Becoming

Becoming is the second album, made this time by a singer who had a band. In the spring of 2007 Ari Koivunen put a live band together, mostly from people he had known for years: Erkka Korhonen on guitar, Erkki Silvennoinen on bass, Vili Ollila on keyboards. They played their first show in May and passed a hundred gigs inside the first year. Luca Gargano (guitar) and Mauro Gargano (drums) were in it from the start until 2008 and played on this recording. Across 2007 and 2008 there were roughly 160 shows, two of them in Tokyo. The big difference from the debut is where the songs came from. Outside writers had supplied every track on the first record; most of this one was written by the Ari Koivunen band itself. Nino Laurenne and Pasi Heikkilä produced again. Released on 11 June 2008, it entered at number one and went gold within a week — but held the top for a single week, nothing like the twelve of its predecessor. The Japanese edition followed on 25 June with an extra track, “Fight Forever.” On 25 November that year, Amoral announced him as their singer. These two solo albums are where that chapter closed.