Genre : Gothic Metal
Location : Loviisa, FINLAND
Website :  audiostreet.net/crimsontearsfin
                http://www.crimsontears.net/

History/Biography

The band was originally put together by Matti Rahkonen and Jussi Peltonen in 1997. The bands these guys had played in earlier had fallen apart, and it was time to start a new project. Soon Jarkko Yli-Kiikka joined the group as a singer, and shortly after that drummer Mika Toivari and a local guitar hero Ville Leppänen came in. The basis was now formed, but something was still missing. That something was a female vocalist and keyboard/violin player Niina Kärppä, who joined the band in 1999.

In spring 2000 the group released their first EP, Snowfall. It included five songs: Snowfall, Tears Will Vanish, Season of Floods, Bending the Truth and All the Memories.

Things seemed pretty well, but some trouble came up when Jarkko Yli-Kiikka suddenly decided to leave the band for personal reasons. The band was now without a main vocalist. However, the members considered this only as a minor setback.

After few sessions with some "test subjects", Ville Leppänen found a promising new talent, Kari Skyttä. Kari had some previous band experience and he joined the group still in the autumn of 2000. With this line-up, the group made several gigs and worked with new material.

The band released their second EP named "Cold" just before Christmas on 2002. There were three songs on the cd: Cold, Dreamland and Forever Dawn. Unlike the first EP, Cold was recorded and mixed by the group themselves at their training facilities. This gave some good experience to the band in forming their own sound and in the end, turned out to be the main purpose of the EP.

Still in search for their "own thing", band made several concerts and wrote again new songs. In 2004 the group started recording a demo, which was finished in spring 2005. Five songs in all were recorded, but only three of them ended up on the EP "Dead Silence". At the same time, group decided to change their name to "Crimson Tears", as they felt that the musical style they were after was finally created. Another reason for the name-change was that "Satyron" gave people some wrong ideas about the band and their music.

Soon after the release of "Dead Silence", Kari Skyttä decided that it was time for him to retire. Again the group had to search for a new lead vocalist. Kari annonced his departure only a week before the concert on Räyhärock 2005 festival, so the situation was difficult. The members of the group knew, that there was only one man who could do the job and learn all the songs within one week: The first vocalist of Satyron, Jarkko Yli-Kiikka. Jarkko took the challenge and gave an excellent performance on stage.

After pulling through succesfully on Räyhärock, the biggest panic was over. It was time to scan the southern Finland for talented vocalists. A few were found, but one was clearly above the rest. Tommi Kemilä (familiarly known as "Kemmi") was spotted from Räyhärock, where he performed with an act called Burnhill Experience. All the members of Crimson Tears were stunned by Kemmi's strong voice and charismatic personality, so it was not a difficult decision to ask him to join in. Kemmi completed the group by accepting their request. Soon it was found out that Kemmi possessed the right kind of abilities and musicianship, but also something that is in common for all the members of Crimson Tears: a heart of desire, a soul of despair.