Lordi

The metal-band called 'Lordi'

Lordi is a Finnish hard-rock band, who became famous internationally in year 2006 after winning the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens, Greece, though in Finland they were already known to their fans since about year 1997. Lordi are usually known for their appearance on the stage, in interviews and photos - the first thing the fans and other people think about when hearing this name, is - "the monsters". Indeed, they all wear masks and costumes, that are made individually for each memeber of the band by their leader to look like real, live monsters and to hide their true appearances.

Band history

• Lordi first appeared after the formation of the trio: Lordi (vocals), Amen (guitar) and G-Stealer (bass);
• in 1997 the band is joined by Enary on keyboard;
• In 1999, the group records the album Bend Over And Pray The Lord. Tiainen (the owner of their record company at the time) had originally planned to publish the album, but according to Tiainen and the record company, they didn't have sufficient resources to market the album;
• During the same year G-Stealer leaves the band because of work commitments and is replaced by Magnum,
• In 2000, the band is also joined by drummer Kita;
• Lordi signs a record deal with BMG Finland in 2002. In July 2002 the band releases their first single, "Would You Love A Monsterman?";
• In autumn 2002, bassist Magnum fires from band for personal reasons and is replaced by Kalma (Kalma did not play the first album, although he appeared as album art and the composition of the accounts );
• In November 2002 the band releases their debut album, Get Heavy;
• The band wins the 2003 Emma award for best domestic hard rock / heavy metal album, their debut album Get Heavy;
• In 2003, the Lordi appeared in several music events in Finland and abroad, especially in Germany;
• 2004 band releases their second album, The Monsterican Dream whose best-known songs are released on single "My Heaven Is Your Hell" and "Blood Red Sandman";
• On the same year they release the band's own short film, The Kin;
• The Monster Show, a compilation album is released in February 2005;
• In the same year the keyboardist Enary and bassist Kalma leave the band, both for different reasons; Awa and OX are assigned in their place;
• In May 20, year 2006 Lordi win the ESC2006 with the song ‘’Hard Rock Hallelujah’’ scoring 292 points ( a record in ESC which was broken on year 2009 );
• Lordi opens the fall of 2006 with Bringing Back the Balls to Europe tour; In November 2006, Lordi is headlining MTV Europe Music Awards;
• In spring 2007 Lordi heads for tour to Japan and Baltic countries; in May, the band is involved in The Helsinki ESC and opens the competition;
• In July 2007 the band goes on North-American tour; on 12th of October there is another American tour;

8 On 29th October 2008 new album, Deadache is released; album’s first single, Bite it Like a Bulldog is released on the 3rd September;

• In Febryary 2008, band's second horror movie, Dark Floors comes out;
• On September 15, 2010, the album Babez for Breakfast is released worldwide;
• On October 4, 2010, drummer Kita leaves the band for reason of pursuing his own career.

Discography

• Bend Over And Pray The Lord – never released
• Get Heavy (2002)
• The Monsterican Dream (2004)
• The Arockalypse (2006)
• Deadache (2008)
• Babez for Breakfast (2010)

Members

The design of the masks changes gradually with each new album Lordi present leaving the basic idea of monsters remain the same:

• Mr. Lordi - the leader, a crossbreed of a demon and a troll, he also The Most Fearsome Khan of All, the lead singer of the band;
• Amen - a dangerous, human flesh-eating mummy, former pharao, The Unstoppable Mummy, the guitar player of the band;
• Awa - a powerful witch, vampire, ghost and mentalist, also known as The Origin of Be Aware! and sometimes is reffered to as having some kind of schizophrenia, the keyboardist of the band;
• OX - a bulltaur (minotaur), alias The Hellbull or Operation 10 , the bass player of the band.
• Otus - a mixture of a butcher, an executioner, an alien, a lizzard and a zombie, the drummer.

Ex-members:

• Kita - an alien species, The Jaws of Terror, former drummer of the band ( 2000-2010 )
• Kalma - a zombie, The Motorcycle Zombie from Hell, former bass player ( 2002-2005 );
• Enary - a valkyrie, The Daughter of Death, The Ruiner of Valhalla, The Ageless Keeper of the Valkyrian Force, former keyboardist ( 1997-2005 );
• Magnum - an alien bounty hunter; former bass player ( 1999-2002 );
• G-Stealer - an alien species, former bass player ( 1996-1999 ).

