RIPPIKOULU, a Finnish death-metal band, was formed in 1990. Back then RIPPIKOULU was still a punkmetal band, but after a few of the band members changed RIPPIKOULU began to play more metal. RIPPIKOULU played music which is difficult to define. There are some influences from black-, gothic-, death- and heavymetal.
Our two studiodemos (1992/1993) were sold worldwide.
RIPPIKOULU was the first deathmetal band in a whole world singing in finnish! The name, Rippikoulu is also a finnish word (= confirmation class). In our earlier songs all lyrics were in Finnish, but in our latest songs lyrics were both in Finnish and English. We decided to keep some Finnish elements in our music.
In 1995 one RIPPIKOULU band member died, and with him the whole band. The guitarist of the band, Marko Henriksson died 1.1.1995, and RIPPIKOULU took a two year break for the memory of Marko. We tried to made some comebacks, but the band wasn`t the same without Marko.
In 1999, Rippikoulu is officially death (R.I.P.)! We will never play together again. We loved our Rippikoulu times, but this is life!

(stolen from: http://koti.mbnet.fi/rippikou)