BIOGRAPHY

Blind Channel’s story begins in 2013 in Oulu when Joel Hokka, guitarist of a local metal band called Scarm, decided to form his own band and create a different kind of music. He started by doing covers on his own, and he was the sole member of the band, until an old schoolmate and musical “rival”, guitarist Joonas Porko, joined him. Scarm eventually ceased its activities in 2014, while Joonas’ band, Abhorrent Ritual, disbanded in mid-2013.

Looking to complete the lineup, Joonas invited his friends Tommi Lalli and Olli Matela (a drummer and a bassist respectively) to join his new band. Olli was also a former member of Abhorrent Ritual. Joel, Joonas, Olli and Tommi were all students at the Madetojan Musiikkilukio in Oulu.

The lineup still felt incomplete, as the band was looking for a rapper. That’s when they met Niko Moilanen at a party in the spring of 2013 and were impressed by his rapping. Niko, a fellow student at the Madetojan Musiikkilukio, was looking for a band to join, but he wasn’t accepted into any of them. (Back in 2012 Niko had started a project called Counting Lifeboats with his friend Tony Kilpinen. The duo stopped their activities in 2017, and resumed them in 2019. As of 2020, the band’s activities are on hold).

It was Niko who came up with the name Blind Channel and self-defined their music as “violent pop”, as a result of the combination between hard rock, electronic pop and rap. Niko also designed the band´s logo.

On September 5th, 2013, Blind Channel released their debut single, Save Me, along with an official music video. This date is also considered the official anniversary of the band. A few weeks later, on September 21st, they released a self-titled mini EP (FULL DEBUT – EP by Blind Channel) featuring four tracks and one demo version: Fringe, Save Me, Save Me (Demo), More Than You, Until I’m The Only One. These tracks were published exclusively on SoundCloud.

Blind Channel officially debuted on stage on October 3rd, 2013 at 45 Special in Oulu, where they also performed their debut single Save Me. Originally, they were supposed to be supporting Estonian band Defrage, but the night of the show, Defrage informed them that their bass player had gotten drunk, crashed into the wall of a police station, and was arrested. With Defrage unable to perform, Blind Channel ended up headlining the show, with local band Facelift as support.

As a follow-up to Save Me, Blind Channel released their first maxi single, Antipode, on March 21st, 2014, produced by Finnish producer Mikko Mäkitalo. Antipode included two tracks: Naysayers and Calling Out, both of which were later released individually.

In early 2014 Blind Channel played a series of headline and support shows across Finland, including their first festival show (Coronarock IX on February 22nd in Kemi).

On April 17th, Blind Channel performed in the Wacken Metal Battle Finland semifinals at Nuclear Nightclub in Oulu.

In summer 2014 Blind Channel performed at several major Finnish festivals, including Nummirock on June 21st, where they won Wacken Metal Battle Finland 2014, an international competition for young heavy metal performers, and took a slot in Wacken Open Air 2014 on July 30th, where they represented Finland and competed with all Metal Battle winners from other countries. The trip to Germany was their very first trip abroad, and the guys put their equipment in the same car they were traveling with and drove for nearly 3 days both ways to play a 20-minute-set in front of 6,000 people. Sadly, Blind Channel did not place in the top 5. 

Thanks to their participation in Wacken Open Air, Blind Channel gained more attention from the Finnish media, and articles about them started appearing in local newspapers such as Kaleva or Forum24, as well as on Soundi, Finland’s most prominent music magazine.

On August 27th, Blind Channel was selected to open for Enter Shikari in Helsinki, one of their favorite bands and biggest influences. 

On October 4th, the band released their first mini EP Foreshadow through Music Kickup, accompanied by a release party at Nuclear Nightclub in Oulu and a promotional domestic tour called Foreshadowing Tour 2014 via NEM Agency. The mini EP included three tracks and one demo version: Fire!, Unforgiving (demo), Alcatraz and This Side Of Me.

2015 was one of the quietest touring years for the band, with only a few shows and festivals, mostly during the first half of the year.

On January 14th, Blind Channel was announced as a guest performer for the first semifinal of the Wacken Metal Battle Finland 2015 at 45 Special in Oulu on March 12th.

On April 9th the band signed their first record deal with the Finnish indie label Ranka Kustannus, owned by Riku Pääkkönen (founder of Spinefarm Records). Later that year, their close friend Santeri Koppelo became Blind Channel’s tour manager, while Toni Törrönen, became the band manager.

On May 9th, Blind Channel won the music competition Stage Haltuun, hosted by the Finnish largest radio station YleX. The first prize was a slot at Sziget Festival in Budapest, Hungary in August. During the festival, they premiered a new song, Bullet (With Your Name On It), which, though not released as a single, would later become a key track on their debut album.

