The 2021 re-recording of “Below Zero” by Finnish crossover pioneers Waltari is premiering today and features none other than the band´s countrymate Marko Hietala – a rock legend in his own right, known from symphonic metal masters Nighwish and hard rock stalwarts Tarot. With their friendship going back as far as 1991, “Marko himself chose the song” according to Waltari mastermind Kärtsy Hatakka. “He had a vision about how the new version should sound, and we then – in a very good common spirit – wanted to definitely fulfill his wishes as best as we could. I think this turned out more than okay!”
´Below Zero´ (originally the title track of the band´s 2009 studio album) is going to be featured in Waltari´s 30th anniversary album “3rd Decade – Anniversary Edition” (Metalville Records – released date 26.11.).
Photo credit Marko Hietala: Andrea Becker / Waltari’s photographer: Jani Mahkonen
You can watch the official documentary video below.
Marko Hietala comments:
“Kärtsy, the mainman of Waltari, asked me about a year ago if I’d be interested in guesting on their tribute album project. Their funky metallic crossover was one of the very first to break the international barrier from Finland, and they helped to pave the way for a lot of us. ”Below Zero” was chosen as the song to work on and the new chorus sounds way massive! I agreed to do it with the guys of course. We met already in a prehistoric sweaty haze of a finnish rock club in the early nineties. We’re dinosaurian brothers and you need a piece of the sky to kill us off!”
Kärtsy Hatakka comments:
“Marko and I are very old friends, far from the last century. With Roope Latvala, who was our common guitarist friend (Children Of Bodom, Waltari, Stone), they had a band together called Sinergy. This was before Marko joined Nightwish. At that band’s gigs we were hanging around together, and in fact I remember meeting Marko already in 1991 in Kuopio, Finland, when Waltari was playing there for the first time. After the departure from Nightwish we were happy to get him onboard to interpret our “Below Zero” song from 2009. Marko himself chose the song and had a preliminary vision about it, how he wanted it to be sounded.and we then, in a very good common spirit, wanted definitely to fulfill his productional vision as we ever could.”
“3rd Decade – Anniversary Edition” and is available in all digital platforms now, to be found here.
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 