Oratorio

Oh yeah, this really is the very official myspace of christian heavy metal band Oratorio! Have fun! :) Thank you very much for visiting.



Band history



Oratorio was founded in 1998 in Nurmijärvi, Finland. Band's name was picked randomly from an encyclopedia, and as it meant a religious music piece, it felt suitable for the band. The first line-up was:



Joel Hekkala- Vocals, guitar

Jarmo Happonen- Guitar, vocals

Lauri Joutsiniemi- Bass

Janne Hietakangas- Drums.



At first, the band's lyrics were mainly in finnish. In the beginning of 1999 Oratorio released their debut demo-cd, ”Vähän”. It was significant for the band at that time but it wasn't actually a musical masterpiece. Band discussed about getting a new singer and maybe a solo guitarist. However, the band couldn't find a new singer and so Joel started to concentrate more on vocals. A new guitarist was found from Helsinki: Thomas Mata joined the band in 1999 as a solo guitarist and song writer. Year 1999 meant much for the band: Thomas took the guitar solos to a whole new level, Joel learned to sing decently and Janne rehearsed to play with double-pedals. At the end of 1999, Oratorio recorded their second demo-cd, ”Huuto” in Studio Watercastle, Jyväskylä. The difference between ”Vähän” and ”Huuto” was huge. As the skills increased, band started to have more gigs. As time went by, the new songs were written mainly in english.



In 2000, the band participated in a finnish christian metal compilation, ”The Rose metal collection” with a new song, ”Shine the light”.



In 2002 Marko Tolvanen joined the Oratorio crew: He has been mixing most of the Oratorio-shows since then.



As years went by and Oratorio had done many gigs around Finland, the time felt right for the first full-lenght album. The timeline between the songs in the first album was quite long, as the oldest song was about five years old and some of the songs were completed just before entering the studio. So the album was kind of a cross-section of the first years of the band. The album was recorded in Studio Watercastle in a very quick pace: It took only 13 days to record and mix the album. After the recordings, the band lacked a publisher. Thomas sent the album to a couple of record labels, and after a short while he got a phone-call from Christian Rivel. After short negotiations the band signed a contract with Rivel Records, and the first album, ”The Reality of Existence”, was released in november 2003.



At this point, Lauri decided to leave the band due to personal reasons. So, the band needed a new bassist. An old friend, Ilpo, was asked to play one gig in the fall 2003. As all went well, Ilpo was asked to join the band permanently. Ilpo, who was actually a skillful guitarist, humbled himself and took the vacancy as the new bassist of Oratorio. So the current line-up was formed:



Joel Hekkala- Vocals, guitar

Thomas Mata- Guitar, backing vocals

Jarmo Happonen- Guitar, backing vocals

Ilpo Istolainen- Bass

Janne Hietakangas- Drums



The album was well welcomed by the media and the audience, so year 2004 meant more gigs for Oratorio. The band had its first shows abroad, as they played in Sweden, Norway and Germany.



In 2006, the time was right for the second album. The band decided not to publish the second album through Rivel Records, but through Mata Records, which was Thomas' and his brother Peter's own record label. The band wanted to make a huge improvent for their sound, so they decided to take more time for the recordings. Drums were recorded in Fantom-studio, Tampere, and all other instruments and vocals were recorded in D-studio, Klaukkala. This felt like right decision, because now the band had enough time to record in their own peace. The album was mixed in Fantom-studio. After a lot of stress and hurry, the work paid off: Oratorio's second album, ”Redemption” was released in time. The release-gig took place in Turku 18th November 2006 (Maata Näkyvissä- festarit, the biggest christian youth festival in the Nordic countries), and next week it hit the finnish charts! It was in 36th place in the official chart of Finland. The release-gig was a success, and now the band is waiting enthusiastically to make more gigs!



The form of Oratorio's music has changed a lot during the past nine years. But the contents have remained the same: The forward-pushing force of the band has always been the gospel of Jesus Christ.