Teräsbetoni (English: Reinforced concrete) is a Finnish heavy metal band. Their first album, Metallitotuus (Trans. "Metal truth"), was released in 2005 and has so far sold more than 32,000 copies. Teräsbetoni has been strongly influenced by bands such as Manowar.
The music of Teräsbetoni has a martial air to it, with lyrics glorifying a pagan warrior lifestyle and a "brotherhood of metal". The style has received mixed reception. Band members themselves have said that they are not dead serious about the band's mentality and are having fun with it. The most famous songs of the band include "Taivas Lyö Tulta", "Vaadimme Metallia" and their Eurovision entry "Missä miehet ratsastaa (trans. Where The Men Ride)".
History
Jarkko Ahola, Arto Järvinen, and Viljo Rantanen met each other in 2002 and decided to form a band. Jari Kuokkanen joined as a part time drummer, and later became an official member. Rantanen was the one to come up with the name Teräsbetoni. Teräsbetoni made its first songs in 2003. They were published on the band's homepage in the summer of 2003 and were called "Teräsbetoni", "Teräksen varjo" (trans. The Shadow of Steel), and "Maljanne nostakaa" (trans. Raise Your Toast).
The band started to get popular in underground circles and soon the knowledge of the band's existence spread wider. Excited fans circulated a petition, demanding a recording contract for Teräsbetoni, and sent it to several record companies. In 2004, Teräsbetoni performed their first concert and a live version of "Taivas Lyö Tulta" (trans. The sky strikes down fire) was added to the band's homepage. In their first concerts they use to play a cover versions of Ronnie James Dio's "Rainbow In The Dark" and Manowar's "Metal Warriors". In late 2004 the band signed a recording contract with Warner Music Finland and the recording for the "Taivas lyö tulta" single started in December 2004. The single was published February 2, 2005, and during its first week on the Finnish single list it rose to the top, followed by plentiful radio time and the band becoming more widely known.
The recordings for the "Metallitotuus" album started in January 2005 was published April 6, 2005. During its first week on the Finnish list, it placed 2nd and stood on the list for 29 weeks. Another single from the album was "Orjatar" (trans. Slave woman). A music video was also made of this song, and it was shown for the first time on the TOP40 show April 16, 2005. Taivas lyö tulta was later chosen to be the goal song for the Finnish ice hockey national team A in the Karjala Cup tournament.
"Metallitotuus" went platinum (in Finland, that means over 30,000 copies have been sold) in the year it was published, with almost 33,000 copies sold, becoming the third most popular heavy rock album in Finland that year. In June 2006, the second album of the band, "Vaadimme metallia" (trans. We Demand Metal), was published. On the day of its publishing, it nearly broke the gold album line (which in Finland is 15,000 albums sold).
There has been a lot of interest of Teräsbetoni in countries outside Finland, and the band is also very interested in playing outside Finland; so far they have done so only once, at Wacken Open Air 2005. The band is now focusing on the question of using Finnish in its vocals.
Teräsbetoni competed in the Finnish national preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. On March 1, they won the nomination with a total of 38.9% of the final votes cast. They represented Finland with their song Missä miehet ratsastaa. The band was voted as one of the finalists on May 20. In the finals on May 24 the entry placed 22nd with 35 points. In the semi-final band placed 8th with 79 points.
On March 19 2008, Teräsbetoni released their third album, Myrskyntuoja (transl. Stormbringer), which entered the Finnish album chart at position 1.
Members
- Jarkko Ahola - vocals, bass guitar
- Arto Järvinen - guitar, vocals
- Viljo Rantanen - guitar
- Jari Kuokkanen - drums
Discography
Albums
- Metallitotuus (2005) #2 (FIN)
- Vaadimme metallia (2006) #2 (FIN)
- Myrskyntuoja (2008) #1 (FIN)
Singles
- Taivas lyö tulta (2005) #1 (FIN)
- Orjatar (2005) #10 (FIN)
- Vahva kuin metalli (2005) #19 (FIN)
- Älä mene metsään (2006) #3 (FIN)
- Viimeinen tuoppi (2006)
- Missä miehet ratsastaa (2008) #2 (FIN)