On June 9th, Blind Channel was invited to perform as showcasing artist at the Modern Heavy Metal Conference 2015 in Helsinki, and three days later, on June 12th, they released their single Unforgiving.

Following the summer festivals, the band took the rest of the year off to work on writing and recording their debut album with Roy Jonas Olsson, one of Finland’s most successful producers, and Jens Borgen (one of Sweden’s most successful mixers and producers). 

On September 25th, they released a cover of Ed Sheeran’s global hit Don’t. The great reception of Don´t led to the band securing their first contract with Finnish booking agency NEM Agency.

The recording of Blind Channel’s debut album was completed in February 2016. In March, the band signed a contract with the German booking agency Dragon Productions. 

In the lead-up to their debut album, Blind Channel released several singles. Darker Than Black was releaseded on February 19th and entered Finland’s Top 50 Viral Songs at #34 on February 26th. In early May, the band won a competition organized by bobe.me (Best Of Baltic Entertainment) and Simple Plan, which led to them being selected as the opening act for Simple Plan’s tour dates in Finland and the Baltic countries later that month. Following this, they released Deja Fu** on June 22th and Enemy for Me on September 16th. The full tracklist of their debut album, REVOLUTIONS, included 11 songs and was announced in August.

In 2016, Joel started some side projects, and joined a band named SANE, which performed songs exclusively in Finnish. The lead singer of this new band was Santeri Teppola, a friend of Blind Channel, while Mikko Nykänen (one of Joonas´ best friends) played the drums. Mikko later became part of the Blind Channel Crew as a lighting engineer. SANE eventually ceased activities in 2017.

Ahead of the release, the band hosted two pre-listening events: one at The Riff in Helsinki on September 8th and another at 45 Special in Oulu on September 22nd. The album received highly positive reviews from major publications such as Soundi (4 of 5 stars) and Kaaoszine (9½ of 10 points). In November 2016, Soundi featured Blind Channel in a full interview in their print edition for the first time.

Following the album release, Blind Channel kicked off their Revolutions Tour in fall 2016, which included performances at several festivals (such as Edge:Nordic and Lost In Music) and one show as the opening act for the American band Skillet on November 20th. On December 17th, the band debuted in UK at Camden Rocks: “X-Mas All Dayer”, London.

At the beginning of February 2017, Blind Channel supported the Swedish rock band Royal Republic during all their three shows in Finland.

On March 3rd, they officially released Can’t Hold Us, a cover of the famous Macklemore & Lewis’ hit song. A few days later, on March 12th, Bullet (With Your Name On It) was featured on Metal Zone, playlist by Spotify France.

During April and May, Blind Channel embarked on the second leg of their Revolutions Tour, performing both headline shows and supporting sets for bands such as Amaranthe, Smash Into Pieces, and Machinae Supremacy. On April 7th, they released the single Alone Against All, followed by the deluxe UK edition of Revolutions on May 5th via Ranka Kustannus, which featured two bonus tracks: Alone Against All and Can’t Hold Us.

On June 20th Blind Channel was featured as cover artist of Spotify´s playlist Rock United with Alone Against All. A few days later, on July 1st, the band headlined the Tuska Afterparty for the festival’s 20th anniversary. The show was held at Virgin Oil Co. in Helsinki.

In honor of Linkin Park and Chester Bennington (two of their biggest musical influences), Blind Channel shared their cover version of Numb on August 1st via YouTube. The cover has never been officially released or included on any albums.

On September 29th, Blind Channel released another single, Sharks Love Blood, which entered Finland´s Top 50 Viral Songs at #24 a couple of days later, on October 3rd.

In December, the band began recording their second studio album.

In late January 2018, Blind Channel signed a contract with the Finnish booking agency Fullsteam Agency, and released a new single, Wolfpack, on January 19th. A month later they revealed both the title and the tracklist of their second album, which once again consisted of 11 tracks. Among these was Scream, a tribute to Chester Bennington, the late lead vocalist of Linkin Park.

On February 27th, Blind Channel opened for Hollywood Undead at the Helsinki Ice Hall. Impressed by their performance, Hollywood Undead extended an invitation to join them as a support act for additional shows in Germany, Bulgaria, and Estonia later that June.

The band released a new single on March 29th, Out of Town, and held two pre-listening parties at 1Bar in Oulu on April 5th and The Riff in Helsinki on April 11th, leading up to their second full-length album, BLOOD BROTHERS, which dropped on April 20th. The album was released on CD (regular and deluxe version with Revolutions) and LP via Ranka Kustannus in Finland and Out of Line internationally, making Blood Brothers their first international release. The album received great reviews, especially from Musicalypse and Kaaoszine (9/10 both). 

