Anatomia FIN: Lordi

 

 

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I discussed Gwar, now it's time for Lordi. In Finland, which might surprise some people, the most popular genre was (and maybe still is, albeit slightly less) Hard Rock. But really really popular, to the point that there is a band specifically made for kids, where members dress as plush dinosaurs. It's quite an important factoid, as a band like Lordi could have started only in a country that gave us such popular acts, like Him, Rasmus, or Nightwish.

The beginnings of this project go back to early '90s, when young Tomi Petteri Putaansuu decided to dare himself into creating a homage to two things he loved the most: horror movies, and Heavy Metal. As an enthusiastic amateurish director he filmed some short length films (an experience that will prove useful in the future), but he fared much better as an aspiring musician. Lordi's first album was actually recorded already in 1997, but due to some hard to understand reasons, it waited till 2012 for an official release. It did receive a promo video "Inferno", where the band, except Tomi himself, were dressed as monsters with costumes heavily inspired by Kiss and Twisted Sister. "Eureka" one could hear from afar, as Tomi decided to go further with this idea, and created the nowadays iconic image of the band. I will not dwell with the mythos behind the characters, as they are not quite that interesting, tbh.

For the proper debut, we had to wait until 2002, when "Get Heavy" launched. Unpopular, dustet, oldschool Hard Rock / Heavy Metal straight outta late '70 / early '80, igniting the XXI century was certainly quite a feat, and not quite what the masses expected to hear. But the band had to wait a while, before they landed a success under their belt. The now-legendary Eurovision from 2006 saw Lordi performing (and winning) with their hit "Hard Rock Hallelujah". And that's when all hell broke loose. I remember that back in the day, even those among my friends, who listened to techno on a daily matter, checked out of curiosity Lordi's music. It's also probably why the band had a reputation in orthodox Metal community, as a group for "kindermetalheads".

Slightly earlier, the crew had their first movie feature, "The Kin", which was added as a bonus for their second album, "The Monsterican Dream". Lordi would be featured in two more flicks: Dark Floors (2008), oraz Monsterman (2014).

Honestly speaking, I feel like the apex of their popularity was reached in 2010, as afterwards the hype behind the group kinda waned. It certainly did not help that the band later moved from the major label BMG / Sony, to a much smaller company - it's also worth adding that Lordi always seemed to be released / distributed by some notable German label (Drakkar, AFM, Atomic Fire, Reigning Phoenix). The gang is still active, and they keep on releasing new stuff, each with a different concept. The most intriguing one IMO (albeit I have yet to dive into it) was the massive box set "Lordiversity" (2021), which consisted of 7 (!) albums, each one being a tribute to Rock icons, like Kiss, W.A.S.P., Rush, Scorpions, but also Disco stars like Boney M / Bee Gees.

The music of Lordi is deep-knee soaked in retro, and it never tried to be experimental (with some minor exceptions), nor attempted to step out of their comfort zone. As such there is this general feel, that if you know some of the albums, you basically know all that their discography has to offer. Feel free to disagree with me, but I believe that there is a difference between being crafty or fresh with your formula, while creating new songs, and being redundant or repeating yourself ad nauseam, eating your own tail. Unfortunately it's the latter that we're dealing with, as their newer stuff isn't quite catchy and feels a little stale.

Despite my criticism, you'll do yourself favor giving yourself some properly made modern Hard Rock, from the top shelf, so to speak.

As the final matter I leave with a mandatory observation. Just like in case of Gwar, Lordi succeeded on their own continent, but failed overseas. And again, ironically, the reason behind it lies within cultural differences. Just like Gwar is the essence of USA, which might not make the same sense for an outsider, Lordi also represents Europe in its full glory - respect for the tradition, history, its roots in the classical approach to music, more pompous and with bigger momentum, putting melody above rhythm and groove.

I wouldn't mind if Gwar & Lordi did a tour together, but I know it's not gonna happen.