Korpiklaani

folk metal

Korpiklaani is a folk metal band from Finland who were formerly known as Shaman. The name Korpiklaani means Backwoods Clan in the Finnish language. In spoken language korpi means dark old forest. In biology it refers to boreal forest appearing on moist moraine soils, characterized by dense growth of spruce and a deep layer of moss as undergrowth. While other folk metal bands began with metal before adding folk music, Korpiklaani started with folk music before turning metal. The roots of Korpiklaani can be traced back to a Sami folk music group under the name of 'Shamaani Duo', an in-house restaurant band created by Jonne Järvelä in 1993. An album of folk music (Hunka Lunka) was released under this name before Järvelä relocated and Shamaani Duo morphed into Shaman. Shaman was the second incarnation of Korpiklaani, formed in 1996 which is notable for the heavy use of original native Sámic music elements and lyrics in Northern Sámi. The band's music was based on the folk music of Shamaani Duo. The most widely used elements are the shamanic drum, yoik and humppa. Besides yoik, the vocals vary from clean to rather aggressive growling. The musical style of Shaman is quite distinctive, especially in the slow songs, due to its entrancing atmosphere created by the monophonic, narrow synth sound making the deep contrast to the spacious sound of the acoustic guitar, the shamanic drum and yoik singing. The first recording released under the name of Shaman was the demo single Ođ...