Blind Channel started to gain increased media visibility both in Finland and abroad, and numerous publications began to feature the band through reviews of their albums and interviews.

Blood Brothers Tour 2018 kicked off in Tampere on April 25th. On May 23rd Blind Channel celebrated their new album with a mini acoustic set at Levykauppa Äx and a release concert at Tavastia (with special guests Ikina).

The second leg of the Blood Brothers Tour took place later in summer. The concert at MHP Arena in Ludwigsburg, Germany, supporting Hollywood Undead and Skillet, was their biggest performance that time. Unfortunately, the Tallinn show scheduled on June 6th was cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances, and the band had to take a ferry back to Finland on the same day.

On June 14th, THQ Nordic released Wreckfest, a racing video game developed by Bugbear Entertainment, and featured Wolfpack and Alone Against All in the official soundtrack.

After the summer festival season, Blind Channel took a break from touring to focus on new music. On November 15th, they released Over My Dead Body, their first track to reach 1 million Spotify streams, which was added Spotify´s largest rock playlist Rock Hard one week later on November 22nd. On November 30th, Out Of Line Music released Awake The Machines Vol. 8, a compilation of various artists including Blind Channel’s Over My Dead Body.

In December, the band embarked on their first ever UK tour as support to Sevendust and All That Remains, and was nominated at the Emma Gaala Awards 2019 in the category Vuoden Rock (Rock of the Year) with Blood Brothers on December 11th.

On January 17th, 2019 Blind Channel debuted in The Netherlands at one of the biggest festivals of the country, ESNS 2019 (Eurosonic Noorderslag) in Groeningen.

Emma Gaala took place on February 2nd, but unfortunately Blind Channel din’t receive any awards. On February 8th and 9th they debuted in Denmark at the Prime Is Giving Festival 2019. One week later, they opened for Amaranthe during their two shows in Finland on February 15th at Oulun Energia Areena, Oulu and on February 16th at Helsinki Ice Hall Black Box in Helsinki.

On March 15, Blind Channel released a new single, Timebomb, featuring Finnish DJ Alex Mattson. The track immediately gained massive success, reaching over 20,000 Spotify plays in a single day, appearing in playlists across the United States, Sweden, Norway, and more, and topped Ylex‘s single chart for nearly two weeks.

On April 8th Blind Channel performed at the Out Of Line Weekender Festival in Berlin, Germany.

At the beginning of the summer, on June 7th Blind Channel released another track, titled Snake, with Henrik “GG6” Englund (ex- Amaranthe), and a few days later, on June 10th, they opened for Disturbed in Tallinn, Estonia, and performed with Englund in several occasions throughout the summer.

One of the summer highlights was their participation at Finland’s largest electronic music event, Weekend Festival, alongside Alex Mattson, on July 19th. Initially scheduled for the alternative stage, they were moved last minute to open the main stage, becoming the first rock/metal band to open the main stage of an electronic music festival. In the same month, Finnish webzine Kaaoszine ranked the 50-most-listened-to Finnish rock/metal bands domestically and internationally, placing Blind Channel at #22.

In fall 2019, the band returned to the studio to record their third album with Jonas Olsson, who also produced Revolutions. 

On October 3rd they headlined Lost in Music Festival in Tampere, premiering two new songs: Gun and Died Enough For You. This show marked a new era for Blind Channel, as they replaced their signature white outfits with a new black-and-silver aesthetic.

During a Rock Radio interview on November 21st, Niko and Joel announced their third album would be released in March 2020 and include 11 tracks. The next day, Died Enough For You was officially released.

On January 3, 2020, Blind Channel released the fifth single from their upcoming third album, titled Fever, The track quickly entered the Spotify Finland Top 200 and was added to Spotify´s biggest rock playlist, Rock Hard, on January 25th.

On January 15th, the band announced the title, tracklist, and cover art of their upcoming album, confirming its global release via Out Of Line Music and Ranka Kustannus on March 6th. The album, titled VIOLENT POP, aligns with the band’s distinctive musical style and was produced by Joonas “Johnny” Parkkonen, former guitarist of Finnish band Santa Cruz.

In the weeks following the announcement, the band embarked on a European tour alongside Amaranthe, while also performing several successful headlining concerts of their own. Their first headline show in Europe took place in Cologne, Germany, on January 31st.

Blind Channel released their third studio album Violent Pop on March 6th, 2020. To promote the album, the band had planned a co-headline tour with Swedish band Smash Into Pieces and a major release show at The Circus in Helsinki. However, the global outbreak of COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the tour, and the release event was rescheduled for February 6th, 2021, at Tapahtumakeskus Telakka with a limited audience. That show, too, was eventually cancelled.

