Peter Vicar

Peter Vicar
Background information
Birth Name	Kimi Kärki
Alias	Peter Inverted, Peter, Father Peter Vicar
Born	16 April 1976
Occupation	Musician, Doctor of Psychology, Researcher
Genres	Doom Metal, Hard Rock, Folk
Instrument(s)	Guitar
Years active	1995 - Present
Associated acts	Reverend Bizarre, Lord Vicar
Website	Peter Vicar's Official Page

Kimi Kärki (born April 16, 1976), better known as Peter Vicar, is a Finnish musician best known for being the guitarist for the Finnish doom metal band Reverend Bizarre and later his own project Lord Vicar. Kärki also performs live as a solo singer/songwriter. 

Biography

Reverend Bizarre (1995 - 2007)

• For more details feel free to view the Riffipedia page on Reverend Bizarre.

Reverend Bizarre was started in 1995 by Albert Witchfinder (Sami Hynninen), Peter Vicar (Kami Kärki) and Juippi (Juha-Petteri Lundqvist). Though some practice sessions were recorded (Vicar owns the only copy) no real studio recordings were made with this lineup and Juippi left in 1997, replaced by Earl of Void (Jari Lars Johan Pohjonen).

The band's current lineup then recorded some practice sessions and self-released them under the title Slice of Doom in 1999. The band played their first live show at TVO in Turku, Finland on 18 August 1999.

Eventually in 2002, the band released their debut album In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend, cited as an iconic album in doom metal. Following the album was a 2003 tour of Germany (their first shows outside of Finland.) with a limited CD-R entitled You Shall Suffer!. An EP followed entitled Harbinger of Metal followed that year, labeled as such despite being as lengthy as their albums.

Slice of Doom 1999 - 2002 was released in 2004 via PsycheDOOMelic, detailing all recordings from the Slice of Doom sessions and compilation tracks. In 2005, Reverend Bizarre released their second album II: Crush the Insects on Spikefarm. A short tour of Sweden happened in April that year and their only tour of the United States happened in July 2005, supported by The Gates of Slumber. Their first US performance was in Indianapolis, Indiana at Templars of Doom.

Reverend Bizarre announced their breakup was imminent sometime in 2006, recording what would be their final album and a plethora of songs for split releases that year. Along with a string of shows in Europe, they played a handful of shows in Finland leading up to their final performance. Reverend Bizarre's final concert was on 30 December 2006. It was at TVO in Turku, the same venue where their first show was held. The show had two sets including In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend in its entirety and founding member Juippi as a guest.

"Teutonic Witch" was released in May 2007 and peaked at #1 on the Finnish Radio Singles charts. Reverend Bizarre's third and final album III: So Long Suckers, was released on 8 August 2007. A sticker was included on the jewelcase with the statement "DOOM METAL IS DEAD". A plethora of posthumous split releases and EPs were released throughout the rest of 2007 and 2008. All of these recordings (Along with other split and rare tracks) were compiled in a 2CD set via Spikefarm entitled Death Is Glory... Now, released on 11 February 2009.

Lord Vicar (2007 - Present)

• For more details feel free to view the Riffipedia page on Lord Vicar.

Following the release of Reverend Bizarre's third studio album III: So Long Suckers in June 2007, the Finnish doom trio would disband. Having some material left over and a further interest in doom metal, Kimi Kärki would form a new band based on his stage name Peter Vicar, christening this new project as Lord Vicar. According to an interview via A Blog in The Northern Sky, Kärki had begun planning the project as far as 2006 once he knew Reverend Bizarre was nearing their end. Kärki would recruit entirely new musicians for this project, including Jim Hunter (October 31, Revelation), Gareth Millsted (The Path Is Clear, Centurions Ghost, End of Level Boss) and Christian Linderson (Terra Firma, Saint Vitus, Goatess). In the same interview with A Blog in The Northern Sky, Kärki would explain how he found his future bandmates:

