DYECREST's history so far...
First notices about this band, which was about to become Dyecrest, take place in 1993. This was the year when Pirkka, Niko and Jukka made and played their first own songs in Takala’s storeroom. One of the songs was called ”Iron Heat”, which had ”some little influences” from some Iron Maiden songs ;) and this was the first name of the band, too.
This line-up lasted about a year, until Pasi Kärkkäinen came to play another guitar and Sami Oinonen started to sing. The band made some own songs and played some Metallica and Guns’N Roses cover songs too. During the year 1995 Pirkka started to sing besides playing the guitar, and also band’s songwriting got more vivid, while cover-songs were slowly left behind.
In the year 1996 the thought about taking Matti in the band was born. That was because ”he was such a nice fella” and it appeared, when Masa had came to some training sessions to play bass when Jukka wasn’t around, that he, in some mystical way, knew all our songs!! ;) When Matti joined the band, Pasi began to play keyboards (at first he still did some guitar solos), and that’s when a band called Fairytale started to take shape.
The first gig with the name Fairytale took place in February 1997. There were 141 PAID (!!!!) spectators, and the band was about to fall on their asses when they heard it. The wildest hopes were more like getting max 50 people there... In the spring of ’97 the band started to feel that it would be nice to record some own songs with better quality than what you get with Sony’s double deck radio-system. Well, into the studio and let’s push the ”rec-button”. This first demo (named VERY innovatively as ”Demo ’97”) had the following songs on it: Starlight, The Shadows See It All, Lonely Wishes, Iron Hearted and If We Just... There was 300 copies made of the demo-cassette (of which maybe 200 copies are still in Matti’s closet...;)) and fortunately it wasn’t sent to anywhere!
For the next time Fairytale went to the studio in the fall of 1998, and after a long and painful work, ”Getting Stronger ’98” was ready. Songs, which ended up on the demo, were: Overture, Getting Stronger, Time Will Heal, They Can’t See, Remember Memories and When the Wind Blows. The demo got quite controversial reviews in Finnish magazines. In the Soundi magazine, the demo got some praises, In the Rumba magazine the reviewer couldn’t quite say that was it good or not and in the SF-Perkele metal magazine Fairytale was nominated as a poorest demo-band of the issue... But at least in the Nummirock-festival Fairytale was regarded as a decent band, and a gig for the midsummer 1999 was decided. In the spring of ’99 the line-up changed a bit, when the keyboard player Pasi decided to leave the band.
In 1999 the long term singer-problem was solved. Pasi had already earlier mentioned to the other band members that he knew a guy called Janne from Mäntyharju, who could be able to sing on the level the band wanted. So, to avoid the hurry, Niko phoned Janne in the end of the May... And, due to this, Janne was in the rehearsals two and a half weeks before the gig in the Nummirock! The band hasn’t FOR SURE played as much in few weeks as then. After all, the gig went fine and band got a singer with a good voice, not a bad result at all! From then on (until the fall of 2001), the line-up was: Pirkka Ohlis-guitar,bv and keys, Matti Pasanen-guitar&bv, Janne Oksanen-vocals, Jukka Matilainen-bass and Niko Takala-drums.
The band went to record the first demo with Janne in January 2000. As a result, Captured-demo was born, being far more darker than Fairytale’s earlier demos. The songs were: Captured, My Rage, Still In Vain, No More and Who Am I? Soundi-magazine praised the demo and Fairytale was nominated as a most promising band of the month. Also in the SF-Perkele metal magazine the demo got very good review. Captured-demo was sent to some Finnish record companies, but at least for now on, band didn’t get a record deal. However, with the song Still In Vain Fairytale got into a ”Northern Breeze – Finnish Metal Compilation” album, which was compiled by Low Frequency Records.
