-1992: The Early Years

The prehistory of EToS started in '88 when Jarmo Puolakanaho and Altti Veteläinen started making music together in a Northern Finnish town called Pudasjärvi. The very first song they put together was a very basic version of Smoke on the Water. The result was so inspiring that they kept on writing songs in various styles.

1992-1993: Pre-EToS projects: Andromeda, MDC etc.

The guys bought their first guitars guitars in 1991 the same yeaer, they started writing new songs. In the spring of 1992, the songs were finally ready and so is the name of the band: Andromeda. The first demo tape was called The Fourth Dimension.

 

Instead, in autumn 1992, the band became a real band when Mikko Komulainen (vocals), Petri Sankala (drums) and Olli-Pekka Törrö (guitar) joined the band. Petri and Olli would be EToS members in the future. Altti became the bassist of the band and Jarmo remained as the guitarist. The style of the new Andromeda was doom/death metal.

 

In November, the band receiveed very bad news: their rehearsal place haed burned down. Next spring, three of the guys (Jarmo, Altti, Olli) formed a new project called M.D.C. that recorded a demo "Beyond the Fantasy" in autumn 1993.

1994: Eternal Tears of Sorrow, two demo tapes

The name of the next demo was clear (The Seven Goddesses of Frost) but the name of the band (M.D.C.) was not satisfying anymore, so they came up with a new name: "Eternal Tears of Sorrow". A long name was preferred because they wanted no band to have the same name. The demo turned out to be the best demo so far but the sounds get a bit weird in the final mix. So, it was time to go to a real studio.

 

During the writing process for the next demo tape, the three guys started thinking of a nice studio. Finally, Tico-Tico in Kemi, was selected because it had a very good reputation. Three songs and just one day, so the day started at 10 am and ended at midnight. And at the beginning, EToS was one of the very first ones to hear the new album Amok by Sentenced who had finished their mixing session the previous day.

 

The demo 'Bard's Burial' sounded even better than what the band expected. Now it was time to contact a bunch of record companies...