Auringon Hauta / Solgrav

LOCATION : Imatra, Finland

Status : On hold
Music : Folk Metal


MEMBERS :
Janne Väätäinen (Häive) : guitar, kantele, flute, whistle, clean vocals
Lari Hammarberg (Poropetra) : drums, piano
Taneli Kejonen : guitar
Niko Kuljuntausta : bass


HISTORY :
The black pagan metal band Solgrav founded in 2001 but during 2007, the members decide to change the bandname as a new beginning for them. The band name is now Auringon Hauta that means "The grave of the sun", a Finnish/Estonian legend.

Lari Hammarberg has given in 2010 the complete history for the bands, for publish on Sword Chant :

The beginning, autumn 2001.
Founding members Janne Väätäinen and Sakari harju form the band from the ruins of their previous black/death/thrash project and decide to thrive for more serious and better produced music. From various possibilities for name, Solgrav(The tomb of the sun) was chosen. At the time, Swedish/Norwegian equalient sounded better.The band was now in existance, with the name Solgrav. The making of the first demo starts at december 2001 and continues to april 2002.

Drummer, spring 2002.
For me this journey started at early 2002, at the time i was without a clear direction with my musical interests and friends to play with... Then with the help of new technological wonder of digital collective consciousness i found this band, young guys like myself, playing some sort of mixture of extreme underground metal, and these guys stated at their website they are looking for a drummer.

Without much hesitation i sent these guys an email. That resulted to a meeting between me and Janne. I was accepted as a full time drummer right away and that meant end time for the drummachine and for me it meant one step closer to my dream of becoming a musician.

First demo gets immortalized.
The ongoing recordings of the first demo release were already underway when i joined. This was done at "Rasa" homestudio.. due to my late joining to the group, only performance for me on the first demo was one vocaltrack on second song "Sysimusta yö." This demo(Pohjoisen Hämärän Sarastus) was very limited and low budget, ony 40 copies were made, which were mostly distributed to friends and some local recordshops. The music was very different from what it is today, mainly melodic, fastpaced black metal. The lyrics were mostly your usual black metal lyrics, with some original touches.. The lyrics were mostly written by Janne, but Jussi Sinkkonen, our longtime lyricist to be, wrote lyrics for the song "Kristallitaivas."

Duo, autumn 2002.
Sakari Harju leaves the band, due to his lack of motivation and time to concentrate on music writing, leaving me and Janne as a duo. It was a letdown, because Sakari was talented and differently talented than Janne.(Sakari was great with solos and Janne has always been more into rythmic and tight riffs) Despite this loss we carried on and writing of new material for second demo started. That time was groundbreaking for our musical direction, besides of change in sound to more organic one and the added diversity in songmaterial, our goal became clear; to include tradional instruments and lyrics to our vision of metal music we love.

Noitakansa, winter 2002-2003.
Writing of the second demo was well underway and resulted in four brand new songs, 18 minutes of new material, enough for the recordings.. The search for decent studio was, luckily to us, quite quick and easy. Our friends in the underground metal scene here had used services of a nice little studio just "next door." After some phonecalls and deals about payments etc. we were all set.. The recording session was decided to be held at 17th - 18th January 2003 in Media Workshop, Joutseno. It was my and Janne's first experience of a real studio environment and thanks to a talented and experienced studio engineer we had, the result was extremely pleasing at the time. Both performance and the production was more than enough for a starting band. The release of this demo was really smooth and quick process, with only a slight delay with mixing, which was done by Matti Peltonen(R.I.P.). A pressing of 200 copies, pro quality booklet and decent production resulted in few good reviews and to growing interest among friends and the scene.

In search of new sound and full line-up, summer - autumn 2003. 
At this time it became clear that deeper style changes and a need for full line-up is a requirement for our future endeavours... The language choice was clear since the day one. Go Finnish, or go home! The slight folk tradition feel we had, plus the somewhat traditional sounding lyrics seemed to be the way to go.

At the summer of 2003, we found a new member, Taneli Kejonen, as our second guitarist. His skill was with 7-string guitar, and this later on showed to be a very significant thing for our sound, a thing which we shall be thankful to him for the rest of our days. Soon after with help of our newfound guitarist we found a fulltime vocalist, Niko Kuljuntausta.

With this four member line-up we started writing material for yet another demo, this time backed up by mouthharp, acoustic and 7-string guitars, a vocalist, piano instead of keyboards and more members to divide our workload, the songmaterial made was a lot stronger than before. At these times a choice was made to deepen our lyrical side and start using ancient rune-singing type lyrics and poems in our work.

