BIRTH OF A DEATH METAL WIZARD

Gandalf, the death metal band from Helsinki, Finland, was founded by Nalle Österman in the summer of 1993. Joining Nalle in this venture was also one Mika "Gas Lipstick" Karppinen (Dementia, Kyyria & HIM) who promised to help out on a demo. In addition, two old friends from Kontula (a suburb of Helsinki) joined to complete the lineup for the demo recording. Timo Nyberg (Ladyhawke) on guitar and Jari Hurskainen on vocals. After getting the guys together, Gandalf rehearsed some material written by Nalle for about a month. With Jari singing, Timo and Nalle playing the guitars and Kaasu playing the drums, they recorded their debut demo "Will Life Ever End?" in August/September 1993.

The demo suffers from a bad sound quality but the sheer energy and brutality of the band is already evident at this time. Intense and fast death metal is to be found on this offering. Nalle reckons that the early Gandalf stuff was much in the vein of such bands as Nihilist, Carnage, Grave and Dismember from Sweden. Some time after the recording of the demo a fellow named Niku joined on a session basis on bass.

After "Will Life Ever End?", Gas parted company with Gandalf because Kyyria had started to take too much of his time. Also Niku left the Gandalf camp. The period between November 1993 and June 1994 was not a creative time for Gandalf. This was because Nalle and Jari had to join the Finnish Army and serve their time. It was during this period that Nalle started to consider the possibility of playing drums. He made the decision to take on the drums, but now only one problem remained. Where would the band find members for a full lineup?

Adverts were placed in music magazines and in some music shops and that was the way how Tommi Launonen got in touch with Gandalf. Tommi joined on a session basis on bass because he was already a member of a band called Nomicon, which he considered his first priority. A second guitarist was found in Santtu Sierilä. Santtu had played with Gas in Dementia (Fin), so Gas recommended him and he checked Gandalf out and liked what he heard and saw enough to join.

With this lineup Gandalf recorded their second demo in December 1994, simply entitled "Demo 2 '94". This demo makes much more justice to the band because of the better production. For the first time Timo is credited for three songs, co-written with Nalle. The demo shows much better the diversity of the song material with such tracks as 'Morning Sun' and 'Carry The Torch' which are influenced more by traditional heavy metal as we know it. Also the vocals are much more up front in the mix resulting in a more balanced sound. The band had now proved that they were a force to be reckoned with and that they would stay on the Finnish metal scene for years to come even if they got a recording contract or not.

THE WIZARD ROCKS THE CRADLE

Enter 1995 and Gandalf finally finds a permanent member to bash the bass. The man in question was Kirka Sainio, formerly of Airdash. So, the band gained some serious experience when Kirka joined and at the end of the year this new lineup presented the third demo entitled "The Cradle". Now, this is one helluva demo! To start with, the sound on the demo is exceptional. A dynamic production where every aspect of the band seems to be in balance, courtesy of Hiili Hiilesmaa. This is the period in time where the band really defines their own sound, which will be labelled "Melodic Death Groove". An unique style of death metal that blends melody and groove with traditional heavy metal, thrash and the feared "Gothenburg" sound.

The title track "The Cradle" pays musically fine tribute to the glory days of British heavy metal. A song with true "hit potential" if you catch the drift. The demo also features fast and furious material, for example the track "Dark Memories" on which Santtu shears co-writing credits for the first time with Timo and Nalle. Furthermore, we have the awesome "Eagles' Nest" which is pure evidence of what the creative minds of Nalle and Timo could achieve when they worked towards a common goal. "The Cradle" was widely send out to record companies and magazines around the globe. It got some really good reviews and record labels were beginning to show interest in the new melodic death groovers from the north. Some of the rave reviews can be found in magazines like Terrorizer (UK) and More Than Music (USA). It seems that "The Cradle" was the demo that made the name Gandalf stick in the minds of the international press and pave the way for more attention along the road.