Character History

Each Lordi character has its own background as to what he/she has done before meeting the other monsters ( NOT to be confused with the real person's behind the masks life! ) :

• Mr. Lordi - a bastard son of troll and demon; In 11th century when the demons and trolls fought for Lapland, the demons killed the male trolls and raped the female trolls, who were killed, too, so that no crossbreed could ever be born. But there was an exception: a horn-headed baby boy tore his way out of his dead mother’s womb, and his first action in this world was to kill the bear the demons had sent to kill his mother.

The boy had the worst characteristics and the strength of both species, having inherited the physical strength and connection to nature from trolls and the powers over the minds of both living and dead from the demons. He grew up under the protection of his three guardians – three reindeer and a great grey owl. At the age of 9 he met his demon father who wanted his son to join him. The boy slayed his father and the demons who were with him; took the name of Lordi and woke his animal guardians who had been killed in battle from the dead. With their help, he destroyed all the demons and trolls in Lapland. As master of Lapland, Lordi flew to Siberia where, in the world of spirits, he confronted the guardian animals of Siberian tribes and forced them into subservience. As he rode south and united all the tribes of horsemen into a huge army, Lordi got the name of Genghis Khan. When Genghis Khan was killed, his body was taken back to Mongolia without its head which had disappeared. In the 15th century, Lordi rose to power as Vlad III The Impaler – or count Dracula, after he was adopted by Vlad II Dracul, who was the leader of Order of the Dragon and from whom Lordi learned how to control the underground streams of energy. Mr. Lordi's armour is biomechanical, it responses to its owner's powers and health status.

• Amen - Amen Ra was the last pharaoh of the 6th dynasty of Egypt, a handsome and wise ruler who had a secret life as an assassin murdering the enemies of aristocracy for money. He also slaughtered his own advisors and took their widows into his harem.

The secret identity of the pharaoh was discovered after he received two deep scars on his face while he failed in a murdering attempt. After this, Amen Ra had all his political opponents assassinated, priests killed and all images of gods destroyed. To put fear into his enemies, he ate the hearts of those he murdered, and soon discovered that he had a taste for human flesh. If a lady from his harem turned cold on him, he cut off her nose and made her watch as he ate it. Amen’s underlings revolted and killed the monster. His body was mummified and his soul cursed with never-ending hunger for human flesh. He waited in his pyramid for 4000 years until it was discovered and he could escape, slaughtering all the members of expedition. Finally he met Mr. Lordi on his journey who, being impressed by this creature’s ravenous hunger and recognizing the curse which was put on him, offered Amen an alliance.

• Awa - Awa de Paysant, born in an aristocratic family in old England. At age of 23 she fell in love with a young charmer John Heart. However, her father had already promised her hand to Prince of Wormwell.

Awa was born with telekinetic abilities which developed when her father resorted to violence and she was able to detach her soul from her body to escape her father’s attacks. Developing this talent, she learned how to travel on an astral plane and transfer her conscience into inanimate objects. During one of these travels, she witnessed her fiancé John Heart cheating on her, she took the shape of the sheet he had used and strangled him. after this, she went traveling invisible, learning the skills of fortune-tellers, gypsies, wizards and other dark people. Finally, she learned how to transfer her mind into a living creature and swapped minds with a cat. She bound the conscience of a pastor’s wife into a painting and transferred her own mind into the woman’s body, in which she committed all sorts of lewd and improper behavior. The pastor became outraged with this and destroyed the painting of his wife. Thus, Awa couldn’t transfer the wife’s mind back into her body. However, the cats mind had done bad deeds on Awa’s body, and during the wedding ceremony the pastor saw Awa was possessed. She was impaled with a stake and buried, however found a way to return to her body. So she stepped inside her dead body in its rotting wedding dress and went traveling through Europe as a ghost after she had killed her own father. After coming across Mr. Lordi in the 19th century , Awa was offered a power to cross the edges of other dimensions, if she cooperates with him, and she said "Yes". Her eyes remind those of a cat or a snake.

• Enary - a banished valkyrie. She was born to Hel, who called the daughter Enary and put a mask on her face so noone could be able to recognise her. Planning to use the daughter as a tool to take over the armies of the fallen soldiers Odin has in Valhalla, Hel sent her to Odin in order to become a valkyrie.

