Text by Tuula Pesonen
J. AHOLA – NORTHERN KINGS
Northern Kings is a symphonic heavy metal group formed in 2007 by four of Finland’s charismatic heavy metal “Kings”: J. Ahola (Teräsbetoni), Marco Hietala (Nightwish, Tarot), Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica) and JP Leppäluoto (Charon). The combination of four outstanding vocalists, each with their own unique charm and personalised style of vocals, a group of extremely talented musicians, along with a full symphony orchestra can only result in a sweet listening experience.
Northern Kings has proved cover albums can indeed be different and interesting if the group exhibits the assertiveness and creativeness to do something exceptional. They have succeeded in boldly reshaping and successfully turning classic hits into completely new and exciting metal versions, of the songs they perform.
Please check out Northern Kings’ own profile page (link on the FRONTPAGE) for the latest info on what the guys are up to and to catch the videos for A Kiss From A Rose and We Don’t Need Another Hero! Thanks!
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CATCH THE “KINGS” ON TV
Northern Kings isn’t participating in the Finnish Eurovision Qualification 2009 but the group is performing at the gala! If you’re interested in seeing this dynamic group of guys give a sizzling performance, watch the program “Eurovision 2009: Suomen Finaali” on Yle2 (TV Finland), to be broadcast live January 31st 2009 beginning at 20:00.
1 JANUARY 2009
RADIO ROCK FINLANDIA GALA 2008
Northern Kings performed live at the Radio Rock Finlandia gala on December 5th 2008 to an enthusiastic and appreciative audience. The show was certainly impressive with it’s stunning pyrotechniques. There was a sense of magic in the air as these four charismatic Kings “set the stage on fire”, their voices detonating the arena. Consequently, the air was charged, so much so, the excited audience attempted to get the Kings back for an encore at the end of the set! In addition to Take On Me and We Don’t Need Another Hero which were televised, the guys performed A Kiss From A Rose and A View To A Kill.
10 DECEMBER 2008
SECOND ALBUM “RETHRONED” OUT NOW!
Rethroned, Northern Kings’ sequel to the Reborn album, was released on November 19th 2008. For this album, the guys worked much closer together, combining their distinctive voices and styles and thus, achieving a more unified presentation of the songs on the album. The second album has a stronger, rockier sound and includes classic hits not only from the 80’s, but other decades as well.
J., Marco, Tony and JP each sing the lead vocal in one song on the Rethroned album. J.’s contribution is the song, My Way, with lyrics written by Paul Anka and originally made popular by Frank Sinatra. In addition, J. and Marco perform Thin Lizzy’s Róisin Dubh (Black Rose): A Rock Legend as a duet and the opening song, Training Montage, is an instrumental piece with Erkka Korhonen on lead guitar. The remainder of the songs on the album feature all four vocalists.
25 NOVEMBER 2009
INTERVIEW ON RAGNAROK RADIO
Northern Kings was interviewed by Ragnarok Radio – Scottish Heavy Metal Podcast (UK). Northern Kings’ interview was Episode 24 broadcast on August 8th 2008, featuring interviews with all four of the guys. The complete interview is approximately 103 minutes long and begins with Northern Kings’ song We Don’t Need Another Hero. J.’s portion of the interview begins at approximately 69 minutes through with Teräsbetoni’s song Missä Miehet Ratsastaa (ESC version). The interviewer and J. cover various topics of interest and the show ends with J.’s rendition of Hello (Northern Kings, Reborn).
FIRST LIVE PERFORMANCE!
Northern Kings performed live for the first time at the Radio Rock Finlandia gala on December 5th 2007. Unfortunately, Marco wasn’t able to take part due to prior commitments, but J., Tony and JP enthralled the audience with We Don’t Need Another Hero, J. performed Hello and JP, Rebel Yell. After their performance, the Kings were presented with gold records for the Reborn album attaining the gold status in sales.
DEBUT ALBUM “REBORN” SELLS GOLD!
Northern Kings’ debut album, Reborn, was released October 31st 2007 and in Finland, broke the gold level of albums sold. Two singles were released off of the album: We Don’t Need Another Hero and Hello. The album has since been released in the United Kingdom, portions of Europe and Japan (2008).
J.’s contributions to the album were: Lionel Richie’s Hello, which he turned into an up-tempo metal rocker without losing the sensitivity of the original recording; Cutting Crew’s I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight, which became a slow, fragile and towards the end of the song, pretty massive piece, with a different rhythmic time (6/8); and Electric Light Orchestra’s Don’t Bring Me Down, which changed into a faster rockier piece with a special C-part integrating one of J.’s favourite ELO songs, Time.
NORTHERN KINGS IS FORMED
The concept for Northern Kings began to slowly evolve during the Raskasta Joulua recordings and associated gigs. Somewhere around the early spring of 2007, the idea took on the form of reality. J., in collaboration with Marco Hietala, Tony Kakko, JP Leppäluoto and members of their respective bands, decided to unite forces under the name Northern Kings and approach cover songs from a new perspective. The idea was to turn things totally upside down and incorporate a heavier, symphonic sound to 80’s pop songs.
The members of Northern Kings, appropriately crowned as: The King of High Notes (J. Ahola), The King of the Kings (Marco Hietala), The King of Catchy Melody Lines (Tony Kakko) and The King of Mystique (JP Leppäluoto) continue to expand their domain, attracting new fans from around the world, into their kingdom.
JANUARY 2009
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