THE SPELL OF THE SNAKEBITE

In 1996 Gandalf played various gigs mostly in Helsinki, in fact they must have played more gigs this year than altogether in the previous years. The increasing amount of gigs was a good thing for the band because every time they seemed to be growing a little bit tighter than before. One of the biggest gigs of 1996 for Gandalf was the support slot at the "Mother Of All Massacres III" festival which Dark Tranquillity headlined. The buzz that "The Cradle" demo had created in the previous year made various record labels contact the band, to name a few: Metal Blade (USA), Progressive Rock (Denmark) and Spinefarm (Finland). Some of the foreign labels wanted additional fresh material and this was the reason why the band humbly entered the MD-studio to record a promo demo entitled "Snakebite" in August 1996.

Once again hiring the production talents of producer Hiili Hiilesmaa (HIM, Apocalyptica, Sentenced) they worked overtime laying down five tracks to tape during a weekend. In the end only three made it to the final distributed demo. Soundwise "Snakebite" follows in the footsteps of "The Cradle", the material is strong and maybe a little bit maturer than on the predecessor. What we have here is three equally strong tracks, the haunting "The Dragon", the medieval sounding "Forlorn" and the press favourite "Marionette". The two leftover tracks which went under the working titles of "Live To Suffer" and "No Guilt" have a certain rawness and flavour to them that makes the assault even heavier. Primed for record labels, "Snakebite" put all the speculations to an end about the question if the band would be signed or not, but little did they know about the troubles to come...

CAN WIZARDS LIVE TO SUFFER?

As 1997 loomed around the corner the band was filled with promise and studio time was booked for March. They had decided on the offer from Danish label Progressive Rock. January and February was spent in rehearsal for the upcoming studio session. However, one live performance was to be witnessed when Gandalf supported Sentenced at the Tavastia Club in Helsinki on their "Down"-tour of Finland. Well, once again back to the warm caress of the MD-studio, but this time no more demos, a whole studio album was to be recorded in two weeks. A familiar setting, producer Hiili behind the mixing desk and the guys taking turns, recording their various parts. During the recordings the general vibe was that they had some problems in finding "the magic sound" they were looking for. The album was named "Live to Suffer" and what an appropriate title that proved to be because it seemed that the album was jinxed from start to finish.

In April, the band went to supervise the mixing of the album at Finnvox Studios. The mixing took about a week to do. Around this time the soup was stirred once again when the band got a more lucrative offer from the Austrian Dark Matter Records. Having not yet signed their names to the Danish deal the band opted for the Austrian. The work started with the Austrian label to get the album finished, packaged and out on the market. When the band got the test pressings of the album, the result was really disappointing. Everybody had heavy second thoughts about releasing the album. A decision was made to put the album back to August/September.

Meanwhile the band headed into the dark woods of Finland to play the Nummirock festival in June which Megadeth headlined. They got a warm response and vowed to return again next year. It seemed that the only thing that was missing was a proper album to promote. Well, as always when the shit gets stirred it gets stirred a lot. The next hassle came when the other members of the band felt that things were not working out as they should with rhythm guitarist Santtu Sierilä. Therefore the band and Santtu parted company in July.

The communication between Gandalf and their record company seemed to be getting worse and worse. The record company didn't like the fact that the band was lacking a second guitarist and the band felt that they didn't want to release a second rate debut album. There was even talk about that the band would fly to Austria to re-record the album but this never happened. To make things even more interesting enter: Earache. Pioneer metal label Earache had become very interested and wanted to sign the band for a their new sub-label Wicked World. What followed was a period of deep frustration and legal hassle.

