Sami Raatikainen is a Finnish

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

who played for the German

technical death metal Technical death metal (also referred to as tech-death) is a musical subgenre of death metal that began and developed in the early- to mid-1990s, with particular focus on challenging, demanding instrumental skill and complex songwriting. Techni ...

band

Necrophagist Necrophagist was a German technical death metal band founded and fronted by guitarist and vocalist Muhammed Suiçmez. The band used baroque music-influenced compositions paired with extreme metal drumming. The name originates from the Greek r ...

. He joined Necrophagist in 2006 after the departure of Christian Müenzner. He also plays guitar in the Finnish technical death metal band Codeon and performs guitar, bass, keyboard and drums for his solo project Radiance.

Radiance

During Necrophagist's extended downtime Sami spent his time recording and producing a solo album called "The Burning Sun" under the project name Radiance. The entire album was written by Sami, including the vocals and lyrics, though

Mats Levén Mats Leven is a Swedish singer. Some of his most notable collaborations have been with guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, symphonic metallers Therion and doom metallers Candlemass. In 2011, due to family issues on the part of Firewind's lead singer ...

recorded the vocals. Sami also studies theoretical physics at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

as a PhD candidate with a master's degree.

Equipment

Sami uses an Amfisound custom Routa model. He uses ENGL SE's in Necrophagist due to Necrophagist endorsement deal with the company. He uses an ENGL Powerball in Codeon. Having recently become an Ibanez Guitars endorsee, Sami has started using an RG-Series 7 String on stage with Necrophagist. His RG-7 is satin black, with a Lo-Pro Edge tremolo system and active EMG-707 pickups. Sami is now using 7-string guitars on stage with Necrophagist in order to preview songs from their new album. He also purchased a custom neck-through RGD from Ibanez.

References

External links

* Finnish heavy metal guitarists Living people Seven-string guitarists Necrophagist members Year of birth missing (living people) {{Finland-musician-stub