Amen (rock musician)
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Amen | |
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![]() Amen on stage in 2020 | |
Background information | |
Also known as | show
List |
Born | Espoo, Finland | 26 June 1972
Origin | Mäntsälä, Finland |
Genres | Hard rock, heavy metal |
Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
Instruments | Guitar, vocals |
Years active | 1997–present |
Labels | Sony BMG |
Associated acts | Lordi |
Website | lordi.fi |
Amen (born 26 June 1972) is a Finnish guitarist. He is one of the founding members of the Finnish metal band Lordi and is still playing in the band.[1]
He graduated as an Information Technology engineer in 2001 and has been making the website of Lordi.[2] Amen plays Schechter guitars (specifically the Solo II Custom and the Hellraiser Solo II). The municipality of Mäntsälä granted Amen with statue named "Hard Rock Stone" on 26 June 2006.
Amen has been featured as a special guest on Markus Striegls concert in 2011 and Doro Pesch's concert in 2014.
Amen has also recorded guitar riffs which were used by Ari Pulkkinen to create the soundtrack for the video game Shadowgrounds. His acoustic guitar solos "Amen's Lament to Ra" and "Amen's Lament to Ra ll" were included on Lordi's albums Babez for Breakfast and Scare Force One.
Biography[]
Amen was born on 26 June 1972 in Espoo, Finland, but spent his childhood and youth in Mäntsälä. He was interested in the guitar even before he began school.[2] Sydänmaa's first contact with the band Kiss was in 1983 with the Lick It Up album. He was a passionate fan of Kiss, and he was bullied at school because of this.
At the age of 5, Amen got his first acoustic guitar and started guitar lessons. He enjoyed learning the instrument and how to play songs he liked, but he was too embarrassed to participate in his guitar play test. This experience shook young Sydänmaa, who gave up playing the guitar. Amen picked the guitar back up ten years later, when he began taking an interest in hard rock music.
As a young man, Sydänmaa played in various bands. The most promising was the Rag Flag, but they did not attain success. At the age of 25, Amen had come to the conclusion that the various rock-projects he participated in contributed to his failure. He went on to study newspaper and work in radio and later, commercial media communications. Amen completed a degree in 2001 in media technology engineering. After graduation, Amen did not go on to work in that field, as he had joined Lordi in the late 90s, and they had made their breakthrough in 2002. Because of Lordi's success, Amen decided to leave the IT engineering work to focus his career with Lordi.
Discography[]
Lordi[]
- Studio albums
- Bend Over and Pray the Lord (1997)
- Get Heavy (2002)
- The Monsterican Dream (2004)
- The Arockalypse (2006)
- Deadache (2008)
- Babez for Breakfast (2010)
- To Beast or Not to Beast (2013)
- Scare Force One (2014)
- Monstereophonic (Theaterror vs. Demonarchy) (2016)
- Sexorcism (2018)
- Killection (2020)
- Live albums
- Market Square Massacre (2006)
- Bringing Back the Balls to Stockholm (2007)
- Recordead Live – Sextourcism in Z7 (2019)
- Solo albums (as Amen-Ra's Dynasty)
- "Stone and Stars" (single, 2019)
Other[]
- Shadowgrounds soundtrack (2005, guitars)
- Stala & SO.: It is So (2011, guitars)
References[]
- ^ Harris, Chris; Jon Wiederhorn. "Metal File: Lordi, Emperor, Knut, Vital Remains & More News That Rules". MTV. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Ahlroth, Jussi Associated By Bigpa (2006). Mie oon Lordi. Juva: Johnny Kniga. ISBN 951-0-32584-8.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Amen. |
- 1973 births
- Living people
- People from Mäntsälä
- Lordi members
- Finnish heavy metal guitarists
- Finnish rock guitarists
- Lead guitarists
- Eurovision Song Contest winners
- 21st-century guitarists