Jaani Peuhu, producer, songwriter and musician from Helsinki (Finland) is the creator of darkwave electronic band Iconcrash, which debuted with "Nude" in 2005, followed by two more albums. In 2015 Jaani set out on his solo project and released his first album, “Tear Catcher”. He joined Swallow the Sun in 2019 while producing "When A Shadow Is Forced Into The Light“, which reached the Finnish album charts at #1 and winned him a nomination for the Finnish grammy “Emma” in 2020.
Jaani has worked with various multiplatinum-selling Finnish pop artists and metal acts like Before The Dawn, Diamond Black, Thunderstone, and To/Die/For. He also topped the album charts with writing and co-producing Lord of the Lost's 2018 album "Thornstar" and was nominated for the "Emma“ for Hallatar's debut album "No Stars Upon The Bridge“ (2018), which he also produced and mixed, along with playing bass live.
Although Jaani wanted to focus on his career as a producer, touring with Hallatar and Swallow the Sun made him want to tour with his own music again. He had the unique idea to create the genre of “new doom”. From that, Mercury Circle was born. This is a new direction of dark metal infused with powerful synth/electro waves and doom. He’s finally returning to vocals to bring you something purely enigmatic.
He would say: "After I returned from touring with Hallatar I started to write new music. My plan was not to write anything too heavy. For some reason the songs I wrote were closer to doom metal than dark rock. I followed my heart and wrote an album without any preconceptions about genres, planning, or second guessing what I was doing. I felt like I needed to get these songs out of my system. When the songs were written and the demos done I started to think what I was going to do with them and whether I should form a band to perform them. I made a of list of musicians I wanted to work with. I contacted them, played the demos, and after asking if they were interested to join, they all said yes". Thus the lineup was completed with Juppe Sutela (To/Die/For) and Jussi Hämäläinen (Hanging Garden,The Chant) on guitars, Antti Kiiski (Sleep of Monsters, Rytmihäiriö) on bass and Juuso Raatikainen (Swallow the Sun) on drums.
Their 2020 debut EP “The Dawn of Vitriol” contains 5 tracks in more than 30 minutes ranging from synth/electro sounds to touching doom metal, without leaving aside catchy melodies no short of emotion that will please fans of Killing Joke, Anathema, Cathedral, Depeche Mode, The Gathering, Ulver or The Cure among others. Cover artwork was created by the renowned and prolific graphic designer and visual artist Kalle Pyyhtinen (Utudesign) and was mastered by Jaime Gómez Arellano at Orgone Studios.
TRACKLIST
1. Oil of Vitriol
2. The Beauty of Agony3. Black Flags
4. The Last Fall
5. New Dawn
