Polyamorous

### Genres

Alternative metal • hard rock • post-grunge • nu metal • metalcore • alternative rock • pop punk • post-hardcore

### Associated acts

Our Fragile Echo
Terminal Flames
Stargazers
Drowning Hibiscus
Snake Detection Hypothesis

### Members

Päiviö Selänne

**Polyamorous** was the solo project of Finnish musician Päiviö Selänne, formed in late 3880 A.A. as a tribute band to heavy metal, alternative metal and alternative rock bands spanning the late 1980s through the 2000s that Selänne describes as "extremely influential". The project's releases include a mix of cover songs of such bands, and original songs categorized as the same genres performed by these bands.

The project's name refers to the debut single of American rock band Breaking Benjamin from their debut studio album *Saturate* of the same name.

## Background

Polyamorous marks the first use of unclean vocals by Selänne since the Our Fragile Echo album *Rapture*. Selänne had previously underwent vocal cord surgery to repair the damage done by her years of using poor technique when performing screamed and growled vocals during the band's early years.

After resting her voice for a few weeks, she began training her voice to perform unclean vocals with safer techniques than she had two to three decades prior. Selänne avoids use of more extreme death metal, deathcore, and black metal vocals (such as more guttural growls and higher screams) to preserve her voice for the long-term, having learned from mistakes made during her musical career's early years.

## Artistry and characteristics

### Musical style

Categorized as an alternative rock solo project, *Polyamorous'* musical styles include alternative metal, hard rock, post-grunge, nu metal, metalcore, and alternative rock. Other styles used to consistently describe the project's musical style include pop punk and post-hardcore.

On lesser occasions, grunge, emo, screamo, heavy metal, hardcore punk, punk rock, groove metal, and thrash metal are all used to describe aspects of the project's style, typically cover songs, but occasionally also original music.

### Vocals

As the solo vocalist of the project, Selänne's vocals are primarily clean vocals, with the occasional rapping found on nu metal songs the project has released or covered.

Selänne's unclean vocals, primarily screaming, can be found in original music and covers the project releases that are categorized as nu metal, alternative metal, metalcore, post-hardcore, screamo, as well as occasionally within hard rock, wheavy metal, and alternative rock songs. Within metalcore and nu metal songs, rare use of growled vocals (not influenced by death metal vocals) can be found.

Selänne's post-surgery voice is noted for its “raspy grit” comparable to early-2000s alternative vocalists such as Chester Bennington, Benjamin Burnley, Chris Cerulli, and Gerard Way. She possesses a distinct “harsh growl” or “snarl” to her aggressive harmonies that she makes great use of, especially in alternative metal and metalcore tracks.

### Influences

Päiviö Selänne cites various bands as heavily influencing her solo project. Among the most-frequently mentioned influences are Breaking Benjamin, Linkin Park, Korn, My Chemical Romance, Nirvana, Rage Against the Machine, Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Green Day, Three Days Grace, Evanescence, Chevelle, Metallica, Slayer, Godsmack.

She additionally cites Bullet for My Valentine, Trivium, Killswitch Engage, Avenged Sevenfold, Hatebreed, Bring Me the Horizon, Ice Nine Kills, Black Veil Brides and Motionless in White as “massive influences” on the project's metalcore and post-hardcore tracks.

She specifically mentions Ice Nine Kills as being “extremely influential”, with Selänne describing vocalist Spencer Charnas “as a goddamn revolutionary of [heavy] metal”. Selänne has mentioned holding similar reverence for Alissa White-Gluz, mentioning that the Arch Enemy lead vocalist is the “reason I [still] am a fan of death metal and power metal all these decades later”.

When citing the most influential song for her solo project, she mentioned the Motionless in White song “Masterpiece”. She explained that the “appropriately named” post-grunge and alternative rock power ballad inspired her to create her own solo project primarily inspired by alternative music.

## Members

* Päiviö Selänne — vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, acoustic guitar, piano, keyboards, turntables, sampling, drums, percussion, lyricist, composition, production, engineering, mixing, artwork

## Discography

* *A New Day Is Like Being Born Again*
* *Polyamorous*
* *Being Emo Never Was Just A Phase, It's Always Been My Lifestyle!*
* *Hybrid Theory — A Tribute To Linkin Park and Alternative Music*