Tapio Wilska

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Wilska at Wacken 2005
Wilska at Wacken 2005

Tapio Wilska (born September 19th, 1969 in Savonlinna, Finland) is the main vocalist of the heavy metal band Sethian. He is also the ex-lead vocalist for the band Finntroll. He gets his inspiration from bands like Black Sabbath, Motörhead, Dead Kennedys, Venom, Thin Lizzy and The Pixies.

[edit] Biography

His musical career started when he was in bands like Lyijykomppania, Stray Toasters and Nattvindens Gråt with Sami Vänskä and Tuomas Holopainen (both from the then yet to be founded Nightwish) in the middle of the '90s. He even helped Nightwish to get a record deal with Spinefarm. And when Nightwish became an established name, Wilska moved on to stage technical work during their tours. His work included working on microphones, the bass and drums and also some security.

When Nightwish released their 1998 album Oceanborn, Wilska was asked to do the male vocals on the tracks Devil and the Deep Dark Ocean and The Pharaoh Sails to Orion. Wilska's low and dark voice gave the songs a sinister character, and many metal fans from all over the world loved it. After his successful appearance on Oceanborn, Wilska also performed in the song 10th Man Down and once again with The Pharaoh Sails to Orion on Nightwish's DVD From Wishes to Eternity.

After this success, Wilska quit working as a roadie and started working on his own project, entitled Sethian. Once again, he got a lot of help from Nightwish, mainly Tuomas and Jukka. Last mentioned even decided to play drums for the band. In 2003 the album Into The Silence was released.

In late 2002 however, vocalist Jan 'Katla' Jämsen left the band Finntroll because of a virusbased growth on his vocalchords. Wilska was asked to be the new singer, and he accepted. In 2004, he released his first full album with Finntroll, called Nattfödd.

In early 2006 Wilska was fired from Finntroll due to personal differences. Very soon afterwards he joined finnish pagan metal band Soulgrind as a bassist, and also started a new metal band Blood Royal.

[edit] Discography

All of the albums Wilska appears on:

[edit] External links

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