Elias Viljanen

Viljanen was born in 1975, and started playing the guitar at eight, in 1983. Initially, he says that he began playing "because his dad forced him... and, of course, I wanted to be like Kiss." He got his first acoustic guitar a year later, but did not get an electric guitar until nearly four years later. After finally convincing his parents to let him purchase his first electric guitar (a white Leadstar), he took a few guitar lessons and learned some basic chords, but believed that if he wanted to learn rock'n'roll, it would be something he would have to teach himself. Around that same time, Viljanen began playing in local bands, heavily influenced by Metallica's early thrash metal.
At age seventeen, his band Depravity was signed by Adipocere Records, this being Viljanen's first record contract.
In the early 1990s, Viljanen was introduced to the music of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, but in…