Tarot

heavy metal

There are multiple artists named Tarot: 1) Tarot is a heavy metal band from Kuopio, Finland, formed in 1985. While having enjoyed a broad underground popularity in Finland, the band has never been very famous elsewhere until gaining new success in the recent years when their singer Marco Hietala joined Nightwish in 2002. Tarot was originally formed by the Hietala brothers in the early 1980s. Back then the band’s name was “Purgatory”. As Purgatory reached the point when they got the record deal, the label wanted them to change their name. Since then the band has been known as Tarot. The line-up settled in to the form of Marco Hietala (bass/vocals), Zachary Hietala (guitars), Mako H. (guitars) and Pecu Cinnari (drums). The Wings of Darkness single saw the daylight in 1986 and during that same year they released their first full length album, Spell of Iron. The next year they released Rose on the Grave. In 1988 the second Tarot album, Follow Me Into Madness, was released. After the second album there was a hiatus in the band. During this “vacation” the line-up changed a little bit and a keyboardist was added to the band as Janne Tolsa joined Tarot, who replaced the second guitarist Mako H. After five years of silence the third album, To Live Forever, was finished in 1993. Tarot got good publicity in Japan so their first live album was released in 1994 only in Japan. The gig was recorded at Tavastia Club, Helsinki. Fortunately some of the songs from the live album wer...