Petteri “Pete” Sariola is a young Finnish guitarist who plays a very percussive style he calls “slam.” It’s not a brand new idea to play guitar like this, I think the guitar must have been played in every thinkable way by the various fingerstyle players. Still it’s something different, especially in the Finnish music scene so dominated by metal.

His debut album Silence! was released in 2007. It’s a solid album, considering that it’s not the easiest thing to record fingerstyle guitar in studio quality. But I’d say seeing him live is still much better, I went to see his show when he came to my town. First there’s the amazement of seeing his playing style, especially if you’re new to seeing fingerstyle players. It fades rather quickly, but it’s still a fun show with nice songs.

In the spring, Pete has shows in Finland and Germany. You can check his schedule on his MySpace page or home site. Those two are also where you can listen to his songs and view more of his videos. He has made some instructional videos on his playing style in addition to live footage. Most of his songs are instrumental, but he also sings on some of them.

This is a song called Prime for all of you who want to see something different for a change: