Excalion was born in December 2000 in Konnevesi, central Finland. Keyboard player Jarmo "Jappe" Myllyvirta had written some melodic power metal-style songs and began looking for a group to play his ideas aloud. So it happened that four people gathered in a tiny rehearsal room: Jappe, drummer Henri Pirkkalainen, bassist Timo Sahlberg and guitarist Tero Vaaja. After some playing, some chatting and some playing again, those four people realized that they had a band. For reasons that have partly escaped everyone, the band was named Excalion.
The next obvious task was to find someone to sing the songs. Solution was near. Jarmo Pkknen was a guy known of his big voice; Jarmos former band had recently split up, so he was available to join the band. .
Excalion played its first gig ever in spring 2001 at Tyventalo, Konnevesi. Apart from Excalions own songs, the setlist included Stratovarius covers and some Nightwish songs without vocals (!) Soon after this Excalion acquired its full line-up when Kimmo Hnninen, who had played together with Jarmo before, joined the band as guitarist. In autumn 2001 Excalion recorded their first demo. This was done at Studio Kaktus near Jyvskyl, where they had two days to record and mix three songs: Forlorn, Heart & Home and Sinners Symphony.
In autumn 2002 Excalion started to make their second demo, this time with their own equipment and studio software. The unwillingness to pay large fees for studio time led the band to learn how to do things independently and experiment. The demo was worked in short sessions all the time through spring 2003.
This demo was convincing enough. At the end of 2003 the band signed a deal with Sound Riot Records, and the recording of Excalions debut album was fixed at autumn 2004. The tracks to be recorded included brand new songs written during 2004 and some reworkings of the older songs. The work was done at Studio Watercastle in Jyvskyl in September.
The debut album, which was named Primal Exhale, was released in autumn 2005. The album ended up featuring ten tracks. The album received some very positive feedback.
Early 2005, before the release, changes in the line-up took place. Kimmo decided he wanted to leave the band because of lack of time and motivation, and Excalion had to look for a new guitar player. When bassist Timo soon also left the band and new, excellent guitarist Vesa Nupponen joined in, the decision was made that Tero would switch to bass, and Excalion would continue as a five-member band with one guitar. The decision was ultimately very easy, because the new line-up immediately started to work extremely well.
May 2006 was time for recordings of band´s second album Waterlines. Recordings took place once again in Watercastle Studio. During the fall 2006 it came clear that album had potential and some bigger record companies were interested in licensing the album. Eventually Limb Music licensed the album. Release date is scheduled 2nd of March 2007.
www.excalion.comExcalion: Wingman -video from "Waterlines" -album:Excalion: Losing Time -video from "Waterlines" -album:
Help us out by putting this banner on your profile! Select all the code in the box below the banner and paste into your profile. Thanks!
Thank you guys for the add, much appreciated. Just checking in for updates and to dig the tunes. Hope to see you guys very soon. Cheers from Montreal. Mariano !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are releasing a new song called ''Human'' on our myspace page. This song has been recorded with the new band musicians, Walter Campos on vocals and Rodolfo Iriarte on keyboards. You will finally have the chance to get to know them! Come check out!
Also, I'd like to oficially announce that we have changed the band's name from Ruthless Cry to ''Still Alive''.
Don't forget to check out our new myspace layout and our new song ''Human''!
We're stopping by to say a huge Thank You for being a member of UK Metal Underground. With so many friends it's hard for us to get to know everyone, so we're taking time out to leave you a comment and ask that you stop by our forum to introduce yourself or your band so that we can meet you and get to know you better.
If you've not stopped by our myspace page lately, then we have Interviews, Bands of the Month, Reviews and Directories for Bands, Labels and Gig Promoters and much much more ASK US HOW WE CAN HELP YOUR BAND OR COMPANY FOR FREEIf you are interested in a review, click here for info....Hope to speak to you soon!
ps....every month we issue a free webzine to mailing list subscribers. It's packed with industry news, interviews, gigs, reviews and contacts - to sign up for a copy or to find out more about being featured - http://www.unionblack.net/lists/ click here
really? thats interesting thanks for the heads up lol its my retirement plan- im gonna leave the us when im maybe 50 or 60 and go to brazil, sweden, finland, germany, etc and just go to a ton of awesome concerts with my retirement money. fuck sitting and waiting to die, im gonna spend the last 20 years of my life in a moshpit! haha
well its not that you look "in shape", its that you look like teenagers! lol but i know youre not because some of your albums were around during my childhood (at least in finland). btw whats the weather like there? i plan on moving to either sweden or finland within the next decade or so. lol im serious about it too im learning swedish hehe
haha photoshop that just made my day! hey while i got your guys attention is there any way i can get you to put up the songs "life on fire" and "soaking ground" from your album waterlines? heh id love ot have em on my profile playlist lol
Man I've been a huge fan of Excalion and many similar swedish and finnish metal bands for quite some time now, and I never noticed how YOUNG the members look! Gods, man they look like they still have baby fat! Lol
Guitar-Vesa Nupponen
Keyboards-Jarmo Myllyvirta
Drums-Henri Pirkkalainen
Bass-Tero Vaaja
Online Now!
..
