Wintersun is a melodic> Finnish death metal band from Helsinki. It was originally formed in 2003 by guitarist, keyboardist and singer Jari Mäenpää as a side group for Ensiferum for whom he was a singer and guitarist. In 2003, Mäenpää collected songs he had recorded in 1995. He sent the demos to Kai Hahto, a former member of Rotten Sound, who agreed to play the drums.
After getting a contract, Mäenpää starts recording a first album. The Ensiferum tour supporting their album Iron delaying the group's recordings, Mäenpää then decides to leave Ensiferum> to devote himself to the production of the eponymous album Wintersun .
Jari Mäenpää forms Wintersun in 2003>. He chooses the name "Wintersun" from a name list proposed by a friend> explaining that Winter reflects the cold, magical and melancholy side of his music, and Sun : the universe and space>. After being contacted by Mäenpää, Kai Hahto becomes the session drummer of the group. Together, they record demos for the songs Winter Madness, Beyond the Dark Sun and Death and the Healing, which they send to Nuclear Blast. The label offers them a contract for the production of several albums with the constraint of producing a demo of three tracks before each album.
Despite winning a contract with Nuclear Blast, Mäenpää wants Wintersun to remain a side project, to focus on his main band Ensiferum, in which he plays the role of singer and guitarist. But after the release of the album Iron, the label of Ensiferum, Spinefarm Records, program a European tour whose dates are in competition with the recording of the album Wintersun of the group of the same name. Jari Mäenpää then asks for a break from Ensiferum >>>, and he is finally forced to leave the latter>. Jari Mäenpää then focuses on recording the album despite the absence of other official members. So he himself records all the instruments (except the battery, provided by Kai Hahto). Three different studios were used to record Wintersun . The album is published on September 13, 2004> and wants to be very heteroclite with several genres represented: viking / folk metal, melodic death metal, black metal, power metal even symphonic metal.
