Finnish melancholic melodic death metal outfit BEFORE THE DAWN has once again risen from its ashes. June 25, 2011 at Nummirock festival marked the end of the old line-up; re-grouping took one month, then the band came back on stages stronger than ever at Tuska Open Air afterparty July 24, 2011. No rest for the wicked – right afterwards BEFORE THE DAWN hit the studio and in winter 2011 also European stages on their “Rebirth Tour 2011″, together with INSOMNIUM and MYGRAIN.
Now, finally, April 27, 2012 sees the “Rise of the Phoenix”. An appropriate title of the seventh studio album, the second release via Nuclear Blast Records. BEFORE THE DAWN returns after living through a phase of changes and uncertainty – cleansed, renewed and stronger than ever! Leaving the pieces of both the musical and personal past behind, mastermind Tuomas Saukkonen, lead guitarist Juho Räihä and their new companions Pyry Hanski (Bass) and Joonas Kauppinen (Drums) get ready for conquering your ears with the finest blend of northern gloom and harsh melodic death metal.
“Massive changes in the line-up during 2011 ended an era of great frustration and brought back 110% dedication and professionalism into the band. The newfound energy and motivation steered us into a victorious European tour and made it possible to produce the strongest, fastest, heaviest and definitely the most epic BEFORE THE DAWN album so far!” (Tuomas)
Check it out!
Back in 1999, when Tuomas Saukkonen felt the need to break his routines as a drummer of a local band, his new metal project called BEFORE THE DAWN was born. As soon as the studio was booked, the following demo session started a decade that brought three demos, five full length albums, one DVD and two mini albums. BEFORE THE DAWN also hit both single and album charts in the bands home country Finland many times and played a huge amount of shows in more than 16 countries supporting bands like KATATONIA, MOONSPELL, SWALLOW THE SUN, SCAR SYMMETRY and AMORPHIS.
Soon, the band had gathered a solid fan base all around the globe. Although the first 10 years were characterized by many label and line up changes, 2010 introduced the strongest BTD line-up ever to be seen on stage and in the studio. The year also took the band to position #1 of the official Finnish chart with their “Decade Of Darkness” -EP and in front of Asian metalheads in China and Japan supporting STRATOVARIUS and TURISAS. Right afterwards BEFORE THE DAWN hit the studio, recording their highly anticipated “Deathstar Rising” -album, which was mixed and mastered in November 2010. It picked up where they left off with their highly successful 2007 effort “Deadlight”, delivering melodies and emotions, brutal riffs and devastating intensity. Combining the heaviness of melodic death metal, the gloom of dark metal and the frostbitten cold of finnish winters with beautiful melodies and epic hymnody like no other band out there, Tuomas and his crew have paved their way to uniqueness!
“Deathstar Rising” marked another important step in the band’s career: After 6th full lengths, numerous tours and gigs in over 20 countries and several label changes, BEFORE THE DAWN reached a crossroad that lead them under the mighty wings of Nuclear Blast in the end of 2010.
However, turbulent times were just about to begin: the past few years have been difficult for the band in many ways, and in 2011 there were only two ways to go: to bury the band or to continue through big changes in the line up and eventually in the music, too.
By mutual decision, Lars Eikind (bass/clean vocals) and Atte Palokangas (drums) played their last gig with BEFORE THE DAWN at Nummirock festival 2011. The decision with Lars was mainly personal and with Atte purely musical.
Tuomas Saukkonen: “Current changes were difficult and unfortunate but still inevitable and necessary so that the band could continue and release 7th album as stronger than ever”.
The core of the band remained: band leader and the sole songwriter Tuomas Saukkonen and lead guitarist Juho Räihä since the “Deadlight” album – key members of the band’s sound, with Tuomas delivering the music and production and Juho working behind the mixing desk in the studio with recordings and also mixing the two latest releases. (“Decade of Darkness” and “Deathstar Rising”). Their teamwork guarantees top quality in music and production in the future, even with two new band members in a renewed line-up that hit the studio in winter 2011 to record the seventh studio album “Phoenix Rising”. The new style brings the band closer to melodic death metal, and the gothic influences will be part of the bands history.
The new line-up:
Tuomas Saukkonen (Songwriting, growl vocals & guitars)
Pyry Hanski (Bass)
Juho Räihä (Guitars)
Joonas Kauppinen (Drums)
Journalists have found many different labels for the distinctive sound of BEFORE THE DAWN: “Dark Metal”, “Gothic Metal”, “Melodic Death Metal”, “Melodic Dark Metal” with “a bit of an early Gothenburg air”, “Gothic Death Metal”, or being “related to Black Metal cousins”. Tuomas himself prefers the term “Melancholic Scandinavian Metal”.
Lars Eikind received the Norwegian Grammy Award (Spellemannprisen) for his vocals on Sensa Anima’s album “SinThatic” in 2001.
“Deadlight” has been released in Germany and all over Europe, Japan and all over Asia as a special edition version.
“Deadsong”, Before The Dawn’s first single on Stay Heavy Records, entered the Official Finnish Single charts at position No. 2, ahead of such competition as WITHIN TEMPTATION and IRON MAIDEN. It is also the main theme of Finnish TV-show “Rokkikorjaamo”. This track is featured in the bestseller video game “Call Of Duty 4″ as the main theme of web Modification called “Before The Dawn – Modern Warfare”. It also made it on the “Dynamite” compilation CD 07/07, edition nro 242, June 13, 2007 of German Rock Hard magazine.
The “Deadsong” video has had by now over 600.000 hits on YouTube.
“Faithless”, the second single from the Deadlight album, entered the Official Finnish Single Charts at position No. 2, ahead of such big Finnish bands like AMORPHIS and HANOI ROCKS.
Both singles stayed in the Official Single Charts all nine weeks, including a “Faithless” re-entry for two weeks. “Deadlight” entered the Official Finnish Album Charts position No. 29 and it is ahead of Metal monster METALLICA. DEADLIGHT has been in the charts for all 24 weeks and re-entered the Album Charts precisely one year after the Finnish release date.
“Soundscape Of Silence” entered Finnish Charts as #14, way ahead of such big international acts like CRADLE OF FILTH and PAIN, even leaving Pop-Star PINK’s new release behind.
The lyrics of the song “Decade of Darkness” from the EP by the same name contains several song titles from the previous 5 albums. Have you found them all?
Dani Miettinen – Drums
Pekka Sarkkinen – Guitar
Kimmo Nurmi – Drums on “To Desire” demo
Tiina Ahokas – Keyboard, Violin & Vocals on “To Desire” -demo
Timo Hankola – Guitar
Jani Saajanaho – Guitar & Vocals on “Gehenna”
Tomi Malin – Bass on “Gehenna”
Mika Ojala – Guitar, Keyboards
Panu Willman – Guitar & Clean Vocals (ex-Entwine, Dark Filth Fraternity)
Toni Broman – Bass
Mika Tanttu – Drums on “Gehenna” (Kill The Romance, ex-Profane Omen)
Jarkko Männikkö – Keyboards (on “My Darkness”)
Aatu Mukka – Session drums (Camorra, Downtrodden)
Katja Vauhkonen – female vocals (on “Deadlight”)
Joel Mäkinen – Live Synth
Timo Häkkinen – Live drums (Sotajumala, Atakhama, Where Victims Lie)
Tomi Luoma – Live guitars (Kill The Romance)
Matti Auerkallio – Drums (Avenie)
Atte Palokangas – Drums (Agonizer)
Lars Eikind – Bass, clean vocals
Download/view infosheet (PDF) here.
