Fuck Yeah Virta

Sometimes people might write him off as a "live guy" (even though he's been an official member of the band for AGES and played on the last two albums - and no matter how many times I update their wiki to reflect this, some idiot keeps changing it back) and that he isn't as good as Henri (to which I direct people to this quote from the studio diary Henri wrote for the recording of Nifelvind: And what is really cool is that also Virta played some of the stuff, too. For example some hammond organ, where I was "clearly outplayed, brah").

I personally don't think he reaches his full potential in Finntroll. This isn't me saying the keyboard lines are shit, because they totally aren't - they're exactly right for the music, as Finntroll aren't about showy keyboard lines or humongous complex solos. But subsequently you don't get to see just how much of an amazing musician he is.

First of all, let me show you the origin of those gifs I recently reblogged on here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCcaZUaDdyw Just watch from about 2:44. This is a song by a band called Medicated, which features one of Aleksi's old Imperanon bandmates. Listen to that and I dare you to tell me that's not good. :D

And that's before we get onto Imperanon themselves! One of the things I like most about his keyboard playing is that no matter what he's doing, whether it's background-playing or taking the lead, it's perfectly executed and this song in particular is a good example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvjc70lMods There's a fab solo in it, but even when he's not completely showing off, the keys add so much to the song as a backing instrument.

By Carina Damm of svartseiðr.photography