Amberian Dawn is a Finnish symphonic power metal band, formed in 2006 by Tuomas Seppälä and Tommi Kuri. As of 2023, Amberian Dawn has released nine studio albums, four singles and twelve music videos.
History
Atheme One (2006–2008) Several of the members that would later form Amberian Dawn previously played in the group Virtuocity, and after Virtuocity's breakup, they formed a new band, based on keyboardist and guitarist Tuomas Seppälä's songwriting. The band was named Atheme One and had Peter James Goodman as their lead singer and lyricist. The band released a demo in 2006 featuring four songs, "Dreamchaser", "Velvet Roses", "Burning Touch" and "World of Insanity", three of which would later be remade into Amberian Dawn songs: an instrumental version of "Dreamchaser" appears as a bonus track on River of Tuoni, "Velvet Roses" appears with lyrics by Heidi Parviainen as "Sons of Seven Stars" on The Clouds of Northland Thunder and "World of Insanity" appears with new lyrics as "Ghostly Echoes" on End of Eden.
During the summer of 2006, shortly after the release of the first demo, Seppälä and Kuri began searching for a female vocalist with high technical skills to replace Goodman, feeling he wasn't right for the music. Around the time they placed an ad, they found another for soprano vocalist Heidi Parviainen, who had grown tired of her keyboard duties of Iconofear. After listening to her samples, they decided to set up a demo with her and the band. It turned out that she was exactly what they were looking for, due to her ability to both sing and contribute lyrics, after writing the lyrics to Passing Bells. This completed the band's lineup, now under the name of Amberian Dawn, the result of a day of brainstorming. In spite of having Goodman leave his position as the singer, there were no hard feelings between him and the band, and he has made minor appearances on all three Amberian Dawn albums since.
Their first studio session was in fall 2006, where they recorded two songs at the Rockstar Productions studio in Hyvinkää, Finland. The promotional demo, Amberian Dawn, had the two songs "River of Tuoni" and "Evil Inside Me", both of which would reappear on their debut full-length.
River of Tuoni (2008) Amberian Dawn signed a record deal with Finnish label KHY Suomen Musiikki in 2007, and finally recorded their debut album River of Tuoni which was released in Finland on 30 January 2008, hitting the charts right after release in Finland. To support the album, the band was the main supporter for Dutch symphonic metal band Epica during their summer/autumn European tour, and released a music video for their hit song "River of Tuoni" in May 2008.
The Clouds of Northland Thunder (2008–2009)
In late 2008, when the band withdrew from their River of Tuoni tour, band leader Tuomas Seppälä had already finished most songs for a new album, and the recording began almost immediately, but with a few changes in line-up - Emil Pohjalainen of Thaurorod joined on second guitar, and Seppälä moved permanently to keyboards on the live shows, but has continued to record guitars in the studio.
In January 2009, the band released their second music video through YouTube, namely the River of Tuoni track "My Only Star" alongside footage from the 2008 tour. In May, the band released their second studio album, The Clouds of Northland Thunder, alongside their new single "He Sleeps in a Grove" and its music video, and June introduced the band to their first festival, when they played at the Gibson stage on Sweden Rock festival in Sölvesborg, Sweden. In the summer and autumn of 2009, they toured with several heavy metal bands, including Kamelot, Epica, Sons of Seasons and Dream Evil, and played at festivals such as the Metal Female Voices Fest.
End of Eden (2009–2011)
In November 2009, Amberian Dawn settled back in Finland after their tour with Epica and Sons of Seasons, and main composer Tuomas Seppälä already had many new songs finished for a third album. The band soon announced that a demo was finished and that Heidi Parviainen had started working on lyrics for an album to be released in mid to late 2010.
On 12 July 2010, Amberian Dawn announced that the next album would be called End of Eden, and released in October. They also reported having signed with Spinefarm Records, making End of Eden their first album not produced by KHY Suomen Musiikki. The new album was early on reported to be "more diverse, faster and darker than [...] previous albums" and to have "a bigger, more polymorphic sound", to have some of the fastest AD songs yet, and even an entirely classical piece (later revealed to be "Virvatulen Laulu").