Impaled Nazarene is a Finnish extreme metal band that started as black metal but have incorporated elements of grindcore, thrash metal and death metal, and have grown more towards hardcore punk. History The band formed in November 1990, with founding members Mika Luttinen, Kimmo Luttinen, Mika Pääkkö, Ari Holappa and Antti Pihkala. The band gained national success when their debut album, Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz, entered the Finnish charts. The band was infamous for their apparent hatred of the Norwegian black metal scene back the early 1990s; however, the band now seems to have disassociated themselves from that dislike. Luttinen later affirmed that "We have absolutely nothing against Norwegians. I even made up with Euronymous before he was killed so just forget this thing, it is ancient history". Impaled Nazarene stopped wearing corpse paint in the mid-1990s when black metal exploded, with Luttinen explaining that "we felt it was time distance ourselves a bit from the ridiculous ideas and statements that were circulating around the whole scene back then. And look around, we are not alone who have done this. Even Norwegian bands have dropped paint and other shit and are concentrating on the music instead of childish statements". With the release of Suomi Finland Perkele, Impaled Nazarene dropped some of their aggression and made a stylistic shift, but this direction ended with the removal of Kimmo Luttinen from the line-up. Mika Luttinen explained his dissatisfaction with Kimmo and how the band changed under his guidance: After growing increasingly unpolished in delivery, the band made a shift, beginning with Nihil (2000) and the accession of Children of Bodom guitarist Alexi Laiho, towards a sound that has been described as "a benzedrine-fueled combination of thrash metal and Iron Maiden". Luttinen explained that Laiho's role was critical: "it was clear that now that we had finally two guitar players that we kind of like wanted to get away from that punky kind of writing style and started just wanting to get more back to the metal feeling". Their ninth studio album, Pro Patria Finlandia, was a popular import album for Japan. Impaled Nazarene have toured with bands including Cannibal Corpse, Mayhem and Dark Tranquility, traversing four continents and over thirty countries. On 16 March 2003, guitarist Teemu Raimoranta died falling off a bridge onto the ice below, in what was described as "an alcohol-related accidental fall". On 15 January 22, the