This is a fan-made profile for one of my favorite bands. Since there aren't official ones.
The name Janne Warman must be known to metalheads all over the world by now. His band, Children of Bodom has become a household name for metal fans worldwide and in 2000 the keyboard virtuoso released his first soloalbum, Unknown Soldier, which spearheaded the emergence of technical and progressive metal from Finland. But how did this soloalbum come to be? Janne Warman, care to explain?
-The idea of me making a solo album initially came from Warmen guitarist Sami Virtanen. He once half seriously asked me if I could play on his solo album. I answered - half seriously- "of course if you will play on mine." After that I asked Ewo from Spinefarm about this (still half serious) and he told me that if I decided to do it, Spinefarm would release it. And so I started to check out the possibilities and musicians with whom I could start to making this project reality. In the beginning I decided not to mix this project too much with my no.1. band Children Of Bodom. As much as I appreciate my COB mates playing skills I wanted to do this with a totally different line-up so it will be recognized as a sideproject more than a COB album with songs by me. I had only two songs which required vocals so I asked Kimberly Goss to sing those songs and she did do a hell of a job there too. Later I even managed to involve guitar legend Roope Latvala who also plays in Sinergy.
"Unknown Soldier" consisted eleven tracks of fascinatingly technical melodic hard rock in the vein of Stratovarius, Rainbow and Artension led by Janne Warman's flabbergastingly fluent fingers and astonishing arrangements, Mirka Rantanen's befuddling beats and Sami Virtanen's raging riff-o-rama. "Unknown Soldier" was an aural trip from the blindingly fast melodic speed metal of "The Evil That Warmen Do to the mystical images of the Orient in "Treasure Within", everything spiced with complexity that left even the most demanding connoiseurs of technical rock grinning and coming back for more. No rock celebrity project would be complete without guest stars: On Unknown Soldier even the guests were of the highest possible caliber: bass god Jari Kainulainen (Stratovarius), guitar legend Roope Latvala (Waltari/Sinergy) and female vocalist Kimberly Goss (Sinergy).
BEYOND ABILITIES
The time has arrived for Warmen to once again embark on the road they themselves paved. As mentioned earlier, in addition to the master himself, Warmen features bassist Lauri Porra and drummer Mirka Rantanen from Finnish progressive metal outfit Tunnelvision as well as guitarists Sami Virtanen from Joe Doakes and Janne's brother Antti Warman from Craydawn. Lauri and Antti are now permanent members, whereas they were more session members during the recording of Unknown Soldier. Janne & co. took the full advantage of their own studio, The Warmen Productions Studio and recorded the entire album there. The album is entirely recorded and produced by Janne Warman himself. It was mixed in Finnvox Studios by Mikko Karmila (a name often connected to Spinefarms bands). The music follows along the lines set on the first album and the virtuosity of the entire band is unquestionable. Beyond Abilities is a superb trip into the realms of modern heavy metal, filled with the kind masterful songwriting weve come to expect from this gifted guru of the keyboards. Janne has once again penned most of the material for the album with Lauri contributing on a few songs. The material is even more versatile (partly due to the fact that there are more vocals on Beyond Abilities) and dumbfoundingly spectacular than on Unknown Soldier. Kimberly Goss (Sinergy), Timo Kotipelto (Stratovarius) & Pasi Nykänen (Helsinki Scene) all deliver stellar vocal performances, only enhancing the spellbinding effect Warmen have on their listener. In addition, the album features a Heart cover Alone, which will be also released as a single. Beyond Abilities is THE album for every heavy metal connoiseur who like their music challenging and entertaining. This will leave you gasping for air
