Blind Stare

Blind Stare於1999年成立，原始團員是吉他手Anders ?str?m、另一位吉他手Heikki Raisio和鼓手Henry Valkonen，不久貝斯手Tuomas也相繼加入，於是就開始了’地下活動’(underground)在歐盟各國建立起不小的名氣。2001年春天延攬主唱Eino Tuominen，這時他們的音樂風(fēng)格以旋律死亡金屬為主要樂風(fēng)，之后鍵盤手Zacharias E. Aarnio 前來報到，於是樂風(fēng)轉(zhuǎn)由趨近敘事史詩，經(jīng)過一段磨合期，由於創(chuàng)作理念的差異，Henry、Heikki、Tuomas三人相繼離團，取合代之的是吉他手Jaakko Lehtinen 、鼓手Timo Palokankare和貝斯手Kalle Lahti，這時他們相繼錄製一些試聽帶寄至各大唱片公司，辛苦耕耘是有代價的，於是Blind Stare被西班牙金屬大廠Arisemetal相中，2004年10月與之簽下一紙出版合約，2005年五月處女作” Symphony Of Delusions”發(fā)表。由於多年的表演經(jīng)驗，團員默契十足，作品表現(xiàn)的一鳴驚人，難怪歐洲各大金屬雜誌都給幾乎滿分的高度評價。 Blind Stare 的風(fēng)格很難一言以蔽之，總的來說是旋律死金，但與傳統(tǒng)黑死不同的是，主唱習(xí)慣在副歌部分轉(zhuǎn)成乾凈嗓音和加入合聲，聽者可以在曲子中間獲得喘息機會。嘶吼和純唱的對比，令人耳目一新。專輯主題是北歐樂團一貫的憂鬱。Central Theory作為開場，給人一種措手不及、被狂呼巴掌的感覺: 歌詞里否定一切?；糜X，哪里不是人生的真相呢? 幾乎每一首都有厚重的吉他音墻，從四面八方壓迫過來和主唱從絕望深淵發(fā)出的怒吼。但請別忽略這個有六個人的樂團，你大可把注意力放在瘋狂的器樂上。鍵盤除了純熟的速度勾人心魄外，更多時候會加入磅礡交響的弦樂編曲，使音樂橋段完全飛昇到另一個不可思議的氛圍，每一首皆有出神入化的層次和情緒。拿Shotgun Symphony來說，主角已瀕臨崩潰邊緣，歌詞充滿憤恨和不滿，歌曲高潮處，讓人驚艷無比！ 如果說Children Of Bodom是第一代芬蘭旋律死金創(chuàng)始者、Norther就是第二代掌門人，而Blind Stare可說是第三代的佼佼者，如果要用一個詞來形容這張專輯，那就是”極致”
It all began in 1999. Blind Stare was formed by Anders ?str?m, Heikki Raisio and Henry Valkonen. Soon after, Tuomas Kant joined the group to play the bass. Until spring 2001, the music style was instrumental metal. Then it was time to move ahead, towards a "real band" status, and so Eino joined the band as a vocalist. The musical style evolved to more death-like metal. In fall 2001 Zacharias joined the band to play the keyboards, and the music began to develop towards a somewhat more epic style.
Suddenly something happened with the motivation of some members. No rehearsals in months. It was a dead season in the band's history. Anders, Eino and Zacharias decided to put an end to that silence and the result was that Henry, Heikki and Tuomas had to go. It was a kick-start for Blind Stare's new musical journey. Jaakko joined Blind Stare and the band got a new rehearsal place in the newcomer's garage. The band was still in need of a drummer and a bass player. After a while, Timo and Kalle joined the group to fill these positions.
In October 2002 Blind Stare recorded a demo-CD “Ender”. It was the first record made with this line-up. Although the sounds weren't that great, it was a significant milestone in the band’s history. New, better songs just kept coming with some live performances on the side. The band had a hunger to record more, do everything better. And so was the studio booked again.
August 2003. "Once a True Story" demo was recorded and published. With "OaTS" the band started to get some underground reputation, good reviews and also more gig offers. New songs were coming up, sounding more and more coherent and fresh. Between May and August 2004 the band recorded a new demo entitled "The Reborn Genius" (demo of the month in a well-known Finnish metal website Imperiumi.net).
In October 2004 Blind Stare signed a contract with Arise Records, which led to the recordings of the debut album titled "Symphony of Delusions" at the Noisecamp/Musamuusa studios. Blind Stare had created a fresh package of melodic death metal with orchestral and synthetic sound worlds. The CD illustrations were done by Jan Yrlund from Danse Macabre. SoD got many great reviews and sold quite nicely worldwide.
Again, Blind Stare faced another quiet era in its history when Timo, Kalle, Jaakko and Zacharias had to go through their mandatory military service. The year was 2005 and except for few gigs in Turku, nothing happened. During this period the band was preparing new songs for the second album Arise Recods was about to publish. But something happened at the end of 2005. Arise Records wasn't able to release any more new albums. So, the record contract had to be canceled which was a great disappointment to Blind Stare. But like the old saying goes, "What does not kill you only makes you stronger". And Blind Stare surely didn't die!
Eventually the band got the last guy, Jaakko, out of the Finnish defense forces. Shortly after that, a new two-song rehearsal tape was made and it was supposed to get only in the hands of gig bookers. In spite of that, it was also sent to some record companies that might be interested in Blind Stare's musical style. The fans have continuously asked when the second album comes out.
In 2006 Zacharias called it a quit. Blind Stare wasn't one of his top priorities any more, and he decided not to continue further. However, this decision didn't affect the personal chemistries between him and the other band members. In the year 2007 Tuomas found us and joined Blind Stare with great enthusiasm and boy did that serve us well!
The long waiting ended when 'Promo 2009 / Demo 2009' was released to media and few chosen pieces ended up on our website in August. At the moment Blind Stare is eagerly and very swiftly producing new material for our next studio album. The search for the record label continues but we will definitely not stay quiet. With fresh attitude and renewed image we are possibly stronger than ever. Watch out.