„Wait, another Finnish band on Lifeforce Records!? – Well, yeah… what should I say… it just came together, HANGING GARDEN could have been from any other part of the world, at the end it was the music that convinced me 300%!!” – comments Lifeforce Records owner Stefan Lüdicke about the signing of HANGING GARDEN.
„I’m in touch with Jussi Hämäläinen (who’s other band THE CHANT www.thechant.net just recently released it’s critically acclaimed Lifeforce Records debut „A Healing Place”) and Jussi forwarded me some rough mixes of their new tracks, which totally blew me away already… by the time he sent me the full album I was sold! It combines so many influences ranging from Cult Of Luna to Sisters Of Mercy, Sigur Ros to Dark Tranquillity in a such great way I simply couldn’t resist!”
The idea of a band playing slow, doomy metal was born between singer Ari Nieminen and bassist Matti Reinola in 2004. Soon after, drummer Janne Jukarainen and guitarists Mikko Kolari and Saku Manninen join the band. After hard song writing and rehearsing, recordings of the first promo-CD start. The band was named HANGING GARDEN and the promo was finished just in time before Finnish Metal Expo in February 2006. One promo ended up in the hands of Sami from Spikefarm Records, and eventually Hanging Garden inked a deal with the label.
In fall 2006 HANGING GARDEN travelled to northern Finland to record their debut album at the legendary Tico Tico Studios. In February 2007 the debut album entitled „Inherit The Eden” was released, and receiveD great feedback & reviews around the world. Afterwards HANGING GARDEN played numerous gigs all over Finland.
During the writing of their 2nd album, Saku got replaced by a new guitarist Jussi Hämäläinen. After long and hard creating period, studio sessions finally started in July 2009. The second album was entitled „TEOTWAWKI” and introduces a more variating and rawer musical style, compared to it’s predecessor „Inherit The Eden”. English death doom influences and acoustic parts are accompanied by post-metallic harshness, post-rockish fragility and hard core style vocal parts. The overall sound is less keyboard orientated and unpolished. Lyrically „TEOTWAWKI” draws a gloomy image of mankind and decadence, natural disasters and the inevitable downfall.
„TEOTWAWKI” was mixed and mastered at Toontekning Recording, Sweden by Magnus Lindberd and was released November 11th 2009 by Spikefarm Records.
In the spring of 2010 followed a few changes in line-up; first, Ari decided to leave the band due to personal reasons. A new singer, Toni Toivonen, was soon recruited as a throat replacement.
Soon after that, Janne, too, decided to part ways with HANGING GARDEN, and Antti Ruokola was quickly found to fill the gap perfectly.
In November of 2011 HANGING GARDEN entered the Spleen studio to record drums for their upcoming third album. Around the same time, Matti Reinola decided to leave the band due to lack of motivation, and was replaced by Jussi Kirves. Almost a year after having started the recordings for their new album and Lifeforce Records debut, HANGING GARDEN finished the mixing and mastering process for „At Every Door” and the album is now set to be released in January 2013.
HANGING GARDEN is
Jussi Kirves: Bass Guitar
Jussi Hämäläinen: Guitars + Vocals
Mikko Kolari: Guitars
Antti Ruokola: Drums
Toni Toivonen: Vocals
Nino Hynninen: Keyboards
For more information check the band’s website at: www.hanging-garden.net