A Little Slice of Metal: Lordi

This is going to be a weird one...

(WARNING: Some of the music and video content may not be appropriate for younger readers. Parental guidance is suggested.)

Greetings, my loyal readers and first time readers, and welcome back to Rave Up Music! I am the one they call Barius and today, it time once again to consume some hard rockin’ music with A Little Slice of Metal! For today’s edition A Little Slice of Metal, we ask the question: what is the difference between hard rock and heavy metal?

There always seems to be some confusion of what makes a band a hard rock band and what makes them a heavy metal band. From my own perspective, this is how I see the difference between the two genres: Hard rock music is rock music that finds its roots in the sound of the 1960s garage rock and psychedelic rock. The sound of hard rock tends to have heavy use of distorted electric guitar, bass guitar, and drums, but also incorporates elements from genres of blues and folk. The lyrical content is more personal, and based on in reality. A good example of hard rock music is legendary band Led Zeppelin.

On the flip side is heavy metal music, which emerged as a defined style of rock music in the 1970s, which took a lot of the elements from hard rock bands and mixed them with more bluesy pentatonic sound, creating a very unique, and hybrid sound. The style of heavy metal is also characterized with thick, heavy, guitar and drums centered sound, usually highly-amplified distortion. The lyrical content of heavy metal music tends to be darker, and even some fantasy based. The best example of heavy metal music would definitely be the band Black Sabbath.

Today’s featured band is one of those bands that tends to flip back and forth between the two genres of hard rock and heavy metal, while also adding a little bit of shock rock and theatrics to the mix. Hold on tight, for today’s A Little Slice of Metal, we are traveling over to Finland and giving a listening to the monster costumed band Lordi!

BAND HISTORY:

The band Lordi started off a solo project by Tomi Putaanssu, who goes by the stage name of Mr. Lordi. Huh, a band named after its singer…never heard of that one before…Anyway, Lordi’s demo album was produced in 1993, with all of the parts performed by Mr. Lordi himself. After making a music video for the song “Inferno,” Mr. Lordi developed the idea of a band full of monsters, or guys dressed up in monster costumes, because last time I checked, there are no real monsters…except for maybe Lady Gaga, but I digress…

Later on in 1996, a KISS Kruise was organized by Mr. Lordi, where he met the musicians Amen and G-Stealer, and by the time the cruise ended, they were now members of the band, and the first members of what would be referred to as “The Lordi Family.” A year later, keyboardist Enary joined the band, and they recorded their first album, Bend Over and Praise the Lord, but it was never released due to their record label not have enough funds to promote the album.

Fun Fact: Lordi did not have a drummer when they recorded their first album, so all of the drums on the album were all MIDI tracks.

Eventually, G-Stealer left the band do to work commitments, and was replaced by Magnum. Drummer Kita also joined the band in 2000, and after several failed attempts to secure a record deal, Lordi signed with BMG Finland in 2002. As they were about to release their first released album, Get Heavy, Magnum left the band, and was replaced by new bassist Kalma. Get Heavy was met with moderate success, including an Emma Award for Best Domestic Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album. A joint tour with symphonic metal band Nightwish raised the popularity of Lordi, and it eventually led them to sign with German record label Drakker, which released their 2004 album The Monsterican Dream.

A compilation album, The Monster Show, was released on Sanctuary Records with the help of KISS bassist Gene Simmons, who was a big supporter of Lordi. While The Monster Show was being put together, there were internal tensions within the band. This resulted in the departure of Kalma from the band, but not before helping to record the next album. Keyboardist Enary also left, and his and Kalma replacements were Awa and OX, respectively. 

Lordi released the album the Arockalypse on May 1^st, 2006. Nineteen days later, on May 20^th, they made music history by being both the first Finnish and hard rock music group to when the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Athens, Greece, with the song “Hard Rock Hallelujah.” They scored 292 points, which was an all-time record until 2009. This victory helped raise Lordi’s popularity in not only Europe (they headlined the MTV Europe Music Awards a few months later), but in North American as well when they were a featured band on the then annual Ozzfest summer music festival. Though a second tour with the band Type O Negative was a grueling and even violent experience, Lordi pushed on to record their next album.

The band’s next album, Deadache, was released in 2008 and promoted heavily international. The album was a more melodic hard rock album, and used a lot of piano solos and even a children’s choir on the song “Missing Miss Charlene.” The album was mostly successful, and it also gave Lordi exposure in America when they performed on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on November 8^th, 2008.

Thanks Coco for helping bringing Lordi to NBC…

2010 saw Lordi release another album, Babez for Breakfast, as well as a new edition to the band, drummer Otus (real name: Tonmi Lillman). Sadly, Otus’ tenure in the band was tragically cut short, as he passed away on February 13^th, 2012 from an illness. The band cancelled some of their scheduled shows in early 2012, but eventually returned to tour for the 20^th anniversary of the band, and in tribute to Otus. Today, Lordi continues to have a big follow in Europe and most of North America. The band continues to tour with elaborate pyrotechnic shows, colorful and scary costumes and masks, and recently released the album To Beast or Not To Beast, in March of 2013.