Pohjola Kotimme, Luonto Emomme, Pimeys Veljemme Ja Kirves Turvamme, autumn 2003.
We looked for a studio to record our 3rd demo, but at some point we decided to do this by ourselves. Taneli arranged a digital 8 track recorder/mixer, some good quality mics were borrowed from Media Workshop and so on... The demo was recorded in our rehearsal place and got the name "Pohjola kotimme, luonto emomme, pimeys veljemme ja kirves turvamme" It was released at 2004 as a 299 piece pressing and got even more attention than the previous one. The production was quite weak, your usual demoband rehearsal room quality. Despite the lack of quality the reviews and feedback in general were positive. This demo raised attention of some record labels too and resulted to negotiations for a full length album. So the possibility and need for another demo was obsolete and work for a full length album was started. ("Pohjola Kotimme..." demo was also released as a C-cassette through our own label and distribution Varjot Productions, which was just about to take its first steps. This special cassette version included exclusive rehealsal material as well.)

The fifth member and the debute longplay, 2004 - 2005.
Need for a fulltime bassist arised from previous experiences with recordings and rehearsals. Janne used to deal with the basstracks before, but it seemed that a fulltime bassist was to be our next goal with further completing our line-up. Petri "Hiienkirnu" Immonen was then found to punish the 5-string. Writing of the songs for first album was finished late 2004, and at January 2005 we were ready for recordings. Suitable studio was then found after some negotiations with few different people, it was chosen, that the sessions will take place at Demoncave studio, which was also used by Horna and Battlelore as their reheasal room at the time. The engineer/mixer was to be Arttu Pulkkinen. Recordings started at January 2005 and went on til April of same year. The mastering was done at Sonic House studio. Negoatiations with various labels were troublesome, which delayed the release til autumn 2005. We signed one album record deal with Finnish indie label Nocturnal Woodlands Productions. The album was released as a 1000 copy pressing. The feedback was controvertial as usual, we gave some interviews, fanbase was growing, again overall reaction was mainly positive. The "Auringon Hauta" album was sort of self titled and this planted the seed for our name change later on. Material was more diverse than before, new instruments were used, Kantele, Flutes, some percussion pieces and ambient sounds were first time introduced to our sound. The album was themed one, lyrics were deeper than before and they relied more on rune-singing tradition. Jussi Sinkkonen wrote some lyrics once again..

The full line-up breaks, late 2005
At the same time with making process of our debute we already had plans for next release, which was to become a full length split album with death metal band Fornjotr. Before its recordings took place, Petri Immonen left the band to concetrate on his main band Gaurithoth. Without a fulltime bassist Janne took the bass as his responsibility once again.

Kaksi Perkelettä, July 2005 to July 2006
The split album known by the title "Kaksi Perkelettä" was delayed a lot, there were various problems with labels, Fornjotr changing their name to F, problems with mastering to name a few and so on.. The album was finally released through our Varjot Productions in july 2006 as a 1000 copy pressing. This album was a slight change in our sound compared to debute, more death metal influences were used. This was to became also the last release containing new material under the Solgrav monicer.

Solgrav is dead, Long live Solgrav! Late 2006
Soon after the release of split album, the decision was finally made to change our name to our native language. This wasn't a quick or easy to decide, it was carefully thought over again and again. Originally the name was in Finnish but at the time, scandic language felt more suitable. During the demo years that feeling started to change as we slowly went further away of our original sound, at the beginnig it was fast paced, black/death metal, but after five releases and five years of work, our sound has became raw, still unmature, folktradiotionsoaked metal. And again we decided to dive deeper into traditions and originality. The name change was one of the changes. We drastically moved our image away from usual black metal look to more Finnish and traditional one, spikes and corpsepaint didnt anymore serve our needs and style..

Ideologically we stayed true to our roots, anti modern society, main religions and endorsing the nature and our traditional heritage stayed as main points of our believes which we bring forward through our music.
I have to mention to keep it clear, that we have never been and never will be anyway politically oriented because of the rotten nature of the society today.

Towards the Auringon Hauta era, autumn 2006 to 2008. 
Soon after the release of the split album we bagan to write new material for second full-legth album, it was clear that this album too is going to be themed one, this time with lot of variety in both style and sound. At this period it was decided that in a lack of fulltime bassist, Niko Kuljuntausta will take bassplaying as his responsibility besides of singing. Writing of new songs went forward nice and slow, but with steady progress. New instruments were introduced, such as many kantele's, Jouhikko(Bowed harp), different mouth harps, flutes, accordion and so on.. The songs ranged from "old" Solgrav style to totally tradition based composition. Material was a result of a long time and lot of hard work, oldest riffs were from autumn 2005 and writing process went forward all the way to the finishing touches. Recording sessions took place in our own Varjot Audio studio.

