Eternal Tears of Sorrow (commonly abbreviated to EToS) was a Finnish melodic death metal band formed in Pudasjärvi.
Biography
The band was formed in 1994 by Jarmo Puolakanaho, Altti Veteläinen and Olli-Pekka Törrö, after various projects that featured people who became members of Eternal Tears of Sorrow. Andromeda, a first death/doom/thrash metal project, had been put on hold in late 1992 because the rehearsal place had burned down. They could not find a new rehearsal place in their hometown, so the three members started a new side-project (M.D.C.) and recorded a demo tape, Beyond the Fantasy, in autumn 1993.
In spring 1994, they recorded a new demo, The Seven Goddesses of Frost. Then the band decided to change their name to something they felt more appropriate opting for Eternal Tears of Sorrow. Between 1994 and 1996 the band had a couple of songs on some compilation CDs in Europe and Canada, and recorded their debut, Sinner's Serenade. It took more than a year for the debut album to get released by X-Treme Records, After releasing four albums, the band announced they were taking a break just after the release of A Virgin and a Whore; however, they broke up in January 2003.
In February 2005, the band announced they were going to make a comeback. Their fifth album, Before the Bleeding Sun, was released in April 2006 (excluding releases in Russia and Japan that were released later). This album also went to the Finnish Album Top 40 charts, to No. 26. The band added two session members since Petri Sankala and Janne Tolsa were unavailable at that time.
In late 2008, the band announced that Jarmo Kylmänen (who had been part of the band's song-writing team since 2005) had joined the band as an official member. Soon after that, their long-time drummer Petri Sankala left because of back pain. In early April 2009, it was reported that Risto Ruuth had left the band. They found a replacement, Mika Lammassaari, and started rehearsing for the postponed live shows originally planned for May.
The band's sixth album, Children of the Dark Waters, came out in May 2009 through Suomen Musiikki in Finland, Massacre Records in the rest of Europe, and Marquee/Avalon in Asia. A new single, "Tears of Autumn Rain," was released in Finland and Japan as well as on the band's MySpace page. The other track on the single was a re-recorded version of "Vilda Mánnu" from their second album. Children of the Dark Waters charted at No. 19 at the Finnish Album Top 40 charts.
The seventh album, Saivon Lapsi, was released in February 2013.
On 2 February 2025, the band had announced on their social media that they had disbanded.
Band members
Final lineup
- Altti Veteläinen – vocals, bass (1994–2025)
- Jarmo Puolakanaho – guitars (1994–2025)
- Risto Ruuth – guitars (2005–2009, 2018–2025)
- Janne Tolsa – keyboards (2005–2025)
- Jarmo Kylmänen – clean vocals (2008–2025)
- Juho Raappana – drums (2008–2025)
Former
- Olli-Pekka Törrö – guitars (1994–1999)
- Antti-Matti Talala – guitars (1999–2000)
- Pasi Hiltula – keyboards (1999–2003; session 2009–2010)
- Antti Kokko – guitars (2000–2003), bass (session 1997–1998)
- Petri Sankala – drums (1999–2008; session 1997–1998)
- Mika Lammassaari – guitars (2009–2018)
Session
- Pekka Kokko – bass guitar (1999)
- Heidi Määttä – keyboards (2000)
- Juha Kylmänen – clean vocals (2001)
- Veli-Matti Kananen – keyboards (2006–2007; 2010)
- Tuomo Laikari – drums (2006–2007)
Timeline
<timeline>
ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:18
PlotArea = left:100 bottom:80 top:15 right:15
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1994 till:02/02/2025
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
Colors =
id:bass value:claret legend:Harsh_vocals,_bass
id:voc value:red legend:Clean_vocals
id:gtr value:teal legend:Lead_guitar
id:gtr2 value:brightgreen legend:Rhythm_guitar
id:kbd value:purple legend:Keyboards
id:drums value:orange legend:Drums
id:Lines value:black legend:Studio_album
id:other value:gray(0.5) legend:Other_release
Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4
ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1994
ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1995
LineData =
at:01/10/1997 color:black layer:back
at:01/12/1998 color:black layer:back
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at:01/09/2001 color:black layer:back
at:01/03/2006 color:black layer:back
at:01/05/2009 color:black layer:back
at:01/02/2013 color:black layer:back
at:01/05/1994 color:other layer:back
at:01/10/1994 color:other layer:back
BarData =
bar:Altti text:"Altti Veteläinen"
bar:JarmoK text:"Jarmo Kylmänen"
bar:Olli text:"Olli-Pekka Törrö"
bar:AnttiT text:"Antti-Matti Talala"
bar:AnttiK text:"Antti Kokko"
bar:Risto text:"Risto Ruuth"
bar:Mika text:"Mika Lammassaari"
bar:JarmoP text:"Jarmo Puolakanaho"
bar:Pasi text:"Pasi Hiltula"
bar:Janne text:"Janne Tolsa"
bar:Petri text:"Petri Sankala"
bar:Juho text:"Juho Raappana"
PlotData =
width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)
bar:Altti from:start till:01/03/2003 color:voc width:3
bar:Altti from:start till:01/03/2003 color:bass
bar:Altti from:01/02/2005 till:end color:bass
bar:JarmoP from:start till:01/03/2003 color:gtr2
bar:JarmoP from:start till:01/03/1999 color:kbd width:3
bar:JarmoP from:01/02/2005 till:end color:gtr2
bar:Olli from:start till:01/03/1999 color:gtr
bar:Olli from:start till:01/03/1999 color:kbd width:3
bar:Petri from:01/03/1999 till:01/03/2003 color:drums
bar:Petri from:01/03/2005 till:01/12/2008 color:drums
bar:Pasi from:01/03/1999 till:01/03/2003 color:kbd
bar:AnttiT from:01/03/1999 till:01/11/2000 color:gtr
bar:AnttiK from:01/11/2000 till:01/03/2003 color:gtr
bar:JarmoK from:01/03/2005 till:end color:voc
bar:Janne from:01/03/2005 till:end color:kbd
bar:Risto from:01/03/2005 till:01/03/2009 color:gtr
bar:Risto from:18/09/2018 till:end color:gtr
bar:Juho from:01/12/2008 till:end color:drums
bar:Mika from:01/05/2009 till:18/09/2018 color:gtr
</timeline>
Discography
Studio albums
- Sinner's Serenade (1997)
- Vilda Mánnu (1998)
- Chaotic Beauty (2000)
- A Virgin and a Whore (2001)
- Before the Bleeding Sun (2006)
- Children of the Dark Waters (2009)
- Saivon Lapsi (2013)