Norther

Norther is a melodic death metal band from Helsinki, Finland whose style incorporates elements of power metal. Many compare Norther's sound (particularly of their first album) to that of Children of Bodom.

History
The history of the band starts in early 1996 under the name of Requiem, and was assembled by guitarist Petri Lindroos and drummer Toni Hallio, accompanied by two other musicians. In the beginning, the band suffered from the lack of a proper rehearsal place, but in late 1997, guitarist Alexander Kuoppala (ex-Children of Bodom) found a suitable place for them to practice at Lepakko; around this time the band decided to change their name from Requiem to Norther. Their luck was short-lived, however, as their new rehearsal place was soon to be demolished. The musicians who played with Lindroos and Hallio soon lost their motivation and quit Requiem.

After a few months, the band managed to find another rehearsal place and began looking for members to complete their line-up. After quite a few auditions, they were unable to find musicians that they deemed fit to play with them, and thus went on a hiatus, which lasted until the beginning of 1999, when they met guitarist Kristian Ranta.

In 2000 Norther was formed. The members became active and with the help of two friends of Ranta - Sebastian Knight and Joakim Ekroos - the band recorded their first demo in 2000 entitled Warlord, for the first time using the name "Norther". A promising demo led them to signing a deal with Spinefarm Records.

Due to internal problems, Ekroos and Knight left the band; this lead Norther into finding its first stable formation when bassist Jukka Koskinen and keyboardist Tuomas Planman joined the band.

When the album Dreams of Endless War was recorded and released in 2002, Norther received a positive response from the specialized press and began playing gigs in the Helsinki area. Following this, the band maintained a prolific release schedule, releasing the albums Mirror of Madness (2003), Death Unlimited (2004), Till Death Unites Us (2006), and N (2008) as well as the singles Released (2001), Unleash Hell (2003), Spreading Death (2004), and Scream (2006), the Mini-DVD single Spreading Death, and the EPs Solution 7 (2005), and No Way Back (2007).

In October 2005, drummer Toni Hallio left the band, leaving guitarist/vocalist Lindroos as the only remaining original member. Hallio was replaced by Heikki Saari, drummer of Virtuocity.

Norther entered Astia Studios in Lappeenranta, Finland in August/September to record their next full length album. The follow-up to 2006's "Till Death Unites Us" will be produced by Anssi Kippo. The album, N, was released on February 13, 2008. On November 21, 2007, Norther announced that they had signed a new record deal with Century Media Records, while Marquee Avalon will distribute albums in Japan. The video for "We Rock" produced by Tunne Productions of Helsinki was released and is available for viewing.

Norther has so far played tours with Dimmu Borgir, Finntroll, Amoral, Turisas and Children of Bodom. On March 4, 2009, Norther announced that Petri Lindroos was asked to leave the band. Petri will now concentrate fully on Ensiferum.

On April 14, 2009, Norther announced the arrival of former Imperanon frontman Aleksi Sihvonen as their lead vocalist. Naildown guitarist Daniel Freyberg will be a touring member.

Current members
With:
 * Aleksi Sihvonen – lead vocals (2009–present)
 * Kristian Ranta – guitar, clean vocals (2000–present)
 * Heikki Saari – drums (2005–present)
 * Jukka Koskinen – bass guitar (2000–present)
 * Tuomas Planman – keyboards, synthesizers (2000–present)
 * Daniel Freyberg – live guitars (2009–present)

Former members

 * Petri Lindroos – vocals, guitar (1996–2009)
 * Toni Hallio – drums (1996–2005)
 * Tuomas (Stubu) – bass guitar (1996–1997)
 * Roni Korpas – guitar (1996–1999)
 * Sebastian Knight – keyboards (2000)
 * Joakim Ekroos – bass guitar (2000)

Studio albums

 * Dreams of Endless War (2002)
 * Mirror of Madness (2003)
 * Death Unlimited (2004)
 * Till Death Unites Us (2006)
 * N (2008)

Demos and EPs

 * Warlord (2000)
 * Solution 7 (2005)
 * No Way Back (2007)

Singles

 * Released (2001)
 * Unleash Hell (2003)
 * Spreading Death (2004)
 * Spreading Death (DVD) (2004)
 * Scream (2006)