“	“I started planning this band already in 2006, after I knew for certain that my old band Reverend Bizarre was going to end. So in a way I looked into the future at the same time as we were doing the last recordings of RB. Chritus was indeed the first one I had in mind, I had seen him live with Terra Firma, when they supported Cathedral and Orange Goblin in Helsinki, back in the late 1990s. He was definitely one of the coolest frontmen I had ever witnessed, and I certainly loved his vocal style. The biggest problem was indeed to find him, as he had pretty much vanished from the scene, but with the help of Rendfield, the ex-drummer of Count Raven, I was able to reach him by phone. I then went to Sweden to meet him, and he agreed to be part of this adventure. We drank from the horn and sacrificed a bit to the one-eyed deity as well. Needless to say my joy was overwhelming, especially as Chritus turned out to be one of the nicest people I have ever met. After finding Chritus I then went public with my request for a drummer, and Gareth replied almost instantly. We had toured together when he played with Centurions Ghost, and I knew that he was both an excellent drummer and a great person as well, so that problem was solved. By the way he has relocated to Basel now, and actually works at least temporarily in Kuwait, so we have quite a challenge to keep things running properly at the moment, when it comes to gigs. Finding a bass player was more a problem at first, and in the first 7” we did we had a guest bass player - certainly only for the logistical reasons, being separated by the Atlantic - namely one Jim Hunter, known for his bass magic for While Heaven Wept, Revelation (nowadays that lineup is called Yet So Far), Twisted Tower Dire, October 31 and so on. After that Jussi Myllykoski suggested that he could be up to the task. He had been around in many of our and also other bands' tours, doing the driving, so he was already familiar with what was ahead. We gave the songs a go and his stripped down, extremely heavy playing style fitted like a glove to what I had in mind. And so we had a full lineup, which has quite a massive musical chemistry together. Because we live far and apart from each other, we mostly link rehearsals with gigs or recordings. We do not jam to get material, each song is pretty much arranged by the one responsible for it, before we rehearse."	”
	— Kimi Kärki, A Blog in The Northern Sky

With a lineup established and a new bassist replacing Hunter in Jussi "Iron Hammer" Myllykoski (Iron Hammer, Earthbound Machine), Lord Vicar would release their debut EP The Demon of Freedom on 27 March 2008 via I Hate Records. This would build to the band's debut album entitled Fear No Pain on 6 November 2008, gaining positive reviews in the doom scene. Lord Vicar would perform their earliest shows that same month touring alongside The Deep Blue for a string of shows culminating in appearances at at Dawn of Doom and Day of Reckoning.

Lord Vicar would tour further in support of Fear No Pain with two tours in 2009: An April 2009 with Revelation, Mirror of Deception and Lord of The Grave surrounding an appearance at Doom Shall Rise. The other tour would be in the fall alongside The Gates of Slumber with appearances at Dutch Doom Days and Metal Warning Festival. Further festival appearances going into 2010 would include Hammer of Doom Festival, Jalometalli, Doom Over Vienna, Dawn of Doom and a short UK tour with Alunah.

Work would begin on a second record in 2011, following a return to Hammer of Doom and a marquee show in Greece alongside Trouble, Candlemass, Ghost and Hell. The second album would be recorded in between 1st and 26th of August, 2011. Bass, drums, rhythm guitars and vocals were recorded in Red House, Turku, by Danil Venho and Henri Rouvari while engineered by Danil Venho. Acoustic guitars, guitar solos and Mellotron would be recorded by Kimi Kärki in Hyperborean Lighthouse. Finally it would be mixed by Danil Venho and Lord Vicar, mastered by Joona Lukala and ultimately produced by by the band. Signs of Osiris saw it's release on 31 October 2011 and see praise among the likes of Metal Kaoz (10/10), The Sleeping Shaman, Dr. Doom's Lair, Soundi (5/5) and Temple of Perdition among others. Also of note is Peter Vicar, also known as Peter Inverted, chose to go by his real name of Kimi Kärki, as he felt he "didn't need a mask anymore".

Lord Vicar would go into 2012 touring with Orchid and Sigiriya, working in appearances at DesertFest London and Roadburn Festival, followed by an appearance at Heavy Days in Doomtown. The next year would see a string of mini-tours and other festival appearances such as Stoned From The Underground.