With live performances on hold, the band continued to stay active through other initiatives. Died Enough For You’s official music video was released on April 3rd. On May 22nd, Blind Channel released the double A-side single Gun, which also included Died Enough For You (acoustic), the first acoustic version of one of their songs. Just over a week later, on May 30th, they held a special acoustic concert titled Stayin Alive © 45 Special, in their hometown of Oulu. Featuring ten songs rearranged in an electronic-acoustic style, the concert was streamed live worldwide free of charge, with fans encouraged to support the band by purchasing merchandise.

The band’s 2020 performance plans were disrupted by COVID-19 restrictions, as the pandemic had by then become widespread.

On July 1st, Blind Channel released a cover, this time of Left Outside Alone by pop artist Anastacia. In an interview with German magazine MoreCore, they revealed that that the song was a childhood favorite, and they were inspired to cover it after rediscovering it on Spotify nostalgic playlist “Best of 00’s”. Its music video premiered on Youtube a few days ahead of the song’s official release. The cover was later featured on Amazon Germany’s top metal playlist Taufrisch Metal.

After a six-month-long break, Blind Channel returned to the stage on August 15th at Dark River Festival, performing alongside Aleksi (Alex Mattson) for the second time. The band later shared that this show served as a showcase for Antti Eriksson, who was evaluating the opportunity to become their manager. On that same day, Aleksi officially became a member of Blind Channel, although this announcement was delayed until later in October. It was also around this period that Blind Channel decided to pursue participation in Europe’s largest festival, the Eurovision Song Contest.

On October 6th, Blind Channel officially welcomed Alex Mattson into the band under his real name, Aleksi Kaunisvesi, as the band’s DJ and percussionist.

Just a few days later, on October 9th, Blind Channel announced they had signed with Backbone Management, and would be recording future material at Finnvox Studio, Finland’s biggest recording facility. Their new producer and recording engineer was revealed to be Joonas “Johnny” Parkkonen and new drum tech was Mika Karppinen (ex HIM).

The lack of live shows in 2020 caused some uncertainty about the band’s future. As a result, Blind Channel submitted in September their entry to Eurovision’s national selection, Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK).

In mid-January 2021, Blind Channel was selected as one of seven finalists from a pool of 300 applicants in Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK), Finland’s national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, the largest music competition in Europe. The band was announced to compete with a new track titled Dark Side, released on January 21st. In interviews, they revealed that three songs had been written for UMK21, but Dark Side was ultimately chosen for best representing their identity. Within less than 48 hours of its release, the song was trending on Finnish YouTube and quickly shot to the top of the Finnish singles chart, sparking media speculation about the band’s potential to win.

Blind Channel won UMK21 on February 20th with a total of 551 points (72 from the international voting jury and a record-breaking of 479 points (54.3%) from the public vote, the highest in UMK history). That same evening, it was officially confirmed that Blind Channel would represent Finland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021.

On March 1st, the city of Oulu honored Blind Channel by establishing a €2,000 scholarship in their name. Later that month, Dark Side was certified gold in Finland, and on May 2nd, it was certified platinum.

On May 3rd, Blind Channel announced their biggest headline show up to date (at the time): the show would take place at Allas Sea Pool in Helsinki on August 14th and was age restricted (K18).

On May 6th, Ranka Kustannus released a special compilation titled Rags To Niches, which included Blind Channel and Dark Side.

On May 19th, just a day before their Eurovision semi-final, they revealed their signing with international major label Century Media Records/Sony Music. The following day, Finnish music magazine Soundi featured them on its cover for the first time. Blind Channel qualified for the Eurovision Song Contest‘s Grand Final on May 22nd and finished 6th with 301 points, which was, at the time, Finland’s second-best result in the competition.

On May 27th, Blind Channel announced that their upcoming Allas Sea Pool show had sold out, marking the first sold-out concert in their career. The next day, due to high demand, they added a second, all-ages show on August 15th, which also sold out by May 31st. Around the same time, on May 28th, the band was featured as the cover artist on Spotify’s biggest metal playlist, Kickass Metal.

On June 6th, The Rasmus´ frontman Lauri Ylönen teamed up with Niko and Joel and shared their recorded re-versioning of Dark Side during his “Bedroom Sessions” Youtube Series.

In summer 2021, Blind Channel embarked on their first tour (Live On The Dark Side Summer 2021) since the start of the pandemic. Due to ongoing health restrictions, the tour was limited to outdoor festivals within Finland, and some shows were cancelled due to new regulations.

