Poets of the Fall



An Alternative Rock band from Finland, Poets of the Fall consists of vocalist Marko Saaresto, guitarist Olli Tukiainen, and keyboardist Markus "Captain" Kaarlonen, who also produces the songs. When touring, the band is supported by three additional members: bassist Jani Snellman, rhythm guitarist/supporting vocalist Jaska Mäkinen, and percussionist Jari Salminen.

Shortly after the band was formed in 2003, Sami Järvi, a friend of Saaresto’s and a scriptwriter working at Remedy, asked him to turn a poem Järvi had written into a song for Max Payne 2; this would turn into "Late Goodbye", which serves as the game’s end credits theme and a recurring motif. Additionally, Kaarlonen had previously worked at a software company, which contacted them to use the song "Lift" in a benchmark program. Both of these helped expose the band to a wide audience. Their debut album, Signs of Life, entered the Finnish charts in the number-one spot and remained in the Top 40 for over a year.

Since then, they have maintained a high-quality output; each of their albums has entered the Finnish charts as number one. Not including Signs of Life, all of their albums have been certified gold in Finland in three weeks or less, and Signs of Life and Carnival of Rust have both been certified platinum.

They worked with Remedy again in 2010, on the video game Alan Wake. They appeared as the Fake Band Old Gods of Asgard, writing two songs specifically for the game. Additionally, they appeared as themselves in a flashback, and the song "War" was played on one of the in-game radios.

Fun fact: their first two albums were produced in Kaarlonen’s living room.


 * Signs of Life (2005)
 * Carnival of Rust (2006)
 * Revolution Roulette (2008)
 * Twilight Theater (2010)
 * Alchemy Vol. 1 (2011)
 * Temple of Thought (2012)


 * Alliteration: Revolution Roulette
 * Ballad of X: "The Ballad of Jeremiah Peacekeeper"
 * Breakaway Pop Hit: "Late Goodbye" from Max Payne 2 and "Lift" from benchmark software 3DMark.
 * Circus of Fear: The "Carnival of Rust" video takes place in a very creepy one.
 * Continuity Nod: The music video for "Carnival of Rust" contains references to every other song on the album.
 * Executive Meddling: Defied. The band founded their own record label, Insomniac, to avoid this.
 * Fake Band: As Heavy Mithril band "Old Gods of Asgard" in Alan Wake. Then, just to muddy the issue, they appear as themselves in a cameo, and before playing the Poet's song War, a radio host compares the two bands, saying there’s something similar he can’t quite place.
 * Full-Circle Revolution: The general message of "Revolution Roulette": easy solutions after a revolution tend to cause more problems than they solve, setting the stage for another revolution.
 * Genre Roulette: They can play a wide variety of styles, ranging from metal to hard rock to symphonic. Has nothing to do with Revolution Roulette.
 * Greatest Hits Album: Subverted with Alchemy Vol. 1, as it’s actually a collection of the band’s favorite songs. They have released a “Best of” album, but only in India for some reason.
 * Live Action Adaptation: The music video for "War" contains a few scenes from Alan Wake.
 * Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Implied with Miss Impossible from the eponymous song.
 * Metal Scream: Several times in "Children of the Elder God", with a shorter example in "Psychosis".
 * Mind Screw: Some of their music videos are rather weird, especially "Carnival of Rust".
 * No Export for You: Their albums tend to be released only in countries around Finland, although Carnival of Rust was also released in Australia. Fortunately, they’re all available on iTunes.
 * Power Ballad: "The Poet and the Muse"
 * Purple Prose: They do this with a few songs, while proving that Tropes Are Not Bad.
 * Shout-Out: "The Ultimate Fling" has nods to two of Dirty Harry’s quotes; specifically, "Make my day," and "Do you feel lucky?"
 * The title of Signs of Life is a nod to Pink Floyd’s instrumental of the same name.
 * Subdued Section: Especially "The Ultimate Fling" and "Revolution Roulette".
 * Unplugged Version: When performed live, "War" is often played with an acoustic guitar.