Following a period of dormancy, Gates of Flesh would see release on 17 June 2016 via longtime label The Church Within Records. Ultimately Lord Vicar's third effort would see praise from several publications and online review sites such as The Sludgelord, Metal Temple, Outlaws of The Sun and Metal Maniac among several others. Upon attaining a new bassist in Rich Jones (The Consultancy), Lord Vicar would perform at several festivals in 2016 and 2017, including Tuska Open Air, Doom Over Karalis, Blowup Festival and Hammer of Doom among others.

Following sporadic shows, releasing a solo album and at one point even living in the United States, Kärki would return to Finland and work at Noise For Fiction Studio between February and March 2019. In an interview with Uncivil Revolt, Christian Linderson details that the band lived at the studio quarters for the recording, bringing a genuine "here-and-now" feeling to the recording process. According to drummer Gareth Milsted in an interview with Culture Eater that the original plan was to do another shorter album alongside an EP but was changed to returning to longer albums, with a portion of the material dating back to his and Kärki's early years. Kärki would also confirm that a few riffs were old but the majority of the material was brand new and put together after the release of Gates of Flesh.

In late April of 2019 Lord Vicar would announce their fourth studio album in The Black Powder, along with a tour of Europe supporting the album with Thronehammer as direct support, followed by appearances at Storm Crusher Festival and Hammer of Doom. A music video for the song "Impact" also saw release around the same time. The Black Powder would see positive reception from several publications such as The Obelisk, Kerrang! and Distorted Sound Magazine among several others.

Other projects

Kärki has since become a folk musician; he released his first solo album, The Bone of My Bones, on Svart Records, in December 2013. The album features Mat McNerney, John Richardson, the professor of musicology in the University of Turku with whom Kimi played in Two Plus One, that includes Anna-Elena Pääkkölä, one of the two backing vocalists on the album, the other being Pirita Känkänen, who is Kärki's neighbour. The album was engineered and mastered by Joona Lukala, who contributes some keyboards. A second solo album entitled Eye For An Eye would be released in 2017.

Kärki had also been involved with several other projects over the years, including the progressive rock project known as Orne,

The Peter Vicar name

Kärki was "christened" Peter Vicar by Sami Hynninen when they founded Reverend Bizarre, because he was already married and led a "serious" life. He kept the name throughout Reverend Bizarre's career, then changed it to Peter Inverted, after Saint Peter, who asked to be crucified inverted (upside down), when he founded Lord Vicar. By the time of their second album, however, he was using his actual name, Kimi Kärki, as he "didn't need a mask anymore".

Personal Life

Outside of music Kärki is a Doctor of Psychology and a researcher at The Cultural History & IIPC, University of Turku. He has a degree in History and teaches at the University of Turku. Notably he owns a home studio known as Hyperborean Lighthouse.

Bands

• Reverend Bizarre - Guitar (1995 - 2007)
• Orne - Guitar (1997 - Present)
• Lord Vicar - Guitar (2007 - Present)
• E-Musikgruppe Lux Ohr - Guitar, E-Bow, Effects (2008 - Present)
• Kimi Kärki - Guitar, Vocals (2012 - Present)
• Uhrijuhla - Guitar (2013 - Present)

Selected Discography

With Reverend Bizarre

• In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend (2002, Sinister Figure)
• Harbinger of Metal (EP) (2003, Spikefarm)
• Slice of Doom 1999 - 2002 (Compilation) (2004, PsycheDOOMelic Records)
• II: Crush the Insects (2005, Spikefarm)
• III: So Long Suckers (2007, Spikefarm)
• Death Is Glory... Now (Compilation) (2009, Spikefarm)
• Return to the Rectory (EP) (2011, Svart; Recorded 2003 - 2004)

With Orne

• The Conjuration by the Fire (2006, Black Widow Records)
• The Tree of Life (2011, Black Widow Records)

With Lord Vicar

• Fear No Pain (2008, The Church Within Records)
• Signs of Osiris (2011, The Church Within Records)
• Gates of Flesh (2016, The Church Within Records)
• The Black Powder (2019, The Church Within Records)

Solo Releases

• The Bone of My Bones (Studio Album) (2013, Svart)
• Eye For An Eye (Studio Album) (2017, Svart)

External Links

• Facebook
• Bandcamp
• Twitter

References

Template:Reverend Bizarre