Because the band was still searching for a second guitarist, Corporal Punishment guitar maestro Nirri Niiranen (Airdash, Stone) helped the band out on a session basis at some gigs. It took until November before the table was cleared and the band could proceed to negotiate a deal with Earache. Now, "Live To Suffer" was definitely scrapped. Most likely one of the hardest decisions the band had to take during this period of dark chaos. Around the same time they announced that they had found a new guitarist in Sami Vauhkonen. Sami played in a band called Coarse, nowadays known as Lullacry, which drummer Nalle also bashed the drums for in the early days. The road was cleared and the wizard was able to roar forward with the new fellow on guitar and the forthcoming contract with Earache.

The time waiting for things to clear was not wasted because new songs were written all the time. The titels on offer were: "Stronger Than Hell", "End Of Time" and "Fade Away". Indeed, the first work that the band would undertake for Earache was to record one exclusive track for a forthcoming compilation album, which would feature such names as Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, Thy Serpent and The Haunted among others. Together with producer Mikko Karmila the band entered studio 303 in Helsinki on December 19th to record the track "Carry The Torch". This song was first put to tape on "Demo 2" way back in 1994. They finished the track in eighteen hours and Mr Karmila made sure that this time nothing would go wrong. The guys were overvelmed with the end result and felt that this was the best recording they had ever done, and it most likely was.

DEADLY FAIRYTALES FOR THE MASSES

Over to 1998. The guys now had one foot in the Earache office and the next step would be to land firmly with both feet in the Earache camp. The record company showed green light for the recording of the debut album and the pre-production was done over a short space of time in January/February. This time the death groovers decided to get away from the megalopolis that is Helsinki and it's hectic way of life. The place of choice was Lappeenranta's Astia Studio which is the homecave of producer Anssi Kippo.

Among Mr Kippo's production work we have the highly acclaimed Children of Bodom debut "Something Wild" and hundreds of other albums . Spending the end of March and early April close to the Russian border, the band put various tracks down to tape and experimented with the songs a little bit more than before. Finally ten tracks were chosen for the album. Including four old favourites: "The Cradle", "Marionette", "Dark Memories" and "Forlorn" with slightly altered arrangements. Six new songs, never officially released before, these were: "End Of Time", "The Price Of My Deeds", "Eternal Fire", "Stronger Than Hell" and the extremely strong and standout ones "Fade Away" and "Never Again".

In May all the details of the contract were sorted out and Gandalf finally signed with the new Earache sub-label Wicked World. Once again before anything would be released the band headed in to the woods to play Nummirock for the second time. This time such big names as Slayer and Pantera was to be found on the bill. The first release on the Wicked World label was the "Statements Of Intent" compilation which hit the shops in August. Gandalf's "Carry The Torch '98" got a very, very nice response and was astonishingly voted as the best track on the CD in metal magazine Kerrang!

The debut album was named "Deadly Fairytales" and was scheduled for an October release. "Deadly Fairytales" was indeed a very strong debut. The production of Anssi Kippo deserves special credit. Well, anyway, it seems that he had inspired the band in their experiments with the sound better than any producer before. The band is in balance and the whole "package" is wrapped very well together from start to finish. Timo and Sami work out the guitar leads in perfect co-operation. The best twin lead guitar pair to date for the band. Nalle and sound professor Kirka also provide a strong backbone to the war assemble.

The album got very good reviews around the globe, for example Kerrang! gave it 4 out of 5 possible marks. In November the band celebrated the achievements of the new album by throwing a record release party at the Tavastia Klubi in Helsinki. Sadly, all was not that rosy around the time of the album release. The Finnish distributor didn't promote the album at all which resulted in a situation where it was very hard to get hold of it in Finland. This of course resulted in very poor sales figures in the home market. Internationally things seemed to be a little better. The album was even released in Japan with "Carry The Torch '98" as a bonus track.

As the year changed into 1999, the album got its American release when Earache signed a new distribution deal for their products in the USA. Gandalf was noted in various reader's polls for 1998 which started to surface at the beginning of the year. The various positions where usually in the top 20, which meant that the record buying public had started to take notice. The track "Eternal Fire" was included on the Metalliliitto 1999 compilation album which was released in August, only in Finland. The band played various gigs, among others the Tavastia Klubi a couple of times, Tuska Metal Festival and Lepakko, all part of the promotion for "Deadly Fairytales".