In August, the Finnish government implemented new health regulations specifically targeting the Southern Finland region due to a rise in COVID-19 cases. These restrictions primarily impacted the capacity limits for events. On August 10th, Blind Channel announced through their social media platforms that they faced a significant decision regarding their forthcoming performances in Helsinki: they could either reduce the audience size or cancel the shows altogether. Opting against cancellation of their two major performances at Allas Sea Pool, Blind Channel chose to split the audience for each concert in half, thereby transforming two concerts into four, which allowed them to comply with the new regulations. Fans were required to update their tickets on lippu.fi by August 12th and select one of the shows based on their original booking date.

Shortly after, on August 13th, the band released a new single titled Balboa inspired by the movie hero Rocky Balboa, portrayed by Sylvester Stallone. Its music video was filmed in Tallinn, Estonia.

In September, the band participated in the charity concert Elämä Lapselle, raising funds for children battling cancer.

Later in autumn, the band announced their participation as special guests on Electric Callboy‘s Hypa Hypa EU Tour 2022 in January and at Slipknot‘s exclusive Knotfest Finland in August. However, due to renewed COVID-19 restrictions, the Electric Callboy tour was postponed to later in spring. With touring plans temporarily delayed, the band turned their focus to the studio and announced plans to record their fourth album.

To celebrate Blind Channel’s success, Ranka Kustannus launched a tribute project with bands like Cyan Kicks, Block of Flats, Ember Falls, and Beyond Awareness, each releasing cover versions of Blind Channel songs.

On November 12th, Blind Channel released a new single titled We Are No Saints. The following month, they held a successful Live On The Dark Side – Xmas Edition tour. On December 8th, the band announced their first full European headlining tour, the Sick & Dangerous Tour 2022, scheduled for September 2022. On December 14th, Blind Channel received four nominations for the Emma Gaala 2022, originally set for February but later postponed to May. A few days later, were also named ‘Public Figure of the Year‘ by the Oulu-based newspaper Kaleva.

On 31st December the band participated in the New Year’s concert Helsingin Uusivuosi, which was held without an audience at Helsinki Ice Hall and broadcast on national television. 

On January 21st, Blind Channel announced that their new album would be titled LIFESTYLES OF THE SICK AND DANGEROUS, scheduled for release on July 8th. The band also unveiled the album cover, designed by Ossi Morko, along with the tracklist featuring 11 songs, in line with their previous releases.

On February 25th the band released a new single called Bad Idea which premiered live for the first time the following day at Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu 2022 in Turku. As winners of the previous edition, Blind Channel opened the show as special guests.

On March 22nd, Blind Channel received the IndieCo´s Indie Awards 2021 in the category Vuoden Yhtye 2021 (Band Of The Year 2021).

Following the postponement of their tour with Electric Callboy to spring 2022, Blind Channel announced that they would be supporting From Ashes To New on a five-week U.S. tour across March and April. This tour included their first ever headline show in the United States, held in Manhattan, New York on April 11th, with Palisades and Reach NYC as supporting acts.

On April 23rd Bad Idea ranked 7th on the weekly Top 20 playlist of Germany´s biggest rock/metal radio Rock Antenne.

At the Emma Gaala 2022 award ceremony on May 6th, Blind Channel achieved an unexpected triumph by winning six awards from four nominations (Rock of the Year, Export of the Year, Band of the Year, Song of the Year (Dark Side), Most streamed song of the year (Dark Side), Winner of Public Voting).

They also confirmed performances at major Finnish festivals in the summer 2022, including Qstock, Provinssi, Tuska Festival, Rock Fest, and international ones in Germany, Sweden, Serbia, Ukraine and Russia.

In late June, famous British magazine Rock Sound released a special 36-page-edition featuring Blind Channel, which included an exclusive T-shirt.

Their album Lifestyles of the Sick & Dangerous was released on July 8th and celebrated with a major performance at Ruisrock Festival that same day. During the show, the band was awarded 3× Platinum certification for Dark Side and 1x Gold for Balboa. On July 17th, the album reached #1 on Finland’s viral album charts, maintaining a strong position for several weeks.

On July 15th, Blind Channel revealed that the album had debuted at #15 on the official German Top Album chart (Offizielle Deutsche Charts), where it remained for one week, marking it as their first album, and second release overall after Dark Side, to make it onto the German charts.

On August 5th, Blind Channel returned to Wacken Open Air 2022, eight years after their first performance. They opened the Faster Stage with a 45-minute set, drawing an impressive crowd of 10,000 people at 11:30 a.m.

Later that month, the band reissued their first three albums as limited edition LPs in surprise vinyl colors, and on August 28th they made their debut on German national television, performing at ZDF-Fernsehgarten.