Style/Genre of Metal

As I mentioned in the beginning of this review, it is hard to say which genre of music Lordi should be placed in. If you look at all of their albums, the band tends to lean towards the hard rock style, as heard in their first major single, “Would You Love a Monsterman?” The riff definitely hooks you in, and the drums keep a good steady beat throughout the song.

The song is a bit distorted in the guitar, but not as highly-amplified in sound that is commonly found in heavy metal music. However, Lordi’s music also tends to incorporate some elements of various genres of metal, including power, symphonic and your standard heavy metal music. The song, “Blood Red Sandman” integrates some of the more heavier-sounds and some power metal sounds from the keyboardist.
 

The band Lordi also integrates in both their music and their concerts elements of shock rock, with groups like KISS and Alice Cooper being cited as inspirations. This includes slightly dark lyrics, mostly inspired by various horror themes, such as in the case of “My Heaven is Your Hell.” Most of Mr. Lordi’s vocals are aggressive, but still follows a nice melodic line.

Recommended Albums/Songs:
In addition to the songs mentioned above, for those you wanting to get a good start on listening to Lordi music, I would recommend the follow tracks:

“Hard Rock Hallelujah” from The Arockalypse

This is the song that Lordi played to win the Eurovision Song Contest. The song is Lordi’s attempt to make a rock anthem in the vein of “Rock N Roll All Nite.” It has some cheesy moments here and there, but it is a good example of the strong writing style of the band.

“It Snows in Hell” from The Arockalypse

This is not your typical ballad. Yes, it is about love, but leans more towards the macabre approach to love. A highlight of this track is a superb guitar solo from former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick, as well as a nice piano riff that sets the mood of the song.

“Devil is a Loser” from Get Heavy

Lordi is often confused for being a satanic rock band, as is the case with a lot of rock bands. However, this song contradicts that statement. It either suggests that Lordi is against the devil, or perhaps Mr. Lordi may be a lot worse than Satan. Either way, it is worth a listening just to hear them sing about how the devil is Lordi’s bitch.

“This is Heavy Metal” from Babez from Breakfast

Here is a song that actually brings up the question that has been asked throughout Lordi’s career: are they a heavy metal band? According to Lordi, hard rock and heavy metal kind of go hand-in-hand, so does it really matter what they are classified?

“The Riff” from To Beast or Not to Beast

As usual, I like to include a song from the latest album to give you a full spectrum of the band’s musical history. “The Riff” is a good example of everything Lordi: hard rock riffs with a slight bent towards metal, horror themed lyrics, and the over-the-top feel from the band.

Final Comments/Analysis:
The more I listen to the music of Lordi, I have to admit it is a bit cheesy at times, making the group to be more of a weird mix of KISS and GWAR. The band members take their personas very seriously. Check out this character description for the bassist OX:

OX is a half-man, half-bull creature known as a Minotaur, a creature rare even in Ancient Greece. In 1000BC, OX was the loyal servant of the magus Androlus on a small island located in the Greek Archipelago. The time-traveler Kalmaged stole the 10th book of Octavus, a book belonging to Androlus and which contained the magus' dark spells. Kalmaged then impelled the men from the nearby islands to kill both Androlus and OX.

Soon, however, Kalmaged awoke the slain OX, taking the undead creature as his own servant. In his fortress in the dark realm between dimensions, Kalmaged formed the Ka OX eventually discovered that Kalmaged was responsible for the death of Androlus, and he wasted no time in slaughtering his new master. When Mr. Lordi arrived in search of Kalmaged the Timetraveller, he formed an alliance with the Brotherhood. Kalma, another member of the Brotherhood, left with Mr. Lordi, while OX stayed behind as ruler of the Brotherhood. Years later, Kalma returned to take over leadership of the Brotherhood, and OX took his place in Lordi.

OX is also known as "The Hellbull," "The Hornhead," "The Hornskull," "The Bulltaurus," "The Smashsquatch," "The Giant Powerhouse on Hoofs," and "Operation 10."

 
Now THAT is dedication to your craft.


The music is definitely your standard hard rock style similar to that of KISS. Throughout their songs, you can hear the KISS influence in their riffs and the vocals are very Gene Simmons in nature. At the same time, the heavy metal aspects come through in a lot of the lyrical contents, but the deliver that Mr. Lordi has in his vocals does get a bit of a chuckle from me.

To be honest, I really enjoyed the music of Lordi. There are some great guitar riffs, and even though the horror-themed come off a bit cheesy at times, it is still pretty entertaining. I will admit that Lordi is not going to be for everyone. If you are into more hardcore metal styles, Lordi will not be your cup of tea (or grog of beer…). However, for those of you wanting to ease into heavy metal from the hard rock style, this is the band for you. Thus, I dub Lordi worthy of the metal horns seal of approval!

For those of you wanting to learn more about Lordi check out their website at www.lordi.fi. It has information on the band members, including full character descriptions, music samples, galleries, and of course, a store for all merchandising needs.

Well, that is all the time we have for Rave Up Music! Tune in next time as we take a look at one of the most well-known Jewish holidays. I think you know what might be coming…Until then, I am Barius, and like the guys in Lordi, keep on rockin.’

NOTE: All material and media featured in this blog are owned by their respected copyright holders, and are only used for purposes of review, commentary and satire under the terms of Fair Use. Please support the official release of all media used in this review.