New album, “Via Miseria IV”, out on April 24th!
The warrior and the sensei: Joel Hokka and Pauli Rantasalmi form a new band.
An orphan arrives at the house of the sensei, worn down by the pain of past struggles, carrying a scar on his face. Under the sensei’s guidance he regains his strength and becomes a warrior – ready to face the world once more.
The warrior is Joel Hokka, former frontman of the nu metal phenomenon Blind Channel. The sensei is Pauli Rantasalmi, longtime guitarist of the beloved The Rasmus, a group he was part of for almost three decades. Pauli is also known for his songwriting and production work – not only for The Rasmus’s biggest hits like In the Shadows but also for artists like Tarja Turunen and many more.
Together with wonderkid drummer Jimi Aslak the two have now created a new band: HOKKA.
None of this was planned. Initially, they met simply to share stories – reflections on losing their respective bands of brothers. But neither the warrior nor the sensei has ever been short on ideas. One chord led to another, and the songs came.
The upcoming HOKKA debut album is a journey into the darkest corners of the heart, where vengeance entwines with the fragile thread of love and the path of suffering leads to unexpected beauty. Each song is like a bloody rose blooming amidst pain – its petals filled with longing, but its thorns remind us of the cost of loss.
The line ‘I found a beauty in the pain’ is the heart of the album, a soul’s mass for the broken spirit that finds light in the darkest night. Vengeance is not only hate; it is a path that reveals the truth hidden in the shadows of love. The album is dedicated to those who dare to look in the mirror and see the beauty in their own vulnerability.
The first single In the Darkness offers a glimpse into what’s to come from HOKKA’s debut album. Musically it draws a clear line to the heritage of the global explosion of early 2000’s Finnish rock.
“The early 2000’s was my childhood and The Rasmus of that era was one of my favourite bands. When I saw the gold record of Dead Letters on Pauli’s wall it felt like something had come full circle”, Joel says.
The seeds for the collaboration of the warrior and the sensei were planted long ago. Now’s the time to reap the harvest.
(Photograph by Natalie Pastakeda)
