Nobody knows exactly how old the Finish monsters really are or how long they’ve been striking terror into people’s hearts.
Officially the Rock/Heavy Metal monsters LORDI were founded in 1992 by lead singer, songwriter, visual art designer and costume designer Mr. Lordi. The band has deep Finnish roots, originating from the city of Rovaniemi, in Lapland. In 2006 they celebrated their international breakthrough by winning the Eurovision Song Contest (“Hard Rock Hallelujah”) They are Finland’s only winners to date and they earned more points than any other artists in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest up to that time.
But is it possible that this is only a pale misperception of our poor, small, pathetic reality? Is there, however unlikely it may seem, another truer reality? What if LORDI would have already been making music since the early 70’s? And what if they have been releasing one hit single after the other since those times and now, almost 50 years later, are looking back on a full collection of songs that have been successful ever since?
This is exactly the idea that LORDI are celebrating, or maybe a more appropriate word is executing, with their newest studio album “Killection.” “Killection” will be released on January 31st via AFM Records/Soulfood Music. Once more Mr Lordi, the master of the masquerade, presents us with one of his ideas, absurd and genius at the same time, and comes up with a concept that has never been done before in the music industry: “Killection” is a compilation album that simply says “what if” LORDI had been in existence since the early 70’s. It contains all their imaginary hit singles from different periods done with painstaking attention to detail using authentic studios and vintage technology. This is how they would have sounded if LORDI would have made music back then and therefore would have had the hit material to release this compilation now.
This is how Mr. Lordi himself sums it up:
“Killection” is a fictional compilation album. It contains songs that LORDI would have written between the early 70’s through the mid-90’s. The compilation contains one “brand new” song from 2019 as well, cause that’s somehow always typical for compilations.”
Everything unclear now? Excellent! Cause LORDI are taking this very, very seriously. To make this fictional compilation as authentic as possible, the band has mentally travelled back through the different decades to get every track sounding as authentic for the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s as possible.
Mr. Lordi:
“The songs from the 70’s are not in any way modern Metal songs – they sound dirtier, less polished and more rock and roll… well, like they should.”
To recreate the sound as closely as possible, LORDI have recorded the songs from different eras in different studios, with a variety of instruments and using different recording processes as if they were actually making a record back in the day. Seven different studios throughout Finland were utilized.
“We rented original instruments and amps from those times to make sure we could really record everything as authentically as possible,” Mr. Lordi says. “The songs from the 70’s were recorded analogue on 24 track tape. And we used real Hammond organs to create the keyboard sounds to fit the era. It was great fun to do all that and also to gather up together in a studio at the same time to do the analogue recordings. It was challenging and rewarding at the same time. If you make a mistake, you will hear it on the album, as simple as it is.”
It was only for the mastering process that the monsters entered the modern era by using the same studio to master all songs – as a real compilation would be, of course. Once again the mastering was done by Mika Jussila at Finnvox Studios Helsinki.
No doubt, “Killection” the tenth album in the band’s history, has turned out to be the most extraordinary and most varied album so far. Next to Rock songs from the early 70’s (“Blow My Fuse”) the record contains a disco song from 1979 (“Zombimbo”) as well as some typically 80’s party Rock hymns (“Up To No Good”, “Cutterfly”).
“In the 80’s, lyrically everything had to do with rebellion and standing up against authorities,” Mr. Lordi explains about his journey through the music decades. “All the bands and artists proclaimed they were loud and rebellious in their songs. Of course we’ve used this message in our songs from that era as well.”
In this musical journey, “Killection” delivers LORDI-typical monster horror lyrics. The lyrical content has never changed over the years. LORDI’s line up in contrast to that did: “Killection” is the premiere for Hiisi, the new monster behind the bass who is replacing Ox. Ox left the band at the beginning of the year. Hiisi comes from Finish folklore, and he looks like a creepy lizard. “In Finish mythology Hiisi is a bad demon living in waters and forests.”
Read our review here.
