This is why we play.

Two new songs have now been released to our website to the player above and Releases section as downloadable MP3's, as well as to Soundcloud and MySpace pages.

Let us know what you think of the new stuff!

Join us tonight in Tampere at the Herwoodstock mini-festival! It will be our last gathering of the fall; exceptional show to come with some special guests on (and off) stage. Besides this event, it'll be a truly memorable weekend for us because on Saturday we're heading to Fantom Studio to finalize mixing & mastering of the two new songs! Expect online release by the end of the week!

By the way, some photos from July's Karjurock gathering have been added to the Media section.

Tonight's show in Sastamala looks like to be the last gathering for me in the ranks of Arkadia for a while, as I will depart in December for one year of traveling around Australia and Asia. Leaving the band behind for such a long time was definitely one of the major decisions related to the departure. Especially, since this year has been one of the best years so far for Arkadia, with great gigs in new cities, recording two brand new songs and getting Vesa the drummer fully on board the crew.

This is not the first time we have faced this situation. Former guitarist Ade Rikala and I studied abroad in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and replacements for those periods were found and wheels kept on rolling. Such is the case also this time. I can safely say that we have found the best possible stand-in for the year to come: Heikki Haapanen, older brother of Vesa and similarly a member of thrash metal band Arasaw, will replace me as the lead guitarist of Arkadia until December 2012. Heikki is stellar in the guitar, having played for over 10 years and more technical stuff than I ever have.

During my absence, I won't stand idle considering music and the band. One of the songs to be released later this year, Parenthesis of Life, was written the last time when I was away for a longer period of time. I believe that changing things up in life every now and then is always good for a person - it enables learning new things, accumulating new experiences - and coming up with fresh ideas. I'm confident that once I'm back, the foundation of Arkadia's first full-length album is cast, and we can steadily march towards releasing our debut album in 2013 or 2014.

Sincerely,
-Migi 

P.S. Some gigs for next year (Feb-Mar) have already been booked, see Gatherings page for details.

Rock'n'Roll Update! On the 5th of June, we visited Fantom-Studio for drum recordings of the upcoming demo. Everything went beautifully, as Vesku recorded two tracks in a couple of hours. We've played these songs during the gigs this year, but nevertheless they will most likely be a surprise in style to most of you...

This weekend we'll continue the recordings with bass and guitar, followed by lead guitars and keyboards on the next week. So we're expecting somewhat studio-oriented July! (Let it rain...) You can follow the progress with picture updates at our Facebook page.

Furthermore, our gathering this month on July at Lappeenranta has been cancelled, but has been replaced with another one at Tarina-Ravintola, Jurva in September.