Blind Stare

Blind Stare於1999年成立，原始团员是吉他手Anders Öström、另一位吉他手Heikki Raisio和鼓手Henry Valkonen，不久贝斯手Tuomas也相继加入，於是就开始了’地下活动’(underground)在欧盟各国建立起不小的名气。2001年春天延揽主唱Eino Tuominen，这时他们的音乐风格以旋律死亡金属为主要乐风，之后键盘手Zacharias E. Aarnio 前来报到，於是乐风转由趋近叙事史诗，经过一段磨合期，由於创作理念的差异，Henry、Heikki、Tuomas三人相继离团，取合代之的是吉他手Jaakko Lehtinen 、鼓手Timo Palokankare和贝斯手Kalle Lahti，这时他们相继录製一些试听带寄至各大唱片公司，辛苦耕耘是有代价的，於是Blind Stare被西班牙金属大厂Arisemetal相中，2004年10月与之签下一纸出版合约，2005年五月处女作” Symphony Of Delusions”发表。由於多年的表演经验，团员默契十足，作品表现的一鸣惊人，难怪欧洲各大金属杂誌都给几乎满分的高度评价。 Blind Stare 的风格很难一言以蔽之，总的来说是旋律死金，但与传统黑死不同的是，主唱习惯在副歌部分转成乾净嗓音和加入合声，听者可以在曲子中间获得喘息机会。嘶吼和纯唱的对比，令人耳目一新。专辑主题是北欧乐团一贯的忧鬱。Central Theory作为开场，给人一种措手不及、被狂呼巴掌的感觉: 歌词里否定一切。幻觉，哪里不是人生的真相呢? 几乎每一首都有厚重的吉他音墙，从四面八方压迫过来和主唱从绝望深渊发出的怒吼。但请别忽略这个有六个人的乐团，你大可把注意力放在疯狂的器乐上。键盘除了纯熟的速度勾人心魄外，更多时候会加入磅礡交响的弦乐编曲，使音乐桥段完全飞昇到另一个不可思议的氛围，每一首皆有出神入化的层次和情绪。拿Shotgun Symphony来说，主角已濒临崩溃边缘，歌词充满愤恨和不满，歌曲高潮处，让人惊艳无比！ 如果说Children Of Bodom是第一代芬兰旋律死金创始者、Norther就是第二代掌门人，而Blind Stare可说是第三代的佼佼者，如果要用一个词来形容这张专辑，那就是”极致”
It all began in 1999. Blind Stare was formed by Anders Öström, 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.