Mana Mana (band)
| Mana Mana | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Joensuu, Finland |
| Genres | post-punk, heavy metal |
| Years active | 1986–1991 |
| Labels | Gaga Goodies, Rubber Rabbit Rock'n' Roll Records, Riemu |
| Associated acts | Terveyskeskus, Babylon Whores, Murheen Laakso |
| Members | Jouni Mömmö, Otra Romppanen, Janne Suhonen, Tuomas Moilanen, Timo Puukko |
Mana Mana was a rock band from Joensuu, Finland. It was formed in 1986 by singer-songwriter-guitarist Jouni Mömmö and lead guitarist Arto "Otra" Romppanen. Their musical style could be described as a mixture of goth and death rock, punk and metal combined into heavy stoner rock and even hints of grunge.
Before Mana Mana Mömmö's band was Silmienvaihtajat ("Eye changers"), named after the poem of Uuno Kailas. Most of the lyrics has been written at that time. This band's music can be heard on Silmienvaihtajat: 1985-1986 (Svart SVR077CD).
Mana Mana's trademark was to use multiple overdubbed, distorted guitar tracks in their studio recordings, as many as 8-12 per track. Their heavy music was accompanied by haunting vocals by Mömmö that were sung in Finnish. Jouni Mömmö wrote all the lyrics for the group, and the texts often dealt with topics filled with religious symbolism, personal revelations, the apocalypse, death, psychedelia, insanity and stories of love gone wrong. The lyrics were often blaming - sometimes attacking Christianity - depressing, gloomy and mentally disturbed. The name of the band is apparently a reference to the concept of mana in Polynesian mythology.
Their career was rather short; during their original existence Mana Mana made only a few vinyl singles and one LP album, "Totuus Palaa" (engl. The truth is burning), which was released in 1990. Their inability to continue was because of Mömmö's deteriorating mental condition - he suffered from schizophrenia along with various other mental illnesses, had been in and out of a mental institute and became almost catatonic at some point, thus making it impossible for the band to create new material and to do live shows. One of their final efforts was to re-record vocal tracks with English translations of some of their songs from "Totuus palaa" in order to achieve a possibility of success abroad. These songs were "Totuus palaa" (retitled "Truth is Burning"), "Ilmestyskirjan peto" ("The Beast"), "Kuolla Elävänä" ("To Die Alive") and "Ketä sä rakastat?" ("Who Do You Love?"). However, Mömmö was already too deranged to perform and his voice was barely audible. The recordings weren't released until after his death on the "Complete ... Kaikki" CD compilation.
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