Sadly, due to the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, Blind Channel announced the cancellation of their four performances in Ukraine and Russia, including two headline shows. 

Their first full European tour began on August 31st in Hamburg, Germany and took the band across Europe for four weeks with a total of 27 shows (10 of which were held in Germany and 7 in UK) with Lost Society and Oceans as support acts. Ahead of their first-ever UK headline run, British magazine Kerrang! featured Blind Channel for the first time in a full-length interview.

On September 5th, Blind Channel was named Export of the Year by the Finnish Music Publishers Association (MPA Finland), recognizing their international breakthrough and the massive streaming success of Dark Side.

On September 13th, the band released an alternate version of Alive Or Only Burning featuring Zero 9:36. Two weeks later, on September 28th, they announced their signing with booking agency Live Nation Finland.

Following the conclusion of their headline tour on October 1st, the band took a short break from touring to write new material, first in the UK with producer Dan Lancaster, and later in Los Angeles.

On November 5th, Sony Music Japan announced that Blind Channel would officially debut in Japan with Lifestyles Of The Sick And Dangerous. The Japanese release, scheduled for December 21st, featured a slightly altered cover design (a minimalistic black version by Ossi Morko) and an additional track—Alive or Only Burning featuring Zero 9:36. Japanese magazines including 激ロック, Metal Hammer Japan, INROCK and BURNN! all featured the band with exclusive interviews.

Towards the end of 2022, Blind Channel faced the bankruptcy issue of RH Entertainment, the agency handling their December shows. Fortunately, Warner Music Finland intervened to save two of the four scheduled performances (excluding the cruise show handled by a separate organizer), while the remaining shows in Oulu and Kuopio were canceled.

On December 2nd, they released a remixed version of Alive or Only Burning featuring INHUMAN, followed by a remix of Bad Idea by Alex Mattson on December 23rd.

The Sick & Dangerous era concluded with an almost sold-out headline show at Helsinki Ice Hall with 5,000 attendees on December 29th, followed by another major performance in Tampere the next day.

At year’s end, the band announced that these December shows would be their last in Finland for a while, as they planned to focus on performing in Europe and the United States, with only three Finnish shows scheduled going forward.

On February 3rd, 2023, Blind Channel was invited to Emma Gaala 2023 to award the winner of the category “Artist Of The Year”. 

On February 24th, the band launched a new era with the release of their single Flatline, whose music video will be the first one to be officially subtitled in Japanese by Sony Music Japan.

On March 3rd, Joel served as a jury member and spokesperson for Finland during Germany´s Eurovision Song Contest 2023 selection, Ein Lied für Liverpool, awarding Finland´s 12 Points to Lord Of The Lost´s entry, Blood & Glitter.

March and April saw the start of their Flatline Tour 2023, covering Scandinavia, Germany, and Poland. They also joined I Prevail on the True Power EU/UK Tour 2023 and Electric Callboy on the TEKKNO World Tour 2023. In May, the band traveled to the U.S. to support Lacuna Coil on their West Coast Tour 2023, coinciding with the release of their new single Happy Doomsday on May 11th, which premiered on US leading rock radio station SiriusXM Octane.

On June 17th, Joonas and Joel met with famous singer Anastacia at Radio Nova Festival in Helsinki, and filmed a short video singing Left Outside Alone together with Anastacia. The famous singer was enthusiastic about their cover and expressed the importance of rock in the music industry.

On June 25th, Blind Channel and Canadian YouTuber Nik Nocturnal released Lost & Bleeding, a Linkin Park-inspired track later featured on Nik’s compilation How To Metal Vol. 2 (released on September 27th).

On July 5th, Blind Channel flew to Essen, Germany to film the official MV of their new single DEADZONE. The MV is entirely produced by German Schillo Brothers Production, founded by Pascal Schillo (Electric Callboy’s guitarist) and his brother.

Summer 2023 can be considered the most important festival season for Blind Channel, as the band performed in several major European festivals such as Novarock, Resurrection Fest, Download Festival, Full Force, and shared those stages with legendary bands like Papa Roach, Iron Maiden, Bullet For My Valentine, Fever333, Sum41 etc.  Vita Pictura team filmed Blind Channel during some of these shows (Full Force, Resurrection Fest and Sofia Solid): the filming was part of the band’s documentary, whose release and title were at the time still unknown. Remarkable moment can be considered the meeting with Jacoby Shaddix from Papa Roach, at Resurrection Fest: the frontman said that he partially watched their set and actually enjoyed it very much.

On August 11th, during their performance at Särkänniemi Festival, Bad Idea and Lifestyles of the Sick and Dangerous were certified gold in Finland.

Later that month, on August 24th Blind Channel released a new single, Deadzone, which gained immediate success in both Europe and USA.