Enary was the most aggressive valkyrie of all, sometimes she killed the worthy warriors herself without waiting for them to die in battle to gather their souls for Odin. Meanwhile, Hel's father, Loki, who was immune to his daughter's charms, started suspecting Hel as a traitor and reported his suspicion to Odin. The God of War became furious about the treason and banished Enary from Valhalla to Mount Pain, where she was to live and guard the border of the dimensions. From time to time, the banished valkyrie was able to concentrate her magic and travel outside for some time to gather the souls of fallen warriors. Finally she was found and set free by Mr. Lordi, who closed a deal with Odin. The terms of this contract are unknown, but it seems to be expired, because Enary is back in the Mount Pain. Being a very skillful warrior, she uses the sword made by Thor and is dressed in armor.

• Kalma - alias Nicholas Gore was a soldier in Vietnamese war, serving in the 4th motorcycle division. After the war, like many fellow veterans, Nicholas was unable to assimilate in the civil society. He grew his hair longer, bought a Harley Davidson motorcycle and went traveling through America, working on small jobs and spending everything he got from it on the Harley. After some time, driving through the Nevada desert, Nicholas unwittingly came across Kalmaged the Timetraveler, who was out there looking for an old alien space shuttle.

Unclear to him, Nicholas suddenly found himself in Britain, around year 2300, where he joined the rebellion. Some time after being killed in one of the raids on rebels, he was awakened from the dead by Kalmaged, who gave him a new name - Kalma - and made the zombie one of the brothers of The Kalmageddian Brotherhood, where Kalma started learning magic. After Kalmaged was killed by OX, all his games with the time and dimensions came to light, and the least Kalma could do was to help Mr. Lordi to track down the real Kalmaged who had disappeared into other time lines.. The zombie's favorite weapon is a shotgun.

• Kita - the alien warrior, though it is not known, whether his name refers to him only or the whole species. Kita was sent to Earth thousands of years ago by the dominant race of his home planet who used his kind in war machine in front lines of the land forces due to their primitive and bloody style of combat. the dominant species of his home planet apparently sent a few of the beasts to other planets.

Kita has been seen alive through the centuries and there have been references to him, like in the city of Pompei where images of the creature were found under the ashes. Sighting of the Yeti or Sasquatch have apparently also been connected with these beasts. During his travels through time, Lordi found Kita being enslaved to a snake demon who used Kita to keep the people of surrounding cities in fear. Mr. Lordi subdued the demon and by that won Kita’s trust. Kita is a water life form, though is able to breathe and walk on ground, thanks to this, he's able to move very fast and jump high and far; the alien is stronger than a grown-up mountain gorilla. Chains and collar are the signs of a slavery on his home planet and the dominant race had also had a computer chip inserted in his brain, making the beast more intelligent. The alien's skin is very thick and only acid can get through this natural armor and do serious damage.

• Magnum - the cyber-zombie warrior. Magnums was trained as a warrior and sold to the civilization of Mu Arae galaxie's 4th planet. After being killed in battle, his body was stored and modified, mixing metal parts with the actual biological structure, making him into a cyborg. As a cyborg, Magnum was used into several operations to protect the merchants, however he soon realized his real powers and fled from his boss. After being hunted through many planets and galaxies, Magnum finally came to an unknown to him planet – the Earth - where he was found by Mr.Lordi and agreed to cooperate with him. Being a warrior in Mu Arae galaxy, Magnum was also the enemy of Kita's and ( or ) G-Stealer's race, with part of his weapons being made specially for wounding and killing these predators.

• OX - a barbaric bulltaur (minotaur) warrior, who served a mage called Androlus living on a small island in Greek Archipelagos. The mage had in his possession the 10th Book of Octavus, which contained dark spells. Another mage, Kalmaged, stole the book and incited people from the nearby islands to kill both Androlus and OX.

After this, Kalmaged woke OX from the dead and made him his servant, having assembled the Kalmagedian Brotherhood which brothers were undead soldiers from different eras and the entire Universe. OX was the first of members of the Brotherhood. However, when he discovered that Kalmaged was the one who had had him and Androlus killed, he slaughtered his new master. As Mr. Lordi arrived later in searches for Kalmaged, he offered the Brotherhood an alliance. OX stayed behind to rule the Brotherhood until Kalma returned and it was the bulltaur’s turn to follow Lordi. As a bulltaur, OX is incredibly strong and rarely uses any weapon. However, bulltaurs are most dangerous when deadly wounded, the creature's mind blocks out then and the beast sinks into a kind of a trance, killing everyone in the near, until the battle is over, then the trance ends and the wounded bulltaur dies.

References

• Mie Oon Lordi, Jussi Ahlroth
• Lordi.fi