Thursday, April 22, 2010

Kiss (band)

Kiss (styled KISS in capitals) is an American hard rock and heavy metal band formed in New York City in January 1973. Easily identified by its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting, smoking guitars, and pyrotechnics. Kiss has been awarded 24 gold albums to date in the USA. The band has sold over 19 million albums in the United States, and their worldwide sales exceeded 100 million albums.
The lineup of Paul Stanley (vocals and rhythm guitar), Gene Simmons (vocals and bass guitar), Ace Frehley (lead guitar and vocals), and Peter Criss (drums, percussion and vocals) is the most successful and identifiable. With their makeup and costumes, they took on the personae of comic book-style characters: The Demon (Simmons), Starchild (Stanley), Spaceman (Frehley), and Catman (Criss). The band explains that the fans were the ones who ultimately chose their makeup designs. The "Demon" makeup reflected Simmons's cynicism and dark elements, as well as his affection for comic books. Paul Stanley became the "Starchild" because of his tendency to be referred to as the "starry-eyed lover" and "hopeless romantic." Ace Frehley's "Spaceman" makeup was a reflection of him wanting to go for a ride in a space ship and supposedly being from another planet. Peter Criss's "Catman" makeup was in accordance with the belief that Criss had nine lives because of his rough childhood in Brooklyn. Because of creative differences, both Criss and Frehley were out of the group by 1982. The band's commercial fortunes had also waned considerably by that point.
In 1983, Kiss abandoned its makeup and profited from a commercial resurgence throughout the rest of the decade. Buoyed by a wave of Kiss nostalgia in the 1990s, the band announced a reunion of the original lineup (with makeup) in 1996. The resulting Kiss Alive/Worldwide/Lost Cities/Reunion Tour was the top-grossing act of 1996 and 1997. Criss and Frehley have since left Kiss again and have been replaced by Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer, respectively. The band continues to perform with makeup, while Stanley and Simmons have remained the only two constant members.
Kiss was named by VH1 as 10th on their list of the '100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock' and 9th on 'The Greatest Metal Bands' list by MTV. On 23 September 2009, Kiss was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, ten years after becoming eligible but on December 15, 2009 it was announced that Kiss did not make it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Kiss onstage in Stockholm, 2008


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Eternal Tears of Sorrow ...Finnish melodic death metal band

The band was formed in 1994 by Jarmo Puolakanaho, Altti Veteläinen and Olli-Pekka Törrö, after some various projects that featured several people that later were members of Eternal Tears of Sorrow. Andromeda, a first death/doom/thrash metal project, had been put on hold in late 1992 because the rehearsal place had burned down. It seemed their home town was not able to give them a new rehearsal place, so the three members started a new sideproject (M.D.C.) and recorded a demo tape, Beyond The Fantasy in autumn 1993.
In spring 1994, they recorded a new demo, The Seven Goddesses of Frost. Now, the band decided to change their name to more serious Eternal Tears of Sorrow. Between 1994 and 1996 the band had a couple of songs on some compilation CDs in Europe and Canada, and recorded their debut, Sinner's Serenade. It took more than a year for the debut album to get released by X-Treme Records , a small underground label from Gothenburg in Sweden. After recording the second album (recorded with their own money), Vilda Mánnu, Spinefarm Records approached the band and soon they signed a deal with the label .
Their third album, Chaotic Beauty (on which the band had three new members since Olli-Pekka Törrö had left the band), led to a European tour with Nightwish and Sinergy. Their fourth album, A Virgin and a Whore, went to the Finnish Album Top 40 charts. After releasing four albums, the band announced having a break just after the release of A Virgin and a Whore; however, they broke up in January 2003.
In February 2005, the band announced they were to make a comeback. Their fifth album, Before the Bleeding Sun, was released in April 2006 (excluding releases in Russia and Japan that were released later). This album also went to the Finnish Album Top 40 charts, to #26. The band broke their 66-month gig silence in late 2006 with two session members since Petri Sankala and Janne Tolsa were unavailable at that time.
In late 2008, the band told Jarmo Kylmänen (who had been part of the band's song-writing team since 2005) had joined the band as an official member . Soon after that, their long-time drummer Petri Sankala had left the band because of his back pain . In early April 2009, it was reported that Risto Ruuth has left the band. The band found a replacement, Mika Lammassaari, and has started rehearsing for the postponed live shows originally planned for May.
The band's sixth "Children Of The Dark Waters" came out in May 2009 through Suomen Musiikki in Finland, Massacre Records in Europe excluding Finland, and Marquee/Avalon in Asia.A new single, "Tears of Autumn Rain," was released in Finland and Japan as well as on the band's MySpace page. The other track on the single was a rerecorded version of "Vilda Mánnu" from their second album. "Children of the Dark Waters" album charted at #19 at the Finnish Album Top 40 charts.

Eternal Tears of Sorrow
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Children of Bodom ...a new generation of Rock music.

Children of Bodom is a heavy metal band from Espoo, Finland, formed in 1993. The band consists of guitarist and vocalist Alexi Laiho (vocals, lead guitar), Roope Latvala (rhythm guitar), Janne Wirman (keyboards), Henkka Seppälä (bass), and Jaska Raatikainen (drums). In total they have released six studio albums, two live albums, two EPs, and one DVD.
The band's third studio album, Follow the Reaper, was their first album to receive a Gold certification in Finland, and since then, all six of the band's studio albums have reached the same status. In Finland, Children of Bodom has released three consecutive albums that debuted at number one on Finnish album charts, and has also seen chart positions on the United States Billboard 200.
The band has incorporated many different musical styles, leading critics and fans to label them as melodic death metal, black metal, thrash metal, and progressive metal.
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