There where rumors about a possible video shoot and tours abroad, but none of these happened during the year. Towards the end of the year the band started the writing and rehearsals for the next studio album. But before the sessions for a new album could begin the band had to sort out (once again) some problems with their lineup. Sami had decided to concentrate all his energy on Lullacry. This had caused some tensions between him and Nalle for some time already and the solution was found when Sami and Gandalf went their separate ways. Also Kirka had long aspired to make a career as a professional sound engineer, and only perform as a session musician in various projects. Therefore he also decided leave the band and pursue these other activities. Sad but true, Gandalf was once again in need of a bass and guitar player.

A MILLENNIUM IN ROCK HELL

The new millennium started with an announcement about the current state of affairs in the Gandalf camp. The working title for the second studio album was "Rock Hell". The new guitarist was Toni Näykki (Twilight Opera) and the bass would be played by Kimmo Aroluoma (Jimsonweed). For the first time in many a moon the band was in a situation where they could build the foundation of the next album mostly on brand new material. Only two old songs were re-arranged for the album, namely: "Morning Sun" and "The Dragon". Most of the album was written by Nalle but also Timo and Toni made some strong contributions by writing the music to a couple of tracks. The band entered Seawolf Studios in Helsinki with producer Hannu Leidén in February 2000. This time the band focused a lot on getting a "rock" sound to blend with the melodic death groove that had become a trademark sound for the band. Many hours of work was put down on the vocals and backing vocal support was provided by Marco Hietala (Tarot, Sinergy, Nightwish) and Peter James Goodman (Conquest).

During the recording of the album the band parted ways with Toni and hence the situation was once again a too familiar setting: no second guitarist! The band solved this problem by inviting some friends to play guitar on the album. Titus Hjelm (Thunderstone) and J.Mezola made their contributions by playing lead guitar on some of the tracks on the album. The sessions dragged on a bit and where finalised during July 2000. To make things worse, Wicked World postponed the release of the album with half a year. Nevertheless, the band got to shoot a video for the track "Morning Sun". This one would be included on an Earache compilation DVD, before the album's actual release. The video was shot on location in Viaborg, Helsinki and directed by Antti Lahtinen.

The finished album "Rock Hell" was released in January 2001. No question about it, the band hand certainly taken some chances, even risks, with the new sound approach. It received somewhat mixed reviews. Some felt this new "rockier" direction suited the band while others didn't understand it at all. The album is very varied and the new songs range from mellow rockers to more intense thrashier numbers. The band was maybe most experimental on such tracks as "Human Value Zero", "Geysir" and "Live To Suffer". For the first time, vocalist Jari Hurskainen put the pen to the paper and contributed lyrics to the track "Live To Suffer".

The touring that followed later in the same year secured Harri Hytönen (Dragon Sun) as the new second guitarist. Gandalf supported The Haunted in Finland in May before embarking on a British Tour as support to Katatonia in the summer. Also joining the tour was Akercocke. The last show Gandalf ever played was at the Tuska Metal Festival in July 2001 in Helsinki.

Towards the end of the year 2001 the relationships between the band members seemed to be deteriorating at an alarming speed. There was some work done on some new songs, mainly by Nalle, but the situation seemed to just get worse. The state of affairs didn't improve during the first half of the new year. The end to the deadly fairytale came in late April 2002 when Nalle Österman announced that he had disbanded Gandalf since he saw no future for the band anymore. In his press release Nalle stated that there was a strong blood bond between himself, Jari and Timo. In case one of the three would jump ship, Gandalf could not continue. Now he did it himself, hence no more Gandalf.

Will life ever end? Does this mark the end of time? Will the wizard ride again? Gone is Gandalf the grey, now rise Gandalf the white!