Legendary Finnish Metallers STONE Back In Action; Live

Legendary Finnish Metallers STONE Back In Action; Live Report, Photos Available

Special report and photo by Lasse Arkela

Back in 1985 four kids from Kerava and Espoo, suburbs of Helsinki, Finland, formed a rock band called STONE, which would influence the Finnish music scene like no other band.

Local trash metal scene was starting to raise its head very slowly and soon after their first demo, produced by Mikko Karmila, Stone got signed to Megamania in 1987. With their self-titled debut in 1988 they set a benchmark to the Finnish heavy metal scene and only to top it with the second record No Anaesthesia! only a year later.

In 1991, only four years and four albums later, Stone felt that the boundaries of the thrash metal genre became too tight and their musical ambitions were heading to different directions. So they decided to call it quits, leaving a huge void into the Finnish metal scene.

All members continued their lives in their own walks of life, still in close contact to the music scene bass player/vocalist Janne Joutseniemi formed a band called SUBURBAN TRIBE. Drummer Pekka Kasari set the beat in AMORPHIS for six years.

In 2003, after various other bands like WALTARI, SINERGY, Stone’s lead guitarist Roope Latvala joined to CHILDREN OF BODOM filling the boots of Alexander Kuoppala. Roope was a perfect match to the lineup, not the least due to the fact that the leading man Alexi Laiho was a huge Stone fan.

After the breakup only a handful of shows have been performed, the latest shows back in 2000 in Nummirock and Tuska festivals.

On Friday May 30th, twenty years later after their debut release, Stone climbed on the stage of Club Nosturi. The 40 minutes they played showed that they still had it all what it takes: bass, two guitars, drums, one mind, full strength! Set list: 'Sweet Dreams', 'Empty Corner', 'The Day Of Death', 'Real Delusion', 'No Commands', 'Get Stoned'.

Later this summer Stone will play in Sauna Open Air, Tampere, Finland (June 7th) and at Jurrasic Rock, Mikkeli, Finland (August 9th).

A BW&BK Photo Gallery can be found here.