September '98:
Impaled Nazarene travels to St. Petersburg, Russia together with Children Of Bodom to play one-off show. After party at the hotel results to Alexi "Wild Child" Laiho joining Impaled Nazarene as a lead guitar player.
November-December '98:
Impaled Nazarene does another European tour with Ritual Carnage and Driller Killer. Laiho is unable to join the tour because of his other commitments with Sinergy.
January '99:
The legal battle concerning Ugra-Karma cover is settled outside court. Osmose releases new version with a different artwork, lyrics and the deleted Satanic Masowhore 7" ep as a bonus.
February '99:
Impaled Nazarene travels to Mexico second time to play four shows again. Laiho makes his live debut with the band. The band plays also in San Francisco & Los Angeles, USA as four piece as Laiho fucks off back to Finland from Mexico due to his other commitments.
March '99:
As a four piece, the band goes to Japan first time to play four shows.
April '99:
Impaled Nazarene takes part in No Mercy III festival package in mainland Europe. They play with Morbid Angel, Emperor, The Crown, Limbonic Art & Peccatum. Laiho is once again unable to join the band for the shows.
June '99:
The band writes new material and plays Nummirock summer solstice rock festival for the first time. Again as a four piece as Children Of Bodom have a show at another festival.
July-August '99:
The band heads for their first tour in Australia & New Zealand, without Laiho. A show in Wollongong, Australia gets cancelled because of the pressure from the local press & parents association (first time in the band's history). Sluti666 and Onraj 9mm survive car crash in New Zealand, on a way to Auckland. They are rescued by local sheep farmer. Car is beyond repair so two of them, together with their australian tour manager and n.z. driver, board a small 6 seater plane and fly to Auckland and manages to get there on time and play a show. Cops enter the show and throw out underaged kids, lots of them.
August-September '99:
The band enters Astia studio in Lappeenranta, Finland to record follow up to Rapture. Nihil features 10 songs. The band records also two tracks for Driller Killer/Impaled Nazarene split picture 7" ep, not to be found anywhere else. Nihil is mastered in late September at Finnvox studio.
October '99:
Fournier, the man behind the killer cover of the Ugra-Karma re-issue, starts painting the Nihil cover.
December '99:
Driller Killer/Impaled Nazarene picture 7" split ep comes out via Solardisk label, run by I.N. bassist Lehtosaari.
February 14, 2000:
Nihil is released worldwide [The only album Alexi included]
March 2000:
Impaled Nazarene plays a couple of shows in Finland with Finntroll and Throne Of Chaos. Surprisingly, Laiho plays with the band. After the Finnish shows, the band goes to play in March Metal Meltdown (aka fiasco) in New Jersey.
April 2000:
The band heads for their Assault The Weak -french tour without Laiho. His replacement is Tomi Ullgren, guitar player in Thy Serpent & Shape Of Despair. The tour does not go without problems. French secret police follows the band thru the whole tour and in Montauban, the band is forced to perform their set without announcing any song title with the word Satan on them. Police also forbids the selling of merchandise because of its "satanic" nature.
May 2000:
Impaled Nazarene & Children Of Bodom hit the Greece for the first time. Laiho performs bravely enough two sets per night. Both Thessaloniki and Athens shows are great success.
June 2000:
Impaled Nazarene performs at Valhalla Metal Fest and at Provinssi Rock Festival in Finland. Laiho´s replacement is once again Tomi Ullgren.
July 2000:
The band does a show with Ullgren at Tuska Festival in Helsinki. Jani Lehtosaari (bass) informs that he has decided to leave the band because he wants to concentrate on his record label Solardisk. Jani´s last show is in Sweden, at Dist 2000 festival. It is the first time Impaled Nazarene plays in Sweden. Luttinen relocates from Belgium back to Finland.
August 2000:
Luttinen heads for Astia studio to compile Decade Of Decadence, the ten year anniversary album. The cd is later mastered at Finnvox studio.
Fall 2000:
Impaled Nazarene are looking for a bass player. Teemu Raimoranta (aka Somnium) from Finntroll is chosen for the job. At one point it becomes clear that Laiho will be unable to do any live shows with the band in the future. After serious discussions, the band opts to choose another lead guitarist so that they can concentrate fully on writing the next cd with a steady line-up. The band decides to remove Teemu from bass to lead guitar and starts to look for another bassist. Mikael Arnkil (x-Antidote drummer) gets the job.
