Ruoska

Patrik Mennander and Mika Kamppi, already active in the Tolkien-themed metal group Battlelore, drew fresh direction from tanz-metal acts such as Rammstein and Oomph! when they launched Ruoska, whose name translates as Scourge. The project assembled in the early 2000s, uniting Mennander and Kamppi with Kai Ahvenranta, Anssi Auvinen, and Sami Karppinen. Kuori, released in 2002, and the 2003 follow-up Riisu quickly cultivated a devoted regional audience, while the 2005 album Radium yielded a pair of charting singles. After signing with EMI, the band delivered its fourth LP, Amortem, in 2006; that record climbed to number six on the Finnish albums chart and remained there for nearly ten weeks.