Tarot was originally formed by the Hietala brothers in the early 80's. Back then the band's name was called "Purgatory". As Purgatory reached the point when they got the record deal, the label wanted Purgatory to change their name. Since then the band has been known as Tarot. Also the line-up settled in to the form of Marco Hietala (bass/vocals), Zachary Hietala (guitars), Mako H (guitars) and Pecu Cinnari (drums).
Wings of Darkness single saw the daylight in 1986 and during that same year they released their first full length album which was titled as "Spell of Iron". Next year they released again a single and it was called "Rose on the Grave". In 1988 the second Tarot album came out, this time the title was "Follow Me Into Madness". In the eighties everything was "big" so Tarot played with enormous equipment. Even the roadies of Metallica were amazed by the Marshall piles of Tarot.
After the second album there was a brake in Tarot-land. Durind this "vacation" the line-up changed a little bit and a keyboardist was added to the band as Janne Tolsa joined Tarot, who replaced the second guitarist Mako H. And after five years of more and less silence the third album, To Live Forever, was finished in 1993. Tarot got good publicity in Japan so their first live album was released in 1994 only in Japan. The gig was recorded at Tavastia Club, Helsinki. Fortunately some of the songs from the live album were released during the next year on a limited edition bonus cd with the next studio album, Stigmata.
Again there was a little break in the timeline and "For The Glory of Nothing" came out in 1998. Also during the same year, Shining Black, a Tarot compilation album came out in Japan. After this they returned into silence. Luckily the silent wasn't complete, they did gigs here and there. But when Tarot wasn't active, Marco was. He played in Conquest and Sinergy. He also did some gigs with the other Conquest guys as a cover group "Metal Gods". Marco also joined Nightwish in 2002 and along that, some more attention came also towards Tarot. Janne Tolsa played the keyboards for Virtuocity's Secret Visions album as Marco sang a few songs for it. At the end of summer 2002 Tarot did a special 80's gig in Kuopio, they played material only from the first two albums. And to complete the 80's the guys looked like they were still stuck in the 80's!
During the year 2003 the Shining Black compilation was released again in the rest of the world. Tarot signed a new record deal with Spinefarm Records and a new studio album is just around the corner. Suffer Our Pleasures!
