Antipope - Biography
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2008
Biography
Antipope is a metal band from Oulu, Finland. Antipope was formed in 2004, and consists MJ Myllykangas (vocals, bass guitar), Juho Rikberg (guitar, backing vocals), Antti J. Karjalainen (guitar, backing vocals) and Tuska E. (drums). Antipope's sound would probably be best to desrcibe as progressive metal, since Antipope move between different genres integrating various styles of metal into their music. The main elements of influence have been black metal, melodic heavy metal, and later on, doom, gothic and industrial metal. The vocal style of MJ Myllykangas was originally mainly scream/death grunt style but later on moved to a more melodic and clean direction, still retaining the harsher elements.
Antipope's roots can be traced to a black metal band named by Tuska ('pain/agony' in finnish). Kajaani based Tuska existed between the years 1998-2001. After a couple of years of break from "extreme metal" Santtu Heinilehto, MJ Myllykangas (guitars/vocals) and Jyri Palmu (drums), all former members of Tuska, started a black metal studio project, named Antipope.
Antipope existed as a trio for little over a year until in the autumn of 2005 J Rikberg took the responsibility of lead guitarist. Need for another guitarist had risen once the band began to consider taking steps to perform live - after positive feedback from those who had heard their home-made recordings - although the band originally did consider themselves as only a studio group.
By the end of the year 2006 Antipope compiled the material they had written so far on a CD-R release Apostate Angel which has been distributed to the friends and fans.
After a couple of gigs in 2007 and 2008 another guitarist was recruited and Antti Karjalainen begame a member of Antipope. In the summer of 2008 Antipope's line-up when Jyri Palmu, the original drummer of Antipope, died unexpectedly.
After couple of months of searches and auditioning Tuska E. was recruited as the new drummer of Antipope.
In the autumn of 2008 band released their first official demo Chaosmos. A year later a follow-up EP Excessive Use of Faith was completed. During the year 2009 the band wrote songs for their first full-length album. The album entitled Desert was completed in early 2010 and was released by the autumn of the same year. The second full length House of Harlot was published by Violent Journey Records on 30th of November 2011. House of Harlot gained quite a lot more attention and positive feedback from international metal media.
In August 2012 founding member and long time bassist Santtu Heinilehto left Antipope. The band decided not to recruit a new member, but instead vocalist Mikko took up the bass.
In May 2013, Antipope released 3 Eyes of Time, being the 3rd full-length album. Antipope moved to more progressive melodic death metal direction on this release. A music video of the song "White Summer Night", taken from 3 Eyes of Time album was released in December 2016.
Antipope ended their longest so far silent period in October 2017 as they announced the release of 4th album, Denial/Survival, and published a new music video "Waters Below". Denial/Survival was set to be released on November 15th 2017.
In 2020 Antipope released their 5th studio album, Apostle Of Infinite Joy.
Source: Official Site
Antipope's roots can be traced to a black metal band named by Tuska ('pain/agony' in finnish). Kajaani based Tuska existed between the years 1998-2001. After a couple of years of break from "extreme metal" Santtu Heinilehto, MJ Myllykangas (guitars/vocals) and Jyri Palmu (drums), all former members of Tuska, started a black metal studio project, named Antipope.
Antipope existed as a trio for little over a year until in the autumn of 2005 J Rikberg took the responsibility of lead guitarist. Need for another guitarist had risen once the band began to consider taking steps to perform live - after positive feedback from those who had heard their home-made recordings - although the band originally did consider themselves as only a studio group.
By the end of the year 2006 Antipope compiled the material they had written so far on a CD-R release Apostate Angel which has been distributed to the friends and fans.
After a couple of gigs in 2007 and 2008 another guitarist was recruited and Antti Karjalainen begame a member of Antipope. In the summer of 2008 Antipope's line-up when Jyri Palmu, the original drummer of Antipope, died unexpectedly.
After couple of months of searches and auditioning Tuska E. was recruited as the new drummer of Antipope.
In the autumn of 2008 band released their first official demo Chaosmos. A year later a follow-up EP Excessive Use of Faith was completed. During the year 2009 the band wrote songs for their first full-length album. The album entitled Desert was completed in early 2010 and was released by the autumn of the same year. The second full length House of Harlot was published by Violent Journey Records on 30th of November 2011. House of Harlot gained quite a lot more attention and positive feedback from international metal media.
In August 2012 founding member and long time bassist Santtu Heinilehto left Antipope. The band decided not to recruit a new member, but instead vocalist Mikko took up the bass.
In May 2013, Antipope released 3 Eyes of Time, being the 3rd full-length album. Antipope moved to more progressive melodic death metal direction on this release. A music video of the song "White Summer Night", taken from 3 Eyes of Time album was released in December 2016.
Antipope ended their longest so far silent period in October 2017 as they announced the release of 4th album, Denial/Survival, and published a new music video "Waters Below". Denial/Survival was set to be released on November 15th 2017.
In 2020 Antipope released their 5th studio album, Apostle Of Infinite Joy.
Source: Official Site