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Oratorio

About Me

Oh yeah, this really is the very official myspace of christian heavy metal band Oratorio! Have fun! :) Thank you very much for visiting.
Band history
Oratorio was founded in 1998 in Nurmijärvi, Finland. Band's name was picked randomly from an encyclopedia, and as it meant a religious music piece, it felt suitable for the band. The first line-up was:
Joel Hekkala- Vocals, guitar Jarmo Happonen- Guitar, vocals Lauri Joutsiniemi- Bass Janne Hietakangas- Drums.
At first, the band's lyrics were mainly in finnish. In the beginning of 1999 Oratorio released their debut demo-cd, ”Vähän”. It was significant for the band at that time but it wasn't actually a musical masterpiece. Band discussed about getting a new singer and maybe a solo guitarist. However, the band couldn't find a new singer and so Joel started to concentrate more on vocals. A new guitarist was found from Helsinki: Thomas Mata joined the band in 1999 as a solo guitarist and song writer. Year 1999 meant much for the band: Thomas took the guitar solos to a whole new level, Joel learned to sing decently and Janne rehearsed to play with double-pedals. At the end of 1999, Oratorio recorded their second demo-cd, ”Huuto” in Studio Watercastle, Jyväskylä. The difference between ”Vähän” and ”Huuto” was huge. As the skills increased, band started to have more gigs. As time went by, the new songs were written mainly in english.
In 2000, the band participated in a finnish christian metal compilation, ”The Rose metal collection” with a new song, ”Shine the light”.
In 2002 Marko Tolvanen joined the Oratorio crew: He has been mixing most of the Oratorio-shows since then.
As years went by and Oratorio had done many gigs around Finland, the time felt right for the first full-lenght album. The timeline between the songs in the first album was quite long, as the oldest song was about five years old and some of the songs were completed just before entering the studio. So the album was kind of a cross-section of the first years of the band. The album was recorded in Studio Watercastle in a very quick pace: It took only 13 days to record and mix the album. After the recordings, the band lacked a publisher. Thomas sent the album to a couple of record labels, and after a short while he got a phone-call from Christian Rivel. After short negotiations the band signed a contract with Rivel Records, and the first album, ”The Reality of Existence”, was released in november 2003.
At this point, Lauri decided to leave the band due to personal reasons. So, the band needed a new bassist. An old friend, Ilpo, was asked to play one gig in the fall 2003. As all went well, Ilpo was asked to join the band permanently. Ilpo, who was actually a skillful guitarist, humbled himself and took the vacancy as the new bassist of Oratorio. So the current line-up was formed:
Joel Hekkala- Vocals, guitar Thomas Mata- Guitar, backing vocals Jarmo Happonen- Guitar, backing vocals Ilpo Istolainen- Bass Janne Hietakangas- Drums
The album was well welcomed by the media and the audience, so year 2004 meant more gigs for Oratorio. The band had its first shows abroad, as they played in Sweden, Norway and Germany.
In 2006, the time was right for the second album. The band decided not to publish the second album through Rivel Records, but through Mata Records, which was Thomas' and his brother Peter's own record label. The band wanted to make a huge improvent for their sound, so they decided to take more time for the recordings. Drums were recorded in Fantom-studio, Tampere, and all other instruments and vocals were recorded in D-studio, Klaukkala. This felt like right decision, because now the band had enough time to record in their own peace. The album was mixed in Fantom-studio. After a lot of stress and hurry, the work paid off: Oratorio's second album, ”Redemption” was released in time. The release-gig took place in Turku 18th November 2006 (Maata Näkyvissä- festarit, the biggest christian youth festival in the Nordic countries), and next week it hit the finnish charts! It was in 36th place in the official chart of Finland. The release-gig was a success, and now the band is waiting enthusiastically to make more gigs!
The form of Oratorio's music has changed a lot during the past nine years. But the contents have remained the same: The forward-pushing force of the band has always been the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 08/01/2007
Band Website: http://www.oratoriometal.com
Band Members: Lauri Joutsiniemi - Bass

Joel Hekkala - Vocals & guitar

Thomas Mata - Lead-guitar & backing vocals

Veikko Kurki - Drums
Record Label: None
Type of Label: Unsigned

My Blog

MUUTOKSIA KOKOONPANOSSA - CHANGES IN LINE-UP

Tervehdys!Muutosten tuulet puhaltelevat Oratorion leirissä. Kitaristimme Ilpo on päättänyt jäädä pois Oratoriosta musiikillisten sekä henkilökohtaisten syiden takia.Haluamme kiittää Ilpoa lämpimästi y...
Posted by on Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:04:00 GMT

GREAT NEWS!

Greetings!We have found the suitable bassplayer for Oratorio. He is Lauri Joutsiniemi from Jokela, Finland =)As some of you may know, Lauri is one of the founders of Oratorio and he also played on O's...
Posted by on Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:06:00 GMT

REHEARSALS WITH BASSPLAYER CANDIDATE

Hi!Finally, we had an opportunity to play with proper bassist after a long time. This guy seemed to handle our songs quite well :)  You'll hear more news later .. !God bless you all.Ilpo / Orator...
Posted by on Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:44:00 GMT

NEW DRUMMER .. !!!

Hello!I'm very happy to tell you that Oratorio has now a new drummer, and the guy's called VEIKKO KURKI and he's  from Vantaa, Finland. Veikko is a positive person, and he seems to have (at least...
Posted by on Sat, 10 May 2008 00:49:00 GMT

THINGS ARE ADVANCING =)

Hello!I'm very happy to say that we have now a drummer that is very, very, very most likely the next drummer of Oratorio. We had rehearsals again and playing with this guy is very smooth, although the...
Posted by on Sat, 03 May 2008 08:23:00 GMT

MISSING MEMBERS & SITE UPDATING

Hi everyone!We have been a little silent recently, and that's because we are still looking for new bass player and drummer. There's been a few candidates for both of the vacancies, but from different ...
Posted by on Tue, 15 Apr 2008 04:18:00 GMT

Rehearsals with one drummer-candidate

Hi!We had an opportunity to play some Oratorio-songs with a new drummer candidate. All went quite well, although the guys experience level of playing oratorio's music was very small. We rehearsed 3 ne...
Posted by on Mon, 21 Jan 2008 03:39:00 GMT

CHANGES IN LINE-UP

Hello!Our long-time drummer Janne has left the band because of his difficult schedule of work. He's a pilot now in a flight company, so he thought that it is best for him to leave the band. His schedu...
Posted by on Sat, 22 Dec 2007 01:08:00 GMT

RIVISTÖN MUUTOKSIA !! - Basistia ja rumpalia HAUSSA!!

Moro!Tosiaan, on tapahtunu vähä muutoksia bändin sisällä. Tässäpä nyt jotakin infoa.Meidän pitkäaikainen rumpali Janne päätti lopettaa bändissä, koska hänen työaikataulut ovat niin arvaamattomia. Jann...
Posted by on Sun, 16 Dec 2007 01:23:00 GMT

2 GIGS CONFIRMED !

Hello! At last, we have 2 gigs now confirmed. We welcome you all ;)Take care,Ilpo / Oratorio
Posted by on Sun, 16 Sep 2007 09:48:00 GMT