Mannhai

The stoner rock outfit Mannhai from Finland draws its name from a fabled child-abducting demon native to India's Uttar Pradesh region. Guitarist Ilkka Laaksomaa and bassist Olli-Pekka Laine assembled the Helsinki-based group in 1999, immediately after Laine left folk-metal stalwarts Amorphis. They enlisted youthful drummer Mikko Pietinen and secured veteran vocalist Jani Muurinen, whose background included time with the established Finnish hard rock act Xysma. The quartet tracked its debut, The Sons of Yesterday's Black Grouse, in 2001 and followed it the next year with Evil Under the Sun. Both albums received steady live support and invited stylistic comparisons to Dozer, Spiritual Beggars, and Fu Manchu. On 2004's The Exploder the band explored heavier metal, blues, and '70s prog rock while adding a female backing vocalist and former Amorphis keyboardist Kasper Mårtenson. Muurinen exited that November to concentrate on artistic studies, closing his chapter with Mannhai. Replacement singer Trond Skog, formerly of Honcho, survived only months before dismissal during a European tour in spring 2005. The remaining trio contacted longtime acquaintance Pasi Koskinen, who had just parted from Amorphis; he agreed to fly in, finish the dates, and keep rehearsing with them in Helsinki. The reconfigured lineup cut its fourth album, the back-to-stoner-basics Hellroad Caravan, in 2006. Though Pietinen stepped down later that year, the group continued touring with temporary drummer Nalle Österma.