassist, and Silver handled the bass duties in the studio. The result was "Desolation", a two-track demo released in 2001.

Realistically thinking that they yet didn't have what it takes to get a record deal and enter the "big league", Amoral decided not to waste money sending promo packages to labels, but instead to the media, to get their name out with reviews and small articles. And that?s exactly what happened: every little zine was approached with a demo, and the rest of the demos were sold to friends and friends? friends.

"Desolation" got a surprisingly good response, most of the reviews being really encouraging. You could say the first demo served it?s purpose perfectly.

Another thing the band wanted to get with the demo was gigs. The only problem being of course the lack of a bassist. Luckily Ville Sorvali, bassist and singer of MOONSORROW, promised to help the band in that department, until a permanent member would be found. And so began the gigging. Well, almost. Two days before the first gig, Matti (who at the time was in the army) called to inform that he won´t be getting a day off for the gig, as earlier promised. Cancelling not even being an option, the band called Niko Kalliojärvi, a guitarist who the band believed could handle the screaming through one gig. Niko agreed to help, practiced a full set in one day and gave a kick-ass performance.

It didn't take long for the band to realize that Niko was actually the voice they were looking for, and so Niko was asked to join the band. First gigs were mainly in Helsinki, but soon the band got some gigs outside their hometown too. Somewhere along the way Ville became a permanent member, but no-one seems to remember how that happened...

Now with a strong line-up, Amoral played as many gigs as possible through 2002, and by the end of the year went back to the studio to record their second demo, this time to score a record deal.

"Other Flesh" was in a whole new level compared to "Desolation", the sound and playing being much better, and of course Niko's vocals completing the package. The reviews and feedback from the audience were great, and sure enough a deal was signed with an English label RAGE OF ACHILLES.

2003 was spent practicing heavily, playing every gig possible (including opening for ENTOMBED) and of course writing material for the debut album. The recording began in the beginning of December, at SONIC PUMP STUDIOS in Helsinki, with Nino Laurenne (also guitarist of THUNDERSTONE) handling the recording and mixing duties. The result can now be heard on "Wound Creations", the debut album from Amoral.

In late July 2004 the band signed a new record deal with Spikefarm Records.