The long making process and lack of any deadlines allowed us to arrange quest artists to perform too, Our newly found lyricist Juha Jyrkäs(Jyrkäs, Poropetra, Tenava 3, also writes lyrics for Korpiklaani) came to aid us with his throat singing and kantele playing skills, our close friend Petri Ketoviita borrowed us some instruments. His wife to be, Nina Jalonen did quest vocals for one song. Also we got a superb solo guitarist Ville "Tilu" Hassinen to perform on the opening song "Veden Loihtu." All didnt go as planned, as usual, some intruments caused us troubles, mainly jouhikko and some kantele's were hard to accomplish with decent quality. Recordings started May 2007 and finished october 2008.

Best of Solgrav, signpost of our musical evolution, 2008
There was compilation tape made of the best Solgrav songs and it was released through Stuza productions as a C-cassette. This is the last release ever under the name Solgrav and we wanted it released as a celebration of our past and as a sign post of our musical evolution. The cassette is titled "Pimeys yllä pohjolan: 2001 - 2006" with exclusive artwork, original band logo etc. It was pressed only 500 copies.

First music video and a sneak peak to forthcoming album, 2008
Still working on the mixing and finishing the second album and long delays and problems with labels we decided to make a music video. The song used is titled "Köyry yö, juhla yö," telling a story of ancient Finnish midwinters party (which originally was held at around todays Halloween and later on moved close to todays midwinter/christmas as traditions developed), as such, the video became less tradiotional music video with playing parts having only minor role. The recording took place in Simpele in a cabin/small house in the middle of South Karelian wilderness, besides of the band, our lyricist and guest star Juha Jyrkäs plays a important role on this video as the master of the house. Niko Kuljuntausta's ex wife plays the lady of the house and their son Jyri is the baby. (Not many one year olds get to a music video. ;)) Our long time friend and lyricist Jussi Sinkkonen did a great job on filming and lighting. Video was released to public on youtube 10.05.2008. Feedback has been surprisingly positive about the video.

Second music video, midsummer 2009
Because of delayed release of second album and decission to use "köyry-yö" video as a promotional single we chose to make another video and delay its release to be the same day as the albums. This time we went old fashion with the video and made it to be playing oriented. The song chosen is the openng track "Veden loihtu"(The spell of water). Playing parts were filmed in North Karelia in a family summer house. The Imatra rapids and parts with the shaman(Juha Jyrkäs) were surprisingly filmed in Imatra soon after the initial filmings..

Muinaisia muisteloita, noita syntyjä syviä, 29.10.2010
After all the trouble and delay with different labels, CCP records from Sustria showed to be our label of choise and they finally released long waited second LP 29.10.2010. At the same time "Veden Loihtu" music video was released. This album is a groundbreaking accomplishment to us, on this album we have finally found the sound we will maintain in future too. The album became a sort of dream come true when it comes to songmaterial, overall performance, lyrics, feel and production. Our hard work has also been noticed by listeners and reviewers. As a Themed album, the lyrics take the listener to the depths of ancient Finnish knowledge and tradition. Many lyrics are almost totally tradition based and the rest are perfectly aligned with rune-singing style. Thanks to our lyrical masterminds, our own work with lyrics was eased and we had more time to concentrate on playing performance, which is clearly hearable when comparing to our earlier production.

The Future, 17.11.2010
At the moment we're working on our next full length, which will also be released by CCP records, the deadline is far again, we now have more than two years time to make this album.(Hopefully it wont take that long!) We're also planning to make more music videos in times to come and there has been even talk about live performances. Guest artist will perform on our future releases too. Lyrical work is now at change, our close friend and supporter Petri Ketoviita will be the poetmaster this time besides of using ancient texts.

Our sound will become slightly more death metal oriented, otherwise we have found our musical path. More work will be put on production and performance and it seems that our basic line-up will remain the same as on "muinaisia.." album. This time, more detail is also put on basstracks and vocals. To be continued....

January 2017
The band goes on hold..


RECORDINGS :

As SOLGRAV :
Pohjoisen Hämärän Sarastusn, demo 2002
Noitakansa, Demo, 2003
Pohjola Kotimme, Luonto Emomme, Pimeys Veljemme Ja Kirves Turvamme, demo 2004
Auringon Hauta, album 2005
Kaksi Perkelettä, split 2006
Pimeys yllä Pohjolan: 2001-2006, compilation 2008

As AURINGON HAUTA :
Muinaisia muisteloita, noita syntyjä syviä, album 2010
Ukon Juhla, album 2014 [ details ]


WEBSITES :

Contact : auringonhauta@gmail.com

Find more information on Sword Chant :
- Band news

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