Heavy Metal Perse was founded in May 2000 by guitarist Juha Leikkainen, drummer Heikki Romppainen and singer-guitarist Matias Palm. The intention was to create World's first True Metal band who sing in Finnish language.
The band decided to write the lyrics of their debut demo CD about a saga of a mighty magic sword defeating an enemy who had destroyed and robbed a village. The songs for this demo were written very fast and already in July of the very same year the band started recording them after rehearsing only three times during their 2-month-history!
As Matias was doing his military service during the autumn of 2000 the recording process was quite slow. However, a demo carrying the name "Legenda Taikamiekasta" (having a title track with the same name) was finally released in April 2001. Demand for the demo exceeded expectations and people all around Finland became aware of HMP. Over 70 copies of "Legenda Taikamiekasta" were made and the demo is now officially sold out.
The bandmembers themselves weren't too satisfied with the production of their first release, nor their own playing on it either. So, at the end of 2001 HMP started recording their second demo with a new band member, Harri Leinonen who took over the bass guitar. The drums were recorded in December with bass and guitars following in January of 2002. Later the keyboards were recorded and finally in May the recording of the vocals was started. The new demo was released in September of 2002 and has sold more than a 100 copies so far. The band also filmed their very first promo video which was released in August of the same year on their web site but also on the new demo CD.
