Katatonia and Leprous singers guest on new Esa Holopainen solo album

By Jerry Ewing
( Prog )
published

Amorphis guitarist Esa Holopainen will release SIlver Lake By Esa Holopainen in May

Eso Holopainen
(Image credit: Eso Holopainen)

Katatonia's Jonas Renske, Leprous singer Einar Solberg and Anneke van Giersbergen are among the guest vocalists to feature on Silver Lake By Esa Holopainen, the new solo album from Amorphis guitraist Esa Holopainen, which will be released through Nuclear Blast on May 28.

"Over the last few years, I have been writing a lot of music, and some of the stuff hasn't exactly sounded like Amorphis. When Nino [Laurenne, owner of Sonic Pump Studios] called me late March, I already had three decent-sounding Silver Lake songs in stock. These tracks, entitled Sentiment, Ray Of Light and Promising Sun, worked as the backbone for the full solo album."

Joining Renske, Solberg and van Goersbergen on the new album are Björn 'Speed' Strid of Soilwork/The Night Flight Orchestra and Nordman's Håkan Hemlin, on an akbum that offers a different sound to Holopainen's day job in Amorphis.

"At first, I really didn't know if the album would turn out to be purely instrumental or would there be vocalists as well. However, one thing was certain, I wouldn't be the singer of Silver Lake," adds Holopainen. "Many times, when people think about a guitarist's solo album, they get the impression of technical stuff with a huge amounts of notes played extremely fast. Well, I‘m not a big fan of that kind of music. Whenever I write, I always want to pile up interesting songs, and not just shred for the sake of it."

The moody cover artwork was created by Metastazis and can be seen below, while the album that was recorded at Sonic Pump, produced and mixed by Nino Laurenne and Holopainen, and mastered by Svante Forsbäck.

The first single and pre-order will follow shortly.

Eso Holopainen

(Image credit: Nuclear Blast)

Silver Lake By Eso Holopainen
1. Silver Lake (instrumental)
2. Sentiment (feat. Jonas Renkse of Katatonia)
3. Storm (feat. Håkan Hemlin of Nordman)
4. Ray Of Light (feat. Einar Solberg of Leprous)
5. Alkusointu (feat. Vesa-Matti Loiri)
6. In Her Solitude (feat Tomi Joutsen of Amorphis)
7. Promising Sun (feat. Björn 'Speed' Strid of Soilwork / The Night Flight Orchestra)
8. Fading Moon (feat. Anneke Van Giersbergen)
9. Apprentice (feat. Jonas Renkse of Katatonia)

Jerry Ewing
Jerry Ewing

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.