Biography
Agonizer comes from Pyhäjärvi, Finland. The band has been together for nine years with the principal of playing melodic heavy metal with their own sound and style.
At the beginning (1998) Agonizer's line-up was as follows:
Olli Solitanner / Vocals
Mika Heinonen / Keyboards / Back-up vocals
J-P Perälä / Guitar
Lasse Löytynoja / Guitar
Jussi Tikka / Bass
Toni Qvick / Drums
Agonizer recorded their first demo ”Eternal night” at Studio Jambo in Iisalmi. The year was 1998 and the demo was criticized very well in finnish music magazine.
Next year 1999 they went to the famous Astia studio in Lappeenranta Finland. Agonizer made there their second demo ”Last sign of light”. It also got very good reviews. Little after that, Olli Solitanner left from the band and there came the new vocalist Pasi Kärkkäinen. His singing style was totally different from the previous vocalist Olli and the band was very pleased about the new way of music that came along with new singer. Agonizer went to the Astia second time to record new vocals to the demo ”Last sign of light” and made some gigs with Amorphis, Sonata Arctica and Children Of Bodom.
Year 2001 Agonizer recorded demo ”Lord of lies” at Astia-studio. Demo was very well received by band, fans and reviews but record companies didn't noticed the band even thought the band tried very hard to be noticed.
At last at year 2002 the band was in the break of something when ”Lord of lies” made it’s way to German to Century Media. Followed by six months of negotiation with the record company Agonizer was left again without the record deal.
Year 2002 Agonizer also made new collection demo called ”Anthems of agony”. It was made from the previous demos. At the end of the summer 2002 Agonizer also had some changes when their guitar player Lasse Löytynoja left from the band and Joni Laine replaced him. Joni was again totally different musician than the previous guitar player and at the end band was very pleased about the new member. New songs with new different sounds and more ruff attitude became to emerge and at the spring of 2003 Agonizer went to Astia-studios to record new material. New demo ”Cain” was born. ”Cain” was again some sort of breakthrough to Agonizer. It won a title of months demo release in Finnish music magazine Rumba and was played and reviewed all over the world. Number of radio stations played it in Germany, Greece, Belgium, Netherlands, England, Brazil, Peru, Lithuania and Spain. Still in the fall of 2003 Agonizer was an unknown band.
At the fall of 2003 Agonizer decided to go again to Astia studios with new material. Purpose was to promote the band right from the start of spring. New demo was labeled "World of fools". Because of better promotional gain, Agonizer decided to release a self-produced EP. There were two songs from demo "Cain" and those two songs from "World of fools" on the EP and it was named "World of fools" like the last demo. Release came at March 2004.
World of fools gave Agonizer lots of new gigs and great reviews around the world. Also Agonizer was in two collections at same year. Inferno-Magazine's Kiirastuli II and Enclave Records's Metal Ostentation V.
At the start of year 2005 Agonizer was selected to play at the first Finnish Metal Expo. At the FME Agonizer took part for the band contest called "Hilselinko" and was selected from total of 148 Finnish metal bands to play in the finals with three other bands. As a result Agonizer was selected to play at Tuska-Festival's club. After the FME Agonizer was forced to let go their drummer because of a long continued differences between the band and him. For the coming summer Agonizer got a great new drummer named Atte Palokangas.
Line-up changes didn´t stop there. After a gig in Iisalmi in the summer of 2005, band´s keyboardist Mika Heinonen decided to leave the band for a lack of interest. Luckily Joni´s talented brother Patrik Laine came to the rescue and the band didn´t have to cancel any shows. When Mika left, the band didn´t lose just a keyboardist, but a backing-vocalist too. Joni, Jussi and Jasso started to sing back-up vocals.
The rest of year 2005, band continued playing several gigs like Tavastia,Helsinki and Wacken Open Air to name few.
During this time the band was really eager to return to Astia studio once again. They decided to book the studio for the fall of 2006. This time the plan was to record a full length album. New material was written and the album began to take shape. Even though the band concentrated on the forth coming album, they still had the time to play some gigs around Finland like Club Teatria w/ U.D.O and Pellavarock w/ The Haunted, Diablo, Zero Nine.
September 2006 was the time to enter Astia studio. After a month of blood, sweat and tears, band held their first full length album in their hands. The debut was entitled “Birth / The End”.
Hard work finally paid off, because in the spring of 2007, Agonizer signed a record deal with Spinefarm Records.
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