Sonata Arctica Liimatainen was a founding member of Sonata Arctica and appeared on the band's studio albums
Ecliptica,
Silence, ''
Winterheart's Guild, Reckoning Night and Unia '' and on the band's four EPs and two live albums between 1999 and 2007. Sonata Arctica's fourth studio album
Reckoning Night contains the song "My Selene" composed and written by Liimatainen. Liimatainen was fired from Sonata Arctica due to
conscription ambiguities in May 2007. Along with Sonata Arctica, Liimatainen was a member of the
Altaria band between 2001 and 2004. He can be heard on the band's
Invitation and
Divinity albums, of which
Divinity has the songs "Unchain the Rain" and "Falling Again" composed and written by him. Liimatainen also played keyboards on both albums.
Cain's Offering and Timo Kotipelto Nowadays, Liimatainen plays guitar in the band he founded
Cain's Offering, whose first album
Gather the Faithful was released in autumn 2009. The second album
Stormcrow was released in May 2015. Liimatainen is the band's producer and main songwriter. Liimatainen also gigs with
Stratovarius and Cain's Offering singer Timo Kotipelto as the Kotipelto & Liimatainen duo. The duo released the acoustic cover album
Blackoustic in October 2012. The album also contains one new song by Liimatainen, "Where My Rainbow Ends".
Other projects Liimatainen has a band called Sydänpuu with drummer Risto Koskinen from Kemi, where he sings and plays guitar, bass and keyboards. The band was founded in 2004 and has released two singles and demos so far. The single "Malja" was released in 2013. Liimatainen also works as
Antti Railio's gig guitarist and played some of the guitars on Railio's
Vieras maa album. Starting in 2015, Liimatainen worked occasionally as guitarist-singer
Ville Friman's accompanist on
Insomnium's tours. He later became an official member of the band Insomnium from July 2019 until February 2024. In 2016, Liimatainen started collaborating with former
Nightwish singer
Anette Olzon, and the first album of the resulting
The Dark Element project was released in November 2017. Liimatainen was also in a band called Dream Asylum. Liimatainen's solo album ''My Father's Son'' was released on 6 May 2022.
Songs for other bands Liimatainen has composed the song "River Runs Dry" for the band
Sturm und Drang. Liimatainen wrote lyrics for most of the songs on
Arion's debut album
Last of Us. The
Stratovarius album
Nemesis has two songs that Liimatainen contributed to the composition and lyrics of: "If the Story Is Over" and "Out of the Fog".
Guest appearances In October 2007, Liimatainen played guitar in the backing band of
Paul Di'Anno on the singer's Finnish tour. He has also made a guest appearance on
Celesty's
Reign of Elements album on the song "Revenge" and on Human Temple's
Insomnia album in the song "Animal". == Other ==