The Rasmus

The quartet that launched Helsinki's melodically inclined rock outfit the Rasmus—vocalist Lauri Ylönen, bassist Eero Heinonen, guitarist Pauli Rantasalmi, and drummer Jarno Lahti—came together in 1995 during their high-school years; Lahti soon gave way to Janne Heiskanen. Their first release, Peep, earned gold certification at home and turned the teenagers into national rock stars by age 16. A swift follow-up, Playboys, matched that sales mark and brought the group an Emma, Finland’s equivalent of a Grammy. Hell of a Tester, their third album, contained the track “Liquid,” which Finland’s critics named Single of the Year; that same year Heiskanen departed and Aki Hakala took over on drums.

Into, issued in 2001, achieved double-platinum status in Finland while its opening single “F-F-F-Falling” reached the summit of the domestic charts, helping the band cultivate a broader European following through extensive touring. The momentum culminated with 2003’s Dead Letters, which topped the album charts in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland; the record marked the group’s major international breakthrough largely on the strength of the hit single “In the Shadows.” Captured at Switzerland’s Gampel Open Air festival, the concert film Live Letters appeared the following year. Domestic success persisted when 2005’s Hide from the Sun also attained platinum certification. Black Roses, the band’s fourth Finnish number-one album, surfaced in 2008 and incorporated symphonic-metal textures. After the 2001–2009 career retrospective Best of the Rasmus and Lauri Ylönen’s 2011 solo album New World, the Rasmus returned to the sonic approach of Into for their eighth studio effort, the self-titled The Rasmus, released by Universal in 2012. Following an extended absence from the spotlight, the group resurfaced in 2017 with Dark Matters.