The story of Silentium goes back into the December 1995 to the ashes of a death/gothic metal band called Funeral where Sami Boman (keyboards) and Matti Aikio (at the time, "vocals") thought what would be after Funeral. Those days they had lots of time and they played with several band projects but they wanted to create something more concrete. They admire greatly MDB's work and thought that violin sounds great. They wanted to do some music with violin and so the violin player (Jani Laaksonen) was joined in. The guitar players (Toni Lahtinen & Juha Lehtioksa) and the drummer (Jari Ojala) was gathered from several local bands (Monoset, Skirmish and Enslavement).
First Silentium rehearsal was in February 1996. First few own songs were added to the set quite soon and the first live performance (the band's overlook varieted from winter over-all to kilt) was given in may 1996 and second one immediately a day after in the spring beach party.
First recording took form of a four-song-demo-tape "Illacrimó" and it was released at the end of year 1996. It went out quite soon and during the time it has been played on several radio-stations in Finland, Norway, Belgium, Portugal and Turkey. The response of metal underground scene was (from our point of view) amazingly good. However, as none of the members didn't know a flying fuck about pr-business, the fuzz around the demo-tape gave appearance in two different compilation CDs. The one was the "Sometimes Death is Better" from the belgian Shiver Records and the other was on Finnish Metal magazine Suomi Finland Perkele's tribute CD for finnish metal compilation. It was even voted the demotape of the year by the listeners of the Finnish radioshow Metalliliitto.
Following times up until the spring of 1998 were quite quiet 'cos four of the six members were serving their country at the Finnish army troops. During those days Silentium trained whenever they got gathered together and played few gigs in local music happenings. And finally in the April they begin to plan their second recording. After few months of intensive training and recording, the second, six-song demo-tape "Caméne Misera" was released. When the cover of "Illacrimó" was done by the guys themselves, now the job was done by a semi-pro and that is clearly visible at the quality. During those vicious days in studio, became clearer that the female vocalist (Tiina Lehvonen) would become a permanent member of the band after showing her skills in the "Caméne Misera".
"Caméne..." didn't got so positive feedback as "Illacrimó" but guys didn't give up. They played gigs now and then and practised new material. Little after the release Jari informed he don't have the time enough to continue and he left the band. New drummer Janne Ojala was found quickly and he filled a place Jari left behind the battery. He was played also in Funeral and he learned Silentium songs amazingly quick and off they went again.
In the beginnig of the year 1999 came the big news; Sami Tenetz wanted to sign Siletium to his new Spikefarm recordlabel. There were no thinking twice and recordings of the first full-length CD begun in the summer of 1999. The place was familiar and the very same as in both demos and things started to roll easily. In the August the large scale audience got to hear the sound of Silentium as "Infinita Plango Vulnera" was released. Reviews was negative and positive but became obvious that Silentium was going to be a permanent member in the Finnish metal scene. Silentium played show at about once a month pace and even played in the legendary Club Tavastia.
Sami made new material little by little and in the summer of 2000 it was time to start planning a new Silentium release. Silentium went again to studio Watercastle and in September the work was done. By the way, at the very same day the last guitars was put on tape, Silentium supported Nightwish in Jyvaskyla. It was really one of the best shows in Silentium history. After few months of waiting the second CD "Altum" was released in March of 2001.
And the story continues...
