The Rasmus, Death Valley Dreams, and Saint Agnes

Originally formed of high school friends, vocalist Lauri Ylönen, bassist Eero Heinonen, guitarist Pauli Rantasalmi, and Jarno Lahti, the band’s debut gig was at heir school’s pre-Christmas party in 1994. The year after drummer Jarno left the group and was replaced by Janne Heiskanen and Rasmus released their debut EP “1st” in December. Featuring the singles “Funky Jam”, “Myself”, and “Frog” the release sold over 1,000 copies in the space of a few weeks, and 1,000s more upon its rerelease by their new label Warner Music Finland.

The Rasmus’ debut album “Peep” was released by Warner Music Finland in 1996 led by the singles “1st”, “2nd”, and “3rd”, which were essentially small EPs. The group subsequently won the EMMA (Finnish Grammy equivalent) for Best Newcomer in 1996. The Rasmus’ sophomore album “Playboys” hit the shelves in August 1997 and has since been certified gold in Finland aided by the singles “Blue”, “Kola”, and “Playboys”. Unlike their debut, the album boasted a host of additional musicians, which resulted in a cross-genre appeal with influences from rapcore and funk.

In 1998 the band’s third album “Hell of a Tester” arrived marking a change from funk to classic rock. Once again the record went gold, supported by the single “Liquid” which charted within the Top 40 on MTV Nordic and won the Single of the Year and Video of the Year at the Finish Music Video Awards. Following the release Janne Heiskanen left the group to settle in India, and the Rasmus founded their own record label named Dynasty Association. In an attempt to appeal to an audience outside of Finland, The Rasmus signed with Playground Music and released their fourth full-length “Into” in October 2001. The internationally-released album topped the Finnish Album Chart and spawned the popular singles “F-F-F-Falling”, “Chill”, “Madness”, and “Heartbreaker/Days”.

The Rasmus subsequently released the best-of album “Hell of a Compilation” ahead of their fifth full-length “Dead Letters” in March 2003. “Dead Letters” proved to be the band international breakthrough aided by the radio-friendly “In the Shadows”. Like its predecessor the record adopted a dark, moody, and melancholic tone, however far surpassed its success. The album topped the album charts in Finland, Austria, Switzerland, and Germany, and spawned the subsequent singles “In My Life”, “First Day of My Life”, “Funeral Song”, and “Guilty”. The band went on to win the Best Nordic Act award at the 2003 MTV Europe Music Awards, and Five EMMA awards. The platinum-selling full-length “Hide from the Sun” arrived in 2005, followed by “Black Roses” in 2008, and the self-titled “The Rasmus” in 2012.