In September 2023, Blind Channel announced their biggest headline European tour in early spring 2024 and their largest show yet at Nokia Arena in Tampere (April 27th), with nearly 5,000 tickets sold. In October, they confirmed a fifth studio album due to release the next spring.

In the fall of 2023, Blind Channel was announced to be touring the USA as open act for Corey Taylor from Slipknot in Las Vegas and as direct support for the Mongolian metal band The Hu on their Warriors Souls Tour 2023.  

Their final 2023 performance was at The Rock Circus in Den Bosch on November 4th, after which Joel underwent surgery due to an injury on his shoulder.

In the same month, Deadzone entered the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay Chart at #38, eventually peaking at #26 and remaining in the Top 40 for nearly four months, marking their first U.S. charting single.

They closed the year with the release of Die Another Day on December 1s, a ballad featuring British singer Røry, which premiered on BBC Radio 1 on December 12th.

The last track to be dropped before the release of the new album was XOXO (featuring US band From Ashes to New) on February 28th, 2024. Around the same time, Soundi featured them on its cover and with a full-length interview.

Blind Channel´s fifth studio album EXIT EMOTIONS was released on March 1st, preceded by an acoustic release event on February 27th at Kauppakeskus Forum in Helsinki. The band also made a couple more promo appearances in the USA in the first half of March. For the first time, Exit Emotions included 12 instead of 11 songs like the previous releases.

On March 18th, British magazine Rock Sound released a new digital cover feature on Blind Channel, in which Niko and Joel discussed the writing process behind Exit Emotions. That same day, another prominent British magazine, Kerrang!, published an exclusive interview with the band. Simultaneously, major Japanese metal and rock magazines featured Blind Channel, while radio stations across Japan aired their songs multiple times. Additionally, Billboard Japan created an artist profile and featured the band for the first time.

On March 19th, the band and Sony Music Japan International announced Blind Channel´s very first headline show in Japan: the one night show was scheduled on June 3rd at DUO Music Exchange in Tokyo. Advanced ticket sales (Japan only) began the next day while the general sale started on April 13th. In the same month, Joel announced to be co-hosting a radio program, “Kasari vs. Nollari“, on Radio Rock Suomi with Finnish TV/radio personality Sami Kuronen. The duo also launched their own white wine, called “The Royal Riesling“.

Following their massive Exit Emotions EU Tour 2024, Blind Channel embarked on a new tour in the US in May 2024 as support act of P.O.D. (I Got That Tour 2024), which included their very first two US festivals appearances (Sonic Temples and Welcome to Rockville). 

Their debut live Duo Music Exchange in Shibuya, Tokyo on June 3rd sold more than half of the tickets and included two guest appearances by Japanese singer Tielle (performing Die Another Day), and DJ Muraoka as opening DJ. 

In summer 2024 Blind Channel celebrated their summer festival 10th anniversary performing at a total of 10 festivals in Finland and Germany, including two headline shows at Deichbrand Festival and Wacken Open Air 2024, with the last one being Blind Channel´s biggest festival headline show up to date. 

On September 2nd, Niko and Aleksi announced the launch of their own independent record label, Scary Noise Records, created to support emerging artists. Early signees include Rock Band From Hell, Ainoa and Jebastian. Nearly a week later, on September 13th, Blind Channel released Everybody (Bloodbros back), their cover of Backstreet Boys’ hit, accompanied by emotional footage reflecting on their 11-year career. Later that month Joel and Joonas recorded vocals for Lost Society upcoming album.

On October 7th, Blind Channel announced to be taking an indefinite break to focus on writing new music after nearly 300 shows over three years. A few days later, Blind Channel performed for the first time at Radio Rock Suomi cruise, and supported Lacuna Coil in Ireland and UK. They also announced a domestic headline tour in Finland in November/December called Final Emotions Tour 2024, including an exclusive double headline show (S/K18) at Helsinki’s legendary venue Tavastia.

On October 25th, The Rasmus announced the release of their newest single Rest In Pieces, which was produced by Aleksi.

On December 12th, Blind Channel received nominations for Vuoden Rock (Rock Album Of The Year) with Exit Emotions and Public Voting: Artist Of The Year at Emma Gaala 2025, taking place on March 8th, 2025 At Metro Areena in Espoo. A documentary about these past three years called “After Dark Side” will be aired on December 16th, 2024. The documentary has been produced by Vita Pictura.

Once the Final Emotions Tour 2024 came to a close on December 21st, 2024 with an emotional last concert in their hometown Oulu, Blind Channel took an indefinite time off of touring for the first time in their careers to focus on recharging and writing their next album.

