Biography
2007 Dauntless is finally signed and has their debut album on the way. Good things never come easy, they say. Let's go back to 1991 and see how it all started.
1991-1997
The band was founded in 1991 by Sami Helle (vocals/guitar) under the name Maniax, shortly thereafter joined by drummer Santeri Salmi and bassist Tuomo Tukkimäki. The first demo "Face The Fact" was released 4 years later, and the second, called "Prophecy...", in 1996. The music was some sort of hardcore-influenced thrash metal. In 1998, the initial band name was changed to Dauntless, and the music begun to seek its current shape.
1998-2001
The third demo, "Cold I Am", was released in 1998, and the band felt their line-up needed a second guitarist. Well, a lead guitarist anyway. The post was taken by Riku Katainen. In 1999 they recorded another demo called "Inhumankind". They made a couple of successful shows (including one in the national band contest) and quickly earned their reputation as an aggressive live act. However, the Finnish army intervened the plot and the band was forced to recharge their batteries until early 2002.
2002-2003
In summer 2002 the band was ready to record their fifth demo, but this time they decided to try it out with another lead vocalist. Ari Nieminen (ex-Caledonian) impressed them at the first rehearsal and the search promptly ended. Coming to the end of the year, the demo "Modern Ways Of Discipline" was released and the first contract offers were received. None were accepted, however. In 2003 another series of successful shows followed, including the afterclub of Tuska Open Air metal festival.
2004
Summer 2004 saw the band recording, yes, their sixth demo. "Ruins MMIV" and the video clip of the song "Ruins" gathered interest from many directions and supposedly more unreasonable record contracts were offered. The band was chosen as the demo band of the month in Inferno; this is where we started.
"Demo band of the month" in Inferno, the biggest metal magazine in Finland. 2005: "Best unsigned band in 2004" according to the annual voting in Noise.fi. 2006: "Demo of the month", again, this time in Imperiumi.net. Second consecutive title for the "best unsigned band" at Noise.fi.
2005-2006
In 2005 the original bass player Tuomo Tukkimäki left the band and was shortly after replaced by Olli Määttä, who stood his trial at the afterclub of Tuska (it was the second time Dauntless played there). The seventh demo "Obey - Erase - Obey" was released, and the band once again returned to their persistent quest for a decent record deal.
This time it finally happened. The Finnish label Firebox Records signed Dauntless, and sent them to the studio in late 2006 to record their debut album "Execute The Fact". The album compiles some of their most wanted songs from the demo times with a few unheard ones, and is a total death/thrash assault that surpasses everything Dauntless has done so far. Hold your breath.
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