Dear friends, welcome to the second installment of our coverage regarding the upcoming Czech edition of the official biography of the Suomi metal icon Amorphis by the writer, music journalist and active musician Markus Laakso. And it is precisely the author whom we shall introduce today in more detail, given his Czech premiere appearance so to speak.

Markus (left one on the photo) has been writing about metal music for more than twenty years for a number of Finnish magazines, the most notable one of which is the Inferno magazine, where he wrote his first piece in 2005. And it was this involvement that led to the idea of the Amorphis biography, specifically in January 2006 during his interview with Esa Holopainen and Tomi Joutsen in Helsinki. The book first came out in 2015.

Five years later, Markus added a second book - "Folk Metal Big 5" - focused on the iconic five Suomi folk metal bands, namely Korpiklaani, Ensiferum, Finntroll, Turisas and Moonsorrow. This one has been so far published only in Finnish.

It is further apt to note that besides articles and books, Markus also captures the happenings of the Suomi metal scene through the lens of his camera.

And then there is his music career. On top of being a music writer and a journalist, Markus is himself an active musician. For a long time, his main band was the death-doom outfit Kuolemanlaakso with Mikko Kotamäki from Swallow the Sun on vocals. However, due to shortage of time of its members, the band called it quit in 2023. Yet it did not take long for Markus to bring forth a new band, i.e. The Ghoulstars, wherein metal meets punk and horror. Last but not least, there is also his solo project M. Laakso and the Gothic Tapes, where Markus explores gothic rock and gothic metal.

And that is it for today. Enjoy and more next time!