(Last updated: 21.09.2009)
BEFORE THE DAWN was conceived and born 1999 in Finland, Nastola, as solo project of the multitalented Tuomas Saukkonen, who should remain the "single parent" of his brainchild also in times to come. The story from the start, in his own words:
"I made the first demo "To Desire Part 1" all by myself and for the second one I had a friend of mine playing the drums. The first line-up was gathered so that BTD could perform live. With many changes in the line up BTD entered the studio to record the MCD called "Gehenna". I received couple of deal offers but nothing serious enough. BTD continued playing gigs and I kept on writing lots of new material, and the next MCD called "My Darkness" got very good feedback and a serious enough record deal was offered by Locomotive Music. The next step was to start recordings of the debut album which was also entitled as "My Darkness". The album included all the songs from the last MCD which was never released to public."
The first full length album "My Darkness" features Tuomas - guitar & growls, the previous ENTWINE front man Panu Willman - guitar & clean vocals, Jani Saajanaho – guitars, Jarkko Männikkö – keyboards, drummer Dani Miettinen and bass player Toni Broman. It was released by Spanish Locomotive Records in February 2003, soon afterwards the band supported KATATONIA on their Scandinavian and Central European tour dates.
The second album "4:17 AM" followed in 2004 and the DVD "The First Chapter" in 2005, but then Saukkonen disbanded the old line-up and formed his new "Live Action Assault Team", with the Norwegian Lars Eikind (e. g. WINDS, AGE OF SILENCE, KHOLD), clean vocals & bass, GLORIA MORTI'S guitarist Juho Räihä, keyboarder Joel Mäkinen and drummer Aatu Mukka.
"BTD had walked a full circle and it was once again my solo project. I wrote lots of new material and felt like a newborn. The material was coming very easy and fast because I didn’t have a badly motivated band slowing me down anymore. Sounds like a hard thing to say, but now when I have played almost 30 gigs in Finland and in Europe with my live action assault team (Lars, Juho, Aatu and Joel), things have been going so much easier. Finally I have the luxury of working with professionals. I am not the easiest person when it comes to playing in a band with me. I demand a lot and want everybody to work hard. I also have a very clear vision what is going to happen with the music and with the band in general."
In 2006, the huge amount of new song material created two albums. "The Ghost" for BEFORE THE DAWN and "The Darkness" for DAWN OF SOLACE, featuring slower and more epic-melodic tracks, where Tuomas expresses his darker side. Remarkably, two members of his "Live Action Assault Team" appear on both CDs, Lars Eikind (clean vocals) and Juho Räihä (guitar solos for "Ghost", sound engineer for "The Darkness"). In the same year BEFORE THE DAWN toured across Finland and the Baltic States with MOONSPELL and INSOMNIUM, and began the recording sessions for another album.
"Deadlight" - A major turning point
The new fourth album "Deadlight", released by the Finnish label STAY HEAVY RECORDS in February 2007, should be a major turning point in the career of BEFORE THE DAWN. Yet initially it seemed that Tuomas would have to go solo once again:
"We had to fire the drummer after one week and start recordings all over again... And then also our second guitarist was too busy with his other band recording, so I played all the guitars. So on the album it is only me and Lars."
Yet with Juho and Lars a new stable core line-up began to emerge, and shortly after the release of "Deadlight", Dani Miettinen could be welcomed back on the BEFORE THE DAWN drum throne. The re-formed band faced an increasing demand, as "Deadlight" received excellent reviews in Finland and abroad, and BEFORE THE DAWN made their mark on the charts more than once: The single "Deadsong", released in February 2007, immediately reached # 2 of Finnish Top 20 charts; for four months it remained among the Top 20 of Finnish Radio Rock. The single "Faithless" (released June 27, 2007), featuring Idols-judge Jone Nikula on the PANTERA cover version "Mouth For War", also entered Finland's Top 20 as # 2.
Determined to keep the fast release schedule, the band entered the studio in the beginning of 2008 to record a follow-up for the epochal "Deadlight" album.
Coping with another change in the line-up - once again, the drum-seat would become vacant - the ultimate core crew of BEFORE THE DAWN (Tuomas, Lars, Juho) raised the bar to highest level. Their only goal was to outdo all previous albums in songwriting and production. With "Soundscape of Silence" that goal was achieved, and the band took some time off from studio, playing several summer festivals like Tuska Open Air, and also making their debut at the mighty Wacken Open Air in Germany.
The fifth studio album "Soundscape Of Silence" was released in October 2008, underlining the words: commitment, dedication, talent and hard work. Again European media was full of praise for the new BEFORE THE DAWN output, which also immediately hit the charts among the Top 20.
Yet once again the line-up changed: After playing with live / session drummers, in summer 2009 AGONIZER's Atte Palokangas could be welcomed as official new BEFORE THE DAWN member.
Finally, accurately timed with the band's 10th anniversary, BEFORE THE DAWN get ready to conquer European stages, on tour with AMORPHIS in autumn 2009...
A DECADE OF DARKNESS .... and the story continues....
MEMBERS
Tuomas Saukkonen - Songwriting, growl vocals & guitars
OTHER PROJECTS (ACTIVE):
    - THE FINAL HARVEST (songwriter, drums)
    - BLACK SUN AEON (songwriter, drums, guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals)
    - TEARGOD (songwriter, drums, guitar, bass, keyboards)
OTHER PROJECTS (ON HOLD):
    - DAWN OF SOLACE (songwriter, drums, guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals)
    - DECLINE (studio drummer, producer)
    - BONEGRINDER, S.I. M., DECLINE (drums)
    - ex-CODE245, ex-THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARILY VIOLENT GENTLEMEN (guitars)
    - ex-RAJAVYÖHYKE, ex-JUMALHÄMÄRÄ
    - Credits with SCYTHE.357, STARFIRE SYNDICATE, ALTTARI, VARJO
Lars Eikind - Bass, clean vocals
OTHER PROJECTS:
    - ex-DAWN OF SOLACE, WINDS (bass & vocals)
    - JACK IN THE BOX, ex-HONCHO (vocals)
    - AGE OF SILENCE, ex-KHOLD (bass)
Juho Räihä - Guitars
Also songwriter/audio engineer
OTHER PROJECTS (ALL GUITAR):
    - GLORIA MORTI
    - RIVERSIDE SYNDICATE
    - THRONE OF MOURN
Atte Palokangas - Drums
OTHER PROJECTS:
    - AGONIZER
TRIVIA
WHICH GENRE IS IT?
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".
MISCELLANEOUS TRIVIA
• 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 540.000 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.
FORMER MEMBERS, GUEST/SESSION MUSICIANS
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)
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