Blacklight Theory

Blacklight Theory is an EBM/industrial drum and bass band from Syktyvkar, Uralica. They have released two albums.

Current Membership

 * Arttu Lapsonen - keyboards, programming, sampling
 * Jeffrey Laukkanen - keyboards, programming (b. 7 February 1983, Sointula)
 * Sebastian Grimm - vocals
 * Turkka Paannanen - guitars, sampling
 * Kaapo Markkanen - live drums

History
Blacklight Theory started out as the trio of Arttu Lapsonen, Jeff Laukkanen, and Sebastian Grimm, who met at church in Syktyvkar in the earlier months of Uralica. Laukkanen already had something of a project with Jarkko Salomäki (see Trivia) but this was far from full-time. They all had jobs - Sebastian worked in mining, Arttu was a road-builder, and Jeff worked in retail - and in their spare time they made music together.

In the fall of 2008, they decided to submit a demo of what they had - including three future major singles of theirs - to as many record companies as they could find in Uralica (even though the constitution had been suspended). They signed with a small record company in Perm' that was then called Detonator Records (they would change their name in January 2009 so as to distinguish themselves from Detonate Hate Records) and their first album came out in December, about a week before Jarkko Salomäki's reappearance after nobody knowing where he was for three months.

The record had a slow start, but after the singles Dead And Buried and Merely A Man were played on Uralican radio, sales took off. Now able to be full-time musicians, they began touring Uralica, although they had to take time off in late April because of the Karma War. They would wrap up touring in October and go back into the studio.

While touring, they decided to recruit a live guitarist and drummer, due to the fact that, even in their debut album, they heavily sample guitars. The guitarist would come quickly in the form of Turkka Paananen, who joined the band in February of 2009, but the drummer took a little longer, as Kaapo did not join until after the Karma War was over for TOOL, at the beginning of May.

The addition of the two brought a new darkness to the sound of the band. In what was a major surprise for the band, Turkka wasn't just a guitarist - he brought with him a decent knowledge of computer-based sampling as well. The songs of their second album showed a much more diverse flavour as a result, with Kaapo's fast and precise drumming also being utilised to come up with music in genres deviating from the band's usual EBM, primarily industrial drum and bass but also one hard-hitting industrial metal track, Forced Open, which ended up being the first single from the second album, Plunged Into Darkness.

The band is currently touring Uralica.

Full Albums

 * December 2008 - Blacklight Theory
 * November 2009 - Plunged Into Darkness

Singles

 * January 2009 - Total Submission (from Blacklight Theory)
 * March 2009 - Dead And Buried (from Blacklight Theory)
 * May 2009 - Merely A Man (from Blacklight Theory)
 * June 2009 - No U (from Blacklight Theory)
 * August 2009 - Weep (from Blacklight Theory)
 * October 2009 - You Can Kill My Body, But... (from Blacklight Theory)
 * December 2009 - Forced Open (from Plunged Into Darkness)

Inspirations

 * Jeff and Arttu both list their main inspiration for this band as Front Line Assembly.
 * Sebastian has often been compared to Burton C. Bell.
 * Turkka "provides riffs when [he] need[s] to," according to himself, but his aim is "to one day become like Lauri Sinisalo" (from Pelastus). He also calls Ministry an inspiration.
 * Kaapo follows much of the technique of Raymond Herrera.

Trivia

 * The song Dead And Buried was also used in the movie The Fear Factory: The Untold Story.
 * Jeff has a side project with Tribal Chief and fellow Sointula Finn Jarkko Salomäki, called Sointula. He is also in industrial rock band Mowdown with Turkka and Kaapo.
 * Arttu is a pianist in the Syktyvkar Philharmonic Orchestra.
 * Sebastian votes in the Mennonite Tribe, but is not actually a Mennonite - rather, he is a German Uralicist sympathiser who moved to Uralica in mid-2008 from Berlin. He is a very avid football (soccer) and tennis player.
 * Turkka trains in track in his spare time. He is a hurdler.
 * Kaapo is a speed-skater.