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Dies Irae
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Band Name
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Dies Irae
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Members
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Jesper Martensen- (Lead Vocals)
Anna Kosari- (Bass) Jan Koskinen - (Guitar) Tomi Kosari- (Keys) Erin Rantana- (Backing vocals/Guitar) Paul Smith- (Drums) |
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Origin
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Helsinki, Finland
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Genre(s)
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Black Metal (Early days)
Epic Doom Metal (current) |
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Years Active
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2006 - present
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Label(s)
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Negative Records 2007
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Dies Irae are a Helsinki, Finland based doom metal act, formed initially in 1992 by Anna Korsari and her brother Tomi Korsari. The band were then a five peice black metal outfit going by the unsurprising name Mordor. The band had many fits and starts over the years, putting out initially three demos in their first five months before disbanding. The band reformed again, this time as Dies Irae and put out two more demo's before once more disbanding. The band returned in their third form a year and a bit later, this time for good
Mordor Days[]
These were the earliest days of the fledgling black metal scene taking Scandanavia...and churches by storm. Mordor got into the whole scene, bar church burnings but proclaiming Christianity as the true evil. As the scene became divided, they even attacked Norwegian black metal bands. Mordor then were regarded little more than amatuers by critics, their demos largely ignored by zines and labels. Still, they obtained a rather rabid cult following amongst more 'true' fans of the genre. By the time Failures of the Flesh came around, they had made a marked improvement however they were destined to oblivion because of constant lineup changes.
Mordor disappeared, along with many other acts of the day, failing to create a real lasting impact. The band progenitors Anna and Tomi Korsari quit music all together and went about their lives in other fields. Tomi however had the itch again and managed to convince Anna it was time to have another shot. This was eight years later. By now the whole Scandanavian black metal madness had burned away (pardon the pun) but they still had an interest in black metal. They shed the tacky corpse paint and imagery, changed their name to Dies Irae and adopted wider influences and released their 'first' demo Lies of the Saviour followed by Fury of the Countess. The band incorporated doom influences from the likes of Electric Wizard and sludge such as Eyehategod, just two name a couple. Fury of the Countess was their best selling release to date, with its electic mix of symphonic black metal, doom and sludge. Once more lineup changes wreaked their havoc, with Tomi and Anna the only consistent in the bands revolving door of members. The band once more were laid to rest, but this did not last
Present Day[]
Dies Irae returned with its current lineup, bar Paul Smith who was still with The Black Gates, with Lars Koskinen (no relation to Jan) on drums. They had been working quietly in their Helsinki studio over a couple of months. The band had fully evolved into an epic doom band and had released Perverse Dreamscapes which was a teaser to to their long overdue first album. The band self styled themselves as 'the heaviest band in the world', which was not an idle boast and their EP Perverse Dreamscapes certainly showed that and created a real buzz that the band hadn't had before. Their black metal influences had been swept away. The band released one more teaser of the record, before more or less slinking back into the shadows before dropping their crushing debut album Under Wicked Skies, which proved to be a landmark release in the doom metal scene, with its wide ranging influences such as Dutch doomsters Waterlelie, St. Vitus and long defunct Aussie act Disembowlment, sludge acts like Eyehategod, Acid Bath and Cult of Luna to an extent and spaced out stoner elements with a degree of symphonic stylings. Under Wicked Skies sold over three million copies.
Currently Dies Irae are working on their follow up, Doom Kult Armageddon. Not much has been revealed about the release other than the teaser Six Stones, which featuers some extremely downtuned and distorted guitar and full of bass but vocalist Jesper Martensen recently said not to expect a certain sound and that Six Stones is not a true representation of the record. March has been slated as the release date but the band haven't set an actual date, prefering to drop it like they did with Under Wicked Skies, out of the blue and onto unsuspecting listeners.
Current members[]
- Jesper Martensen - Lead vocals
- Anna Kosari - Bass
- Jan Koskinen - Guitar
- Tomi Kosari - Keys
- Erin Rantana - Guitar/backing vocals
- Paul Smith - Drums
Discography[]
- Main article: Dies Irae discography
Demos/EP's[]
- Enemies Within (demo)
- Shroud of Pestilence (demo)
- Failures of the Flesh (demo)
- Lies of the Saviour(demo)
- Fury of the Countess(demo)
- Perverse Dreamscapes (2006) (EP)
- Under Wicked Skies (EP) (2006) (EP)
- All I Want for Christmas is a Sack of Weed (2007) (EP)
- Doom Kult Armageddon (2007) (EP)
- Six Stones (2008)
Studio albums[]
- Under Wicked Skies (2007)
- Doom Kult Armageddon (March 2008)