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Atem "Pedon Laulu" |
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Atem originates from the most northern part of Europe – Finland the land of the thousand lakes. Atem has been around since 1995, but they started under another name, and the music was strictly black metal at the time. Since then Atem has been going through some changes in both line-up and their expression. Atem is still hard hitting as hell, but the music is much more than “just” black metal. While I have been listening to the record, a lot of genres have come to my mind: Viking, death, grind and black metal. Are you confused? Well, there’s no reason to be. It’s not like the band don’t know what way to go musically. For all I care, it’s just about playing loud, aggressive and fast and Atem do all that. But no matter if they play like this or like that, they know what they’re doing. |
After all, Finnish is not a language known to most people. Screw that, the music sounds fine to me, and that’s what counts. Total playtime in this album is 20.59, and I wished it would have lasted longer. Atem is a great band to be around. And I will keep playing “Pedon Laulu” from time to time, whenever I feel like music in the vein of old-time Celtic Frost, Sodom or Emperor. If I really put my mind to it, many more band names would pop up in my conscience. “Pedon Laulu” is a difficult album to acquire. So far, only 300 copies are made. And I’m glad I got mine in time.
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| The album contains of 6 songs with similar level of intensity and roughness. The songs are written and performed in Finnish, since it sounds more aggressive than English. It reminds me of a band, who released an album some years ago, where they sang entirely in German. It was a great idea, because it fitted the music quite well, and gave a boost to the atmosphere, and made it much more violent and aggressive. It seems to be a good idea to sing in Finnish as well, even if it means, less attention from abroad. |
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Pedon Laulu was recorded at Taikametsä -studio 11.6.-11.8.2004. Produced by Atem. Engineered and mixed by Olli Heikkinen. Mastered by Pentti Penttilä. |
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The story of the band so far: Atem was formed in the winter 1995 in Kemi, a little town in northern Finland. The founding members were Olli Heikkinen and Pentti Penttilä. Line-up at the time was: Olli Heikkinen - guitar, Antti Kalasniemi - vocals, Pentti Penttilä - drums, Ilkka Kuusisto - Bass and Petri Lackman - guitar. In the beginning the name was different but after Petri moved away in 1999 the name was changed. In the year 2000 Mikael Laukkanen joined the band filling the gap of the second guitar. Three years later Mikael was forced to left the band for the same reasons as Petri before him. In summer 2004 Petri visited the band line-up during the recording of the "Pedon laulu". Six months later Henri Mäki-Jokela stepped into the guitarists shoes. |
Back in the days Olli composed most of the material but now almost everyone is involved. The songs are arranged together. Atem has never categorized their music too specifically, somewhere death/black/folk/proge -metal region. The very essence of the style comes from every player's own influences. The lyrics are made by Olli and Henri, mostly in Finnish. Atem has had about twenty gigs, recorded six demo/promo-tapes, participated in two compilation CDs and filmed a music video. The first two records were made under their early name, Morgue. Recently Atem signed a record-deal with a Austrian company named CCP-records. |
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