Kalmah

The story of Kalmah begun in 1991 when Pekka Kokko(v, g) and Petri Sankala founded Ancestor. After 2 demos Antti Kokko joined the band to handle the position of lead guitarist. In 1998 after all in all 5 melodic trash/speed/death metal demos and 5 different bass players it was time to clear the table. Acenstor was buried and refounded as Kalmah. The Line-up was completed by keyboard player Pasi Hiltula.

With new enthusiasm Kalmah started to write new songs for the praised promo CD. With raging melodic death/trash/speed/black metal promo ‘Svieri Obraza’ the band had finally done the breakthrough and reached a contract with Spikefarm Records. The band wasted no time and headed to Tico-Tico studios with line-up Pekka Kokko(v, g), Antti Kokko(g), Petri Sankala(d), Pasi Hiltula(k) and Altti Veteläinen(b). The story of Swamplord begun.

“Swamplord” was unleashed to the world in the winter of 2000. The album immediately gathered tons of raving reviews and no wonder, the power and intensity of Kalmah’s metal is simply breathtaking, to say the least. The band did dozens of interviews and the praise from the scene kept flooding the Spikefarm office and the band’s website. They also played a few shows in Finland before heading back to the rehearsal-swamp to write the follow-up to “Swamplord”.

By November 2001, the band was back at Tico-Tico Studios recording “They Will Return”. The line-up had changed a bit due to the departure of Altti and Petri. They were promptly replaced by Timo Lehtinen (from Catamenia) on bass and Janne Kusmin behind the drumkit. “They Will Return” is an album displaying all the aspects that make Kalmah such an incredible band: from the stunning execution and rich melodies to the huge intensity and overall finesse of Kalmah’s music, there was no question that Kalmah had great things ahead of them.

In summer 2002 Kalmah played couple of gigs in Finland and gig at Wacken, which was a success. In autumn the band started to write new material for the next studio album. After heavy practising and rehearsal sessions swamplords were back at Tico-Tico again in February 2003 with 10 new killer songs. The new album was titled ‘Swampsong’. Heavy guitar driven melodic swamp metal masterpiece was finalized at Finnvox studios. It was time for The third, the magical.

“Swampsong” was a great follower after the highly acclaimed “they will return”-album by fans and media. Some gigs were played, also abroad, and everything was developing in the right direction until in 2004 keymaster Pasi Hiltula decided to pull back and go on with his other duties. The band started thinking then if a new keyboarder was needed but after one rehearsals with Marco Sneck (Poisonblack ) auditioning, it was all clear. A new quintet was born.

With new blood in veins the five Swamplords started to prepair the material for the fourth album. In november 2005 the band entered Tico-Tico studio to record a true swampmetal masterpiece, “The Black Waltz”. All in all 11 new Kalmah songs were recorded and mixed. With the final mastering touch of Mika Jussila from Finnvox the Waltz was ready. The dance has begun.

The Black Waltz started a new era in bands history. For the first time in history Kalmah made it to the official Finnish charts at position 38. The album with deep vocals was a bow to the bands history.

With new strength after Waltz success Kalmah was eager to move on to the next album and the writing process started right away after Waltz was released. But it always takes 1-2 years for Kalmah inspiration to blossom. In 2008 new release “For the Revolution” hit the market and gained even more success than the Black Waltz. At this time the chart position was 17. For the first time ever band managed to pull out the very first tour outside Finland as they flied to Canada to show the timber-jacks how Finnish chanisaw works. 8 gigs in a row and most of the places were sold out. It was a great success.

After more gigs than ever in Kalmah`s history band begun writing new material for the next swamp masterpiece. This time it was all about inspiration as with the previous albums. From the very first songs old speed and trash metal influences pushed through. Decorated with modern Kalmah melodies it sounded like Kalmah – surprise.

In year 2010 the 6th album “12 Gauge” was released. 9 new songs spreading Kalmah trademark “Swamp Metal” all over the world. After successfull Canada tour and release band got first chance to spread the message on big summer festivals in Europe. Such festivals like Metalcamp and Summerbreeze are known to every metalhead. The album itself was a success. Band gained more fans than ever.

Year 2012 was time for changes. Marco step aside and Veli-Matti Kananen stepped in. It was time to evaluate what we have done and what we deep in our music veins want to do next. The first song at the rehearsals “Seventh Swamphony” was the pacemaker. With new angle, not so straight-forward structure, orchestrations etc. we were turned on. We took our time rehearsing, re-thinking, evaluating new material. And it was sure worth it – or maybe we are getting old… Nevertheless we felt strong again entering studio in the beginning of 2013.

Recordings at Tico-Tico studios went smoothly as always. This time we had the chance to try world-class mixing/mastering wizard Jens Bogren and we sure did. We were excited from the very moment and very pleased with the end result. “Seventh Swamphony” – the 7th studio album from Kalmah is now waiting for the release 14.6.

Swamp Metal is going to roar to your ears stronger than ever!