Biography
MOKOMA's story is one of the most inspiring in the history of Finnish Metal and music business. Past three years of the band celebrate their unbelievable rise from being the underdogs dropped by a major company to being the top dogs with their own label.
MOKOMA was signed to EMI, and released two albums "Valu" (1999) and "MOKOMAn 120 päivää" (2001). Both albums sold poorly and when MOKOMA introduced their idea about an album based on Thrash Metal songs, EMI dropped them. Since no other company was interested either, band decided to set up their own label, Sakara Records, and release the album on their own. Rest is history. Their first two albums with their own label "Kurimus" (2003) and "Tämän maailman ruhtinaan hovi" (2004) were both benchmark records. "Kurimus" is regarded as the first Thrash Metal album sung in Finnish. It was hailed in unison by audience and media for bringing fresh air into the Finnish metal scene. It shipped less than 200 copies, but sold eventually more than 6000.
Success came with active touring. In April 2003, at their album release party in Helsinki, MOKOMA played in as-measly-as-it-gets rock bar for about hundred people. Seven months and dozens of shows later, in November, MOKOMA ended their tour at sold-out Tavastia, the number one rock club in Finland.
Immediately after the tour to support "Kurimus" was over, MOKOMA headed back to studio. "Tämän maailman ruhtinaan hovi" came out in May 2004, and shot up straight to number 2 in the official Finnish album chart. The only album ahead was the debut of a Finnish Idols finalist, released the same day. Talking about perfect contrast: TV format generated artist on a major label and the self-made indie metal heroes back-to-back on the chart. In total "TMRH" spent 13 weeks in the Finnish top 40.
"TMRH" topped all the expectations set after the success of "Kurimus", and sold nearly 10.000 copies. "Uni saa tulla" became a radio hit, thus widening MOKOMA's audience. Again MOKOMA concreted its success by touring like there's no tomorrow. Be it a small club or the main stage of a major festival, the audience has learned to trust that MOKOMA always delivers an ecstatic show. All this resulted in the 2004 polls where MOKOMA was a top act. For example in the annual Finnish Metal Awards, Sirkkelirock, MOKOMA was awarded as The Band of the Year and "TMRH" as The Album of the Year. They were also nominated for Emma Award, the Finnish equivalent of Grammy.
MOKOMA is definitely one of Finland's best live bands, and a fair portion of their live energy is captured on the self titled DVD, released before Christmas 2004. It was an instant success, rocketing to number one on the Finnish DVD chart. Within couple of months it sold more than 5.000 copies. In comparison, multi-platinum bands as The Rasmus and HIM have sold about as many of their recent DVDs in Finland.
In 2005 MOKOMA didn't release any new material, but still did a sold-out club tour and performed in almost all of the major summer festivals in Finland.
To start the year 2006 MOKOMA released their 5th studio album "Kuoleman laulukunnaat", which deputed in the Official Finnish Chart as number 1. MOKOMA does an extensive club tour in March-May 2006 to promote their album, and after that they will perform in all major Finnish summer festivals.
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