L-R: Mikko Pietinen (drums, percussion), Olli-Pekka Laine (bass, keyboards, backing vocals), Peter Salonen (guitars) – photo by Päivi Leino

(Below you will find Comrade Aleks‘ interview of Finnish musician Olli-Pekka Laine, with a focus on his band Octoploid‘s July 2024 debut album Beyond the Aeons, but touching upon other topics as well, incuding Amorphis and Barren Earth.)

Olli-Pekka Laine is a multitalented musician. He’s well-known, as he composed half of Amorphis’ legendary albums Tales from The Thousand Lakes (1994) and Elegy (1996), and later he practiced his progressive vision in the “dream-team” band Barren Earth.

The last one tended toward progressive and melodic death-doom metal too, a kind of direction which Olli always choses instinctively. But since Barren Earth is inactive, and Olli writes not too much for Amorphis, he naturally collected a good number of interesting ideas which ended in this solo-project, Octoploid.

Well, we say “solo”, but Octoploid’s lineup includes Olli’s buddy from Mannhai, Mikko Pietinen (drums), Kim Rantala (keyboards), who did an enormous input in Elegy, and young talent Peter Salonen (guitars).

And let’s not forget those honorable guests who took part in the recording of Octoploid’s debut Beyond the Aeons, released by Reigning Phoenix Music in July 2024. A few of Amorphis’ men can be found on this album, as well as Hamferð’s frontman Jón Aldará, Mikko Kotamäki from Swallow the Sun, Mannhai’s Ilkka Laaksomaa, and more. So if you’re ready for “70’s death metal”, let’s not waste any time before getting into this interview. Continue reading »