Lost in Tears was founded in the early summer of 1997. It was L-H Sjöblom (vocals), Liljeberg, (drums) and M Rajanen (guitar) who formed the band. HC Frondén (guitar) joined the band only shortly after. During autumn of that same year the last of the "original" members, A Bomberg (bass at the time) joined the band.
From the beginning Lost in Tears worked hard on developing their own style. The band never played cover songs, mostly because L-H Sjöblom did a very good job writing own material.
1998 was a year of hard work. The first live shows where played and the first demos recorded. In October 1998 the first website was launched. With entering the Internet Lost in Tears joined www.mp3.com and began getting some recognition in the metal music underground.
Sometime in the spring of 1999 Lost in Tears began considering using three guitars, as it would give a whole new dimension to live performance. The final decision was made after the song "Theatre of Misery" was presented to the band by L-H Sjöblom. There was a riff in the song that consisted of two guitar melodies while also having a rhythm guitar. C-F Sjöblom was asked to join the band and he accepted. He took up the bass and A Bomberg became the third guitar player.
Shortly after this the band made a decision that would prove to be successful. There was a hand full of new songs just waiting to be recorded but still no record deal in sight...
The belief in what they where doing made the band willing to put as much effort in the production of the next recording as they could. As a result of this the MCD ...ad mortem was released in December 1999. A few months later ...ad mortem was taken into worldwide distribution by the Canadian record label Frowz Productions.
This meant that the fans now had at least some chance of getting Lost in Tears music on CD. The MCD received very good reviews and was voted one of the best new albums of 1999 by the Portugalian radio show Som Marginal. The band started getting attention from record labels at this point.
The year 2000 was a good year for Lost in Tears with the first gigs outside of their hometown, the biggest being the appearance at NummiRock 2000 which was one of the biggest rock festivals in Finland at the time. Lost in Tears had also the opportunity to make a video.
The band yearned to record new material. Still not having a record deal meant paying for everything themselves. Determined to make a record that would once and for all show everyone what they had to offer, Lost in Tears went in to the studio in the autumn of 2000. After long months of hard work and financial struggle, eight new songs where recorded and mixed at Karillo Studios in Porvoo. The plan was to make such a good master tape that no record company could turn it down. Things didn't look too good until midsummer’s day 2001 when the phone of A Bomberg rang...
On the other end was a representative of Locomotive Music in Madrid, Spain, who announced Lost in Tears is just the thing they had been looking for. Almost four months of negotiations followed and finally on October 15. 2001 the dream the band had worked for so long finally came true. A record deal with a label who believed in the band and the music and committed to working with the band towards a brighter future.
To be continued...
