Solgrav - Biography
Biography
Auringon hauta evolved from the ruins of the previous crappy black-/thrash-/death metal project in late 2001. Founding members were Janne Väätäinen (guitar, vocals) and Sakari Harju (guitar). Auringon hauta was one of the options for the name, but instead of that original Finnish title, band decided that the Swedish/Norwegian equivalent, Solgrav, sounded better (for some unknown reason). So the name Solgrav was finally chosen. The name comes from a finnish/estonian legend and means "The grave of the sun". In the beginning the music was heavily inflluenced by dark- / black metal bands such as Immortal, Thy Serpent, Troll, Rotting Christ and (old) Dimmu Borgir .
"Pohjoisen Hämärän Sarastus" was the first demo, released in spring 2002 and limited to only 40 copies. The same spring Lari Hammarberg joined the ranks as a drummer, replacing drum-machine that was used on the first demo. Before the recordings of the second demo, Sakari Harju had left the band because his lack of time and motivation. "Noitakansa", the second demo, was recorded again as a duo, and released in spring 2003 with a pressing of 200 copies. This time the sound was at least a little more mature, and the demo got pretty good feedback overall.
In the summer 2003 the band founded Taneli Kejonen to master the 7-string guitar and thus the sound evolved yet again to more original direction. Niko Kuljuntausta was also founded a little later as a new vocalist and so the 3rd. demo "Pohjola kotimme, luonto emomme, pimeys veljemme ja kirves turvamme" was recorded with a 4 men line-up, and released in 2004 on 299 copies. That demo was musically quite a leap from any previous stuff, and the first one including no synthetic instruments. Keyboards were replaced by piano and acoustic guitar. It also got the attention of couple of labels, and the band was ready to start working on the debut album.
Petri "Hiienkirnu" Immonen joined the ranks as a bassist and the (sort of self titled) album Auringon hauta was recorded as a 5-piece group in the beginning of 2005. There were some problems with couple of foreign major labels, so the band decided to team up with a Finnish indie label Nocturnal Woodlands productions for the debut album. Because of all this fuzz with the labels, the album got delayed, and it was finally released in autumn 2005. Short while after this Petri "Hiienkirnu" Immonen left the band to concentrate fully to his mainband, Gaurithoth (now split-up).
Because the debut album got delayed, two new songs for the split-album with another Finnish act Fornjotr were already composed and recorded before the actual release of the debut album. Also one old song was re-arranged and re-recorded for the upcoming split. Taneli "Vetehinen" Kejonen could not participate on this record, so this special release was made with a special 3-men lineup. Again because some major problems with the labels, Fornjotr changing their name to F, etc. the split album got delayed, and was finally released by our own Varjot productions in July 2006. This material was to come the last material ever recorded under the Solgrav- moniker.
Auringon hauta -era:
The first notes for the 2nd full-length album were composed in autumn 2005, and the last ones somewhere around late 2006. During this one year writing period the new material got considerably more ethnic influences than anything in the past. Ecpecially kantele and clean vocals got a much bigger role, and also the songs itselfs, which were now composed also with different folk instruments along with the "traditional" guitar & piano. But not just the music, also the lyrics changed quite alot, picking up their inspiration solely from the ancient Karelian rune-singing tradition, and the bands appearance taking a huge step away from the dark-/black- metal stantards. The Scandinavian band name did fit to the upgraded sound even worse than before, so the time for a name change was now or never. This time there were not any other options than Auringon hauta. The name that has so direct contacts to the Karelian mythology.
Source: http://www.solgrav.tk/
"Pohjoisen Hämärän Sarastus" was the first demo, released in spring 2002 and limited to only 40 copies. The same spring Lari Hammarberg joined the ranks as a drummer, replacing drum-machine that was used on the first demo. Before the recordings of the second demo, Sakari Harju had left the band because his lack of time and motivation. "Noitakansa", the second demo, was recorded again as a duo, and released in spring 2003 with a pressing of 200 copies. This time the sound was at least a little more mature, and the demo got pretty good feedback overall.
In the summer 2003 the band founded Taneli Kejonen to master the 7-string guitar and thus the sound evolved yet again to more original direction. Niko Kuljuntausta was also founded a little later as a new vocalist and so the 3rd. demo "Pohjola kotimme, luonto emomme, pimeys veljemme ja kirves turvamme" was recorded with a 4 men line-up, and released in 2004 on 299 copies. That demo was musically quite a leap from any previous stuff, and the first one including no synthetic instruments. Keyboards were replaced by piano and acoustic guitar. It also got the attention of couple of labels, and the band was ready to start working on the debut album.
Petri "Hiienkirnu" Immonen joined the ranks as a bassist and the (sort of self titled) album Auringon hauta was recorded as a 5-piece group in the beginning of 2005. There were some problems with couple of foreign major labels, so the band decided to team up with a Finnish indie label Nocturnal Woodlands productions for the debut album. Because of all this fuzz with the labels, the album got delayed, and it was finally released in autumn 2005. Short while after this Petri "Hiienkirnu" Immonen left the band to concentrate fully to his mainband, Gaurithoth (now split-up).
Because the debut album got delayed, two new songs for the split-album with another Finnish act Fornjotr were already composed and recorded before the actual release of the debut album. Also one old song was re-arranged and re-recorded for the upcoming split. Taneli "Vetehinen" Kejonen could not participate on this record, so this special release was made with a special 3-men lineup. Again because some major problems with the labels, Fornjotr changing their name to F, etc. the split album got delayed, and was finally released by our own Varjot productions in July 2006. This material was to come the last material ever recorded under the Solgrav- moniker.
Auringon hauta -era:
The first notes for the 2nd full-length album were composed in autumn 2005, and the last ones somewhere around late 2006. During this one year writing period the new material got considerably more ethnic influences than anything in the past. Ecpecially kantele and clean vocals got a much bigger role, and also the songs itselfs, which were now composed also with different folk instruments along with the "traditional" guitar & piano. But not just the music, also the lyrics changed quite alot, picking up their inspiration solely from the ancient Karelian rune-singing tradition, and the bands appearance taking a huge step away from the dark-/black- metal stantards. The Scandinavian band name did fit to the upgraded sound even worse than before, so the time for a name change was now or never. This time there were not any other options than Auringon hauta. The name that has so direct contacts to the Karelian mythology.
Source: http://www.solgrav.tk/