Musta Paraati, (Black Parade) was an originally short lived yet highly regarded old-school Finnish Goth band, making music before their countrymen Russian Love, Two Witches, and The 69 Eyes.
In the spring of 1983 the band released their Peilitalossa ( In the House of Mirrors) an LP that is prized by collectors and traders.
After gaining popularity with live and televised performances, the band burnt like a roman candle, quickly dissolving, but not before releasing a followup record in 1984’s Käärmeet ( Snakes).
Musta Paraati made one comeback gig in 1987 featuring original vocalist Jore Vastelin, who sadly died of a cardiac arrest in 1993 at the age of 30.
Jyrki 69 from The 69 Eyes had been championing the band stateside during his DJ sets, which along with love from the the band’s original label Svart Records, helped contribute to the band’s resurgence in popularity.
“In the end this good reception has totally surprised us, ” explains the band’s guitarist Saku Paasiniemi in a recent interview conducted in Finnish. “We hear there is an underground scene in the States where the bands seriously dig Musta Paraati. They’re just like going around saying that ‘their biggest dream is to see the home town of Musta Paraati and play shows with Musta Paraati’. I recently got a message from Cleopatra Records, and in the picture they sent Glenn Danzig is holding our album Peilitalossa.”
Saku continues, still awestruck,
“I was just talking to a musician that had been touring in the USA, and he had happened to run into some taxi driver for example who’d said that ‘Musta Paraati is the best thing ever.’ he was super pumped that Svart Records had re-released Käärmeet. Apparently you can also find Musta Paraati shirts and pins and so on in rock shops/music stores. Excuse me? Seriously?”
Musta Paraati reunited in 2015 with a new lineup, and are currently in the studio working on new material.
Out now via Cleopatra Records is a special 23 track deluxe reissue of Peilitalossa featuring bonus material from Käärmeet.
*Thanks to some Berlin’s Finnish Mafia: Nini, Kiri, and Rasmus, for helping with this article.
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