Winterborn

Teemu Koskela: vocals Pasi Vapola: guitar and backing vocals Antti Hokkala: guitar and backing vocals Jukka Hänninen: keyboards and backing vocals Pasi Kauppinen: bass and backing vocals Lauri Bexar: drums Winterborn was founded at the end of 2004. The same line-up started earlier as a heavy rock coverband called Mean Machine and it transformed into Winterborn when the guys thought it was time to move on and do some own material. With the original line-up they did one album, Cold Reality, which was released all over the world on November 2006. And right after the release, December 4 th , the band started their first European tour which lasted the rest of the year, reaching 6 countries with 22 shows. The album was released by German label Massacre Records after the band signed a deal with them on August 2006. The album was praised by the critics all over and the band achieved deservable attention amongst heavy fans in Europe and in Japan . Unfortunately, in their home country, the album and band wasn`t promoted at all, and didn`t get the attention deserved. After the tour and few gigs in Finland , band started recording their second album on August 2007 and due to various reasons, it took 7 months to get the album recorded, and nearly a year before the whole package was ready for release. During the year 2008, band had changes in their line-up. First, they changed their bass player. Janne Suvanto who had been in the band since the beginning, had to go. But they didn`t have to look for the replacement that far away. Pasi Kauppinen who had worked with the band since making of the first album, joined in. And few months after that, the next one to go was drummer Rami Heikkilä who still plays on the album on every song except on Last Man Standing. After Rami was gone, it took a while to find another man to fullfill the position. After being sure that the playing style and personality matched, Lauri Bexar joined the band on March 2008. And at the same time the band decided to ask guitarist Antti Hokkala, who had played with the other two new guys before, to join the group. The new Winterborn was born. After they inked a deal with Japanese label Marquee/Avalon, the second album titled “Farewell To Saints” was released in Japan on November 19 th 2008. The release in Europe and rest of the world took a lot longer. Farewell To Saints came out during May and June. After that, the band played few shows in Finland . The Farewell to Saints European tour 2009 supporting their fellow Finnish powermetal group Sonata Arctica, started on 12 th November and ended on 15 th December. On January 2010, Winterborn announced more European Tour dates with Sonata Arctica. 6 shows in Europe and 4 show in Finland.