During the year 2001 the band made some gigs and mainly the feeling and the feedback was very good. You could still tell the amount of the gigs by your fingers, though... Also some material for the forthcoming demo was written. In the fall of 2001 there happened some bigger changes in the band. Band decided to ask an old time friend Henri Arola to play the third guitar. Also then the name of the band changed from Fairytale to Dyecast. This change was due to some misunderstandings ‘bout the name Fairytale, the fact that Henri joined the band and this clear change in musical style. Because of these things the band didn’t want to use the name Fairytale anymore. So, after a long thinking (and a vote...), the name was decided to be Dyecast.
In February 2002 Dyecast went to Fantom-studio in Tampere to record four new songs. Eventually all the songs were recorded and mixed, though there were (as usual) some big problems. It all started to get fucked up when Henri broke his thumb just four days before the recordings started... Well, in the end Henri was a very constructive and good producer of the demo (read: the only one of us who was drunken all the time...)! Pirkka and Matti did all the guitar parts excluding Henri’s solos which were recorded afterwards in Mikkeli. There was also some difficulties with the vocal parts, because Janne got a flu (ofcourse) on the same weekend... Actually, the vocal parts had to be re-recorded after a couple of weeks.
”Lost Faith” demo-cd was finally ready in June 2002. It includes songs called Lost Faith, Back Against the Wall, Made Me Believe and Last Stair. With these songs (and those which have been written after the studio sessions) Dyecast has found more and more their own style, getting further away from that basic power metal stuff.
Lost Faith – demo was sent all over the Finland and Europe to various record companies. This time band got very positive feedback, though the contract seemed still to stay as a dream. Most of the companies said ”You were very close, but didn't get a deal yet this time. Nevertheless, please send us your forthcoming material”. So it seemed that nothing big's gonna happen 'til band decided to take part to the ”Young Metal Gods”-competition, which was arranged by Noise Records.
In February 2003 band got an information from Edel-records, which said that Dyecast had made their way among the 18 best out of all the competitors. Now the excitement was placed on would Dyecast still be with the five finalists. Well, the phone rang once more (this time by Christine from Sanctuary) and it was clear that Dyecast's fellas would travel to Bochum (GER), where the final was about to happen in May.
The YMG2003 final took place in Club-Zeche (Bochum, GER) at 11th May 2003. The five bands, who were about to “fight” for three record deals were Dyecast, Persuader (SWE), Soul Source (SWE), Orion (ITA) and Beyond Surface (GER). Dyecast's live-performance went VERY well and the judges liked the energy of it too. And when the results were announced, the party really began: Dyecast had got a record deal with Noise Records! Other bands to get a deal were Persuader and Beyond Surface.
And then, after all the practical issues were solved (and all the songs were written with quite a tough schedule...) Dyecast started to record their debut-album. At first, Niko went to record the drums at the Karo-Studios, Brackel, Germany ('bout 30 km south from Hamburg) in the beginning of the July. All the other stuff was recorded and mixed at Power House Studio by Piet Sielck from August 18th to September 5th.
So, everything is set for January 19th 2004, when Dyecast's debut album The Way of Pain will be released!!
Okay, when everything's ready, something BIG must go wrong... A Boston (USA) based - band called DIEcast contacted the band in November 2003, with the demand for DYEcast to change their name. They were convinced that a band called Dyecast would severly damage their already gained reputation. So, without detailing more, the changing of the name was at hands. This was determined when also the lawyer of the Sanctuary-group thought that it would be the easiest (and smartest...) thing to do.
Of course, this all happened right when all the material (mainly the adds for zines and the Promotional copies of the album) was about to get printed and pressed. So, there were very few days (actually more like few hours...) to decide a new name. Well, with co-operation of the record label, the new name DYECREST was decided, and everything kept going on!!!
This whole f***ing name-episode has really been an exhausting period of time for the band members. That's because the previous name “had become PRECIOUS for them and they're buying the name Dyecrest with great pain” (Takala, high king of Ristiina, of finding the One Name, year 2003 of the Second Age)...
Seriously, the whole thing has now been accepted by the band, and they are now determined to spread the message of heavy metal with the name DYECREST!
Source: http://www.dyecrest.com/ebio.htm
