The HietIs On
The Finnish musical everyman Marko Hietala has been through it all: mental-health issues, leaving the mighty Nightwish and even a stint on reality TV. Fortunately his new album, Roses From The Deep, reveals that he’s still as much of a force as ever. Prog caught up with him to find out more.
Words: Joel McIver
“I didn’t just walk away from Nightwish. Iwalked away from everything. I left my home in Finland and got aplace in Spain, in order to be cut off from everything so I could figure out what the problem was.”
Tuomas Wäinölä (guitar), Vili Ollila (keyboards), Marko Hietala (bass, vocals), Anssi Nykänen (drums).
New album
Roses From The Deep
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Images: Mika Toivanen
“
Prog is not that visible in Finland… but it has a lot of fans!” chuckles Marko Hietala, whose love of all things progressive goes back to a formative experience as a kid in the sub-Arctic Finnish town of Kuopio. “My dad used to be a jazz freak, but he got hooked on Jethro Tull’s acoustic music, and after that he started listening to guitar solos. You know, the more the mainstream becomes more about simple music, the more that people who like complex music will move away from it. Maybe it’s the same in the UK as well?”
It’s very much the same, we tell him – which is a great thing on this side of the Baltic for Hietala’s new album, Roses From The Deep, a hard rock collection with strong prog elements all over it. Highlights include The Dragon Must Die, a prog-metal anthem featuring polyrhythms and celtic melodies; a duet with Charon frontman Juha-Pekka ‘JP’ Leppäluoto on the anti-war Two Soldiers; and a song called Proud Whore that we ask Hietala to explain.