Karelia (band)

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Karelia


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Origin = Guebwiller, France
Genre = Symphonic power metal
Years_active = 2000–present
Label = Drakkar Productions
Associated_acts = Heavenly
Jerican
Northwind
Post-Mortem
URL = [http://www.karelia.fr/ www.karelia.fr]
Current_members = Matthieu Kleiber
Erwan Morice
Gilles Thiebaut
Loïc Jenn
Jack Ruesch
Past_members = Chris Savourey
Claude Gasparini
Lionel Vest
Bertrand Maillot
Sébastien Fellmann

Karelia is a French heavy metal band created in 2000 by Lionel Vest and Matthieu Kleiber.

Biography

Karelia first released a self-titled demo in 2000.

Their first full-length album "Usual Tragedy" was released in 2004 on the German label Drakkar Records. It includes many orchestral arrangements which are the reason why the band's music is often called symphonic heavy metal or simply symphonic metal. Lyricwise, "Usual Tragedy" is a concept album about a man who crossed both World Wars, lost his father during the first one, lost his beloved one during the second one, witnessed the violence and the madness of men, eventually lost his own sanity and died alone and anonymous in an hospital.

Their second studio album, "Raise", released in 2005 on Drakkar Records as well, is not as orchestral as "Usual Tragedy" but has dark, melancholic atmospheres that could already be heard on the first album as well and that seem to be the band's trademark; that's why Karelia's music is also sometimes called gothic metal. The lyrics deal with various themes such as blinding and misleading of people by a charismatic leader ("Raise"), religion wars ("Cross and Crescent"), childhood ("Child Has Gone", "Unbreakable Cordon"), depression ("Breakdown").

In January 2007, keyboardist Bertrand Maillot left the band, and Jack Ruesch joined the band as second guitarist.

In June 2007, the band finished the recording of its third album "Restless". It was first expected to be released in September/October 2007 (as stated in January 2007 on their still-working then website), but Karelia later announced on [http://www.myspace.com/kareliaband/ its MySpace] that it would be released through the French label Season Of Mist; the label's website displays April 21st 2008 as the release date. The cover artwork hasn't been revealed yet. "Restless" will show new musical orientations, featuring industrial elements, as can be heard in the samples available on [http://www.myspace.com/kareliaband/ the band's MySpace] .

In fall November 2007, Karelia opened for the well-known German hard rock band Scorpions for three of their shows in France.

Influences

According to Karelia's frontman Matthieu Kleiber, the band members have various influences, citing, among others, classical music as well as hard rock bands like Guns N' Roses and Aerosmith for himself and ex-keyboardist Bertrand Maillot, hard rock such as Whitesnake for bassist Gilles Thiebaut, symphonic heavy metal bands for guitarist Erwan Morice and drummer Loïc Jenn. [ [http://obskure.com/fr/inter_model.php?num_inter=447 Interview @ Obsküre.com (in French)] ]

Members

Current members

*Matthieu Kleiber – backing vocals, vocals
*Erwan Morice – guitar
*Jack Ruesch – guitar
*Gilles Thiebaut – bass
*Loïc Jenn – drums

Former members

*Bertrand Maillot – keyboard
*Chris Savourey – guitar
*Claude Gasparini – bass
*Lionel Vest – guitar, keyboard
*Sébastien Fellmann – guitar

Discography

tudio albums

*"Usual Tragedy" (2004)
*"Raise" (2005)
*"Restless" (2008)

Demo albums

*"Karelia" (2000)

References

External links

* [http://www.myspace.com/kareliaband/ Karelia] at MySpace