Biography
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Years Active
2000 – present (24 years)
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Founded In
Pori, Satakunta, Finland
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Members
- Janne Westerlund
- Jussi Lehtisalo
- Tomi Leppänen
Finland's Pharaoh Overlord take huge rock songs and turn them into minimal trance-inducing drones. Pharaoh Overlord features members of Circle. Their first record features heavy stoner rock influence, albeit reduced to its base elements and turned into minimalism. Their second and third albums feature krautrock/motorik influences, with more experimental tendencies coming through - using the "loud silence" of their amps cranked to max as ambience/drone on #2, as well as noise and other sonic experimentation on #3.
Album #4 brought about a change in sound, more influenced by new wave of heavy metal, but still approaching it using their minimalist/repetitive style. Out of Darkness followed, similar in style.
2012 saw the release of Lunar Jetman, which was (theoretically) the band's sixth studio release. Their sound was a mixture of minimalism, krautrock, repetitiveness and jam rock. Black Horse is a song that alternates the same repetitive riff between fast and slow tempos, placing it firmly in avant-garde/experimental territory, not far removed from Steve Reich pieces.
2015's Circle was full-blown electronic krautrock influenced by Can and Neu! (and probably Circle)
2018's Zero featured Antti Boman (from brutal death metal band Demilich) on vocals, while the music took the form of a more metalled-up krautrock, again similar to Neu! Boman's vocals are given a really harsh highlight on the first song, but they tend to mellow out as the album goes on (they're placed more in the background and given a decent dose of echo as opposed to the up-front gnarliness of the first song).
In 2019, #5 was released and featured a heavily stripped down band lineup - only two members (Lehtisalo and Leppänen), producing electronic krautrock that would bring to mind Kraftwerk (especially some of the melodies used) and other similar bands. Aaron Turner (Isis, etc.) provided guest vocals on a couple songs.
#6 was released in 2020, and features the same lineup, except Aaron Turner provides (harsh) vocals on the entire album. Once again, Kraftwerk comparisons come up, but this album also features a more maximalist/minimalist approach, fusing krautrock/italo-disco with elements of metal.
Pharaoh Overlord has also released a number of live albums throughout the years. Of note, Circus (2021) features the band supporting Sleep in Helsinki in 2019 with some of their classic songs, and Chewing Gum is a recording of a 2014 concert in Helsinki where they performed songs from Circle (the album), the only known date they've ever performed the material live.
NOTE: There are several "different" incarnations of the band. Of note, they released two albums under the band name "Pharaoh Overlörd", with the following lineup:
Jussi Kangas: guitars, vocals
Jussi Lehtisalo: bass
Tomi Leppänen: drums
Discography:
-#4
-Out of Darkness
Pharaoh Overlord full line-up:
Janne Westerlund: guitars, vocals
Pekka Jääskeläinen: guitars
Julius Jääskeläinen: guitars
Jussi Lehtisalo: bass
Tomi Leppänen: drums
Discography:
Most other albums (except 5 & 6, plus concerts)
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