In January, Exit Emotions and Everybody (BloodBros Back) were voted as third best album and 25th best song in 2024 on Metal Hammer UK.

On March 8th, Blind Channel won Emma Gaala 2025 as Rock Album Of The Year (Vuoden Rock) with Exit Emotions, but didn’t win the Public Voting. The band dedicated the awards to their fans.

On March 25th, Aleksi announced he had created his own audio mixing and mastering studio, Toneway Audio. His goal is “to turn his passion for audio mixing/mastering into something he can use to offer to other people as well”. Later in March, Aleksi participated in “The Song Castle“, a song writing camp for producers and song writers.

The Radio Gaala 2025 ceremony was held on April 25th in Helsinki. Joel and Sami Kuronen were nominated in both the categories of “Radio Host Of The Year” and “Radio Show Of The Year” with Kasari Vs. Nollari, but they did not win in either category.

On April 26th, the band announced that they had parted ways with vocalist Joel and would continue their activities as a five-piece-band.

On May 2nd, Finnish rock legends The Rasmus announced the upcoming release of their single Break These Chains (May 16th), featuring Niko and produced by Aleksi. The next day, Joonas participated in Yle´s Eurovision Song Contest 2025´s pre-party, where he talked about Blind Channel´s experience at the same competition back in 2021. A few days later, on May 20th, Lost Society released their newest single, Dead People Scare Me (But The Living Make Me Sick), which includes Joonas and Joel on backing vocals. At the end of May, Aleksi announced to be the producer and cowriter of Swedish singer Ella Tiritiello´s then newest single Storstadsångest (jag behöver dig Sabrina).

On June 27th, Joonas joined Electric Callboy on stage for Hypa Hypa during their performance at Tuska 2025. Santeri and Olli participated in the live production of Finnish artists Ahti Peltonen and HUGO at Provinssi 2025, also on June 27th: while Santeri was in charge of the visual design, the backdrop was created by Olli.

In July, Niko made a surprise radio appearance on Radio Rock mentioning that Blind Channel is working on their sixth studio album. The news was confirmed the next day by Aleksi. Later in July, Aleksi also announced to have mastered Heviteemu´s then newest single Teen itelleni pahaa.

On October 17th and 18th Niko made a guest appearance during The Rasmus‘s shows in Tavastia, Helsinki to perform Break These Chains together.

On October 18th, Naysayers and Calling Out, the final two independently released tracks from their early years (2013-2014), were removed from Blind Channel’s listing on Spotify. This marks the end of their early independent catalog on major streaming platforms. Currently, most of those early songs are only accessible via SoundCloud (excluding Naysayers) or unofficial YouTube uploads. Their official discography on platforms like Spotify now begins with Unforgiving, which was their first release after signing with Ranka Kustannus. A demo version of Unforgiving can also be found on Foreshadow. 

On November 26th, Block Of Flats released a new single titled I STAND BELOW IT ALL, which has been co-written with Niko and Aleksi, also produced by Aleksi and released via Ranka Kustannus. The band premiered their new single on November 11th in Hamburg during their first ever show in Europe in support of fellow band The Rasmus. One day after the release. German webzine Paranoyd hinted that Niko and Aleksi are also involved in the production of Block Of Flats’ second studio album, whose release is still unknown. 

On December 16th, exactly one year after its release, Blind Channel’s documentary After Dark Side received a nomination in the category Program Of The Year at the Kultainen Venla 2025 (Finnish Television Awards), which will be taking place on January 23rd, 2026.

The first year of Blind Channel’s new chapter as a five-piece band began on January 23rd, with the Kultainen Venla 2025 (Finnish TV awards), where Blind Channel’s 2024 documentary series After Dark Side was nominated for Program of The Year, but did not receive an award.

On February 19th, Metal Hammer UK published an article highlighting 2026 as a potential “year of metal.” Within the feature, the magazine suggested that Blind Channel’s new album is expected to be released in late 2026. However this information has not been confirmed by either the band or their management.

A few days later, Blind Channel’s former school Madetojan Musiikkilukio together with Nuottiniekat RY announced that Niko and Joonas will perform at their music festival named ROHKEASTI REUNALLA, which will be held at the Oulu Baseball Stadium on May 13th. The event forms part of the Oulu 2026 European Capital of Culture programme.

On March 6th, Finnish artist Petra Gargano released her new song Vahvana featuring Tuomas Kauhanen via Nordic Music Partners. The track was co-written by Aleksi.

At the end of March, on the 27th, Niko and Topi Kilpinen officially resumed their activities as the duo Counting Lifeboats, presenting their new single The Trains, The Planes, The Ships. Alongside the release, they announced that the full album film is set to be released on April 2nd.