The Rasmus



The Rasmus is a Finnish band formed by four students in 1994, at first simply titled Rasmus. Generally described as Rock or Alternative Rock, their music can also come under various sub-genres of metal, including Gothic, Symphonic and Funk. The group's work can be divided into two main time periods, one of which is generally Pop and Funk-oriented (1994-1998), while the other (2001-Present) leans towards Metal and Gothic music. Their name change came in accordance with their stylistic shift; their first release under their revised title The Rasmus was their 2001 album Into.

While achieving moderate success with singles such as F-F-F-Falling, the band is undoubtedly most famous for In The Shadows, which brought them increased fame outside of Europe. Other notable singles include Liquid, Chill, Guilty, No Fear, Living In A World Without You, and most recently I'm A Mess.

Lauri is perhaps most famous for his appearance on two Apocalyptica tracks released in 2005, Life Burns, and Bittersweet, the latter being a vocal duet with HIM's (also Finnish) Ville Valo. For many, these collaborations are Crowning Music of Awesome. In return, Apocalyptica provided instrumentation on the song Dead Promises.

The band have a committed fan-base and continue to tour, enjoying particularly strong followings in Mexico and Italy. As of 2012 they have released eight studio albums. Lauri also released a solo album in 2011 titled New World.

Current Line-up:
 * Lauri Ylönen: Lead Vocals, Occasional Acoustic Guitar (1994-Present)
 * Eero Heinonen: Bass Guitar, Live Backing Vocals (1994-Present)
 * Pauli Rantasalmi: Guitar (1994-Present)
 * Aki Hakala: Drums, Percussion (1998-Present)

Former Members:
 * Jarno Lahti: Drums (1994-1995)
 * Janne Heiskanen: Drums (1995-1998)

Studio Discography:
 * Peep (1996)
 * Playboys (1997)
 * Hellofatester (1998)
 * Into (2001)
 * Dead Letters, alternatively titled Feeling Guilty in some areas (2003)
 * Hide From The Sun (2005)
 * Black Roses (2008)
 * The Rasmus (2012)

"Should I stay and welcome the day, Or should I follow the one and hide from the sun"
 * Album Title Drop: From Dead Promises,


 * Audience Participation Song: The 'ohh ohh's in live versions of In The Shadows.
 * Book Ends: On special editions of Black Roses, the album is opened with the vengeful, upbeat Living In A World Without You, and ends with it's melancholy, piano-driven reprise.
 * Break Up Song: Probably over 75% of their songs are in this vein, though not always overtly.
 * Burn the Witch: Word of God says this was the inspiration for Lucifer's Angel.
 * Chronological Album Title: Their 1st, 2nd and 3rd EP's released in 1995 and 1996 were suitably titled 1st, 2nd and 3rd.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: The female in Not Like The Other Girls, particularly blatant in the chorus - 'she lives in the clouds, and talks to the birds'.
 * Cover Version: Ghostbusters.
 * Crowning Moment of Awesome: Lauri and Ville Valo singing Bittersweet onstage with Apocalyptica
 * Darker and Edgier: Starting with Into, in full force by the writing and recording of Dead Promises.
 * Drugs Are Bad: Lauri has said that Smash was partly inspired by his friend's Heroin-related death.
 * Greatest Hits Album: Hellofacollection, and more recently Best of 2001-2008.
 * Heavy Metal Umlaut: Lauri has a real one in his surname.
 * Hidden Track: Not a song, but after 3 minutes of silence in Peep's closing track Small, random chatter can be heard, including a man speaking Finnish and a child saying 'hello'.
 * It's All About Me: In My Life can qualify as this in a sense.
 * Large Ham: Their performances in many of their film clips can fall under this.
 * Lighter and Softer: They're steering towards this with the more pop/soft rock sound of their 2012 album.
 * Long Runner Lineup: The current lineup has existed since 1998.
 * Non-Appearing Title: Uncommon, though examples in Chill, Smash and Funeral Song.
 * One-Hit Wonder: To a certain extent with In The Shadows.
 * Precision F-Strike: Averted in You Got It Wrong, the lyric being 'I don't give a ____, I'm not your believer'. If this wasn't clear enough, the rhyming line is 'I guess you're out of luck'. It is unknown if they decided to remove the profanity after recording, or if it was always intended this way.
 * Rerelease the Song: F-F-F-Falling was re-recorded with an overall heavier sound and released on some versions of Dead Letters.
 * Self-Backing Vocalist: Lauri on studio recordings, however Eero fills the position of backing vocalist in live settings.
 * Sequel Song: Night After Night (Out Of The Shadows) is generally seen as this to In The Shadows, given the [callback lyrical and titular references].
 * Truth in Television: In the opening lines of F-F-F-Falling, Lauri sings that he doesn't 'go to school every Monday'. He has since stated that this was somewhat true, as they often reserved Mondays for band rehearsals.
 * Unplugged Version: The band occasionally plays special acoustic shows, and there are unplugged versions floating around of First Day Of My Life, Lucifer's Angel and Open My Eyes.
 * Weakened by the Light: Hide From The Sun, an album title and lyric from Dead Promises infers this.
 * Word Salad Title: Just what is a Rasmus anyway?