Catamenia

Catamenia is one of Finland's best known melodic black metal bands, founded in 1995 by original members Riku Hopeakoski and Mika T?nning in Oulu, Finland. They released their first demo album in their first active year. Their second demo, 'Winds' in 1996, lead to a four-album contract with Massacre Records in 1997.

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Their first full-length album 'Halls of Frozen North' was recorded in Commusication Studios, Germany, in 1997 with Gerhard Magin (Crematory, Mystic Circle) and was released in 1998. A year later they recorded their second album, 'Morning Crimson' (1999) in Sweden, at Sunlight Studios with Thomas Skogsberg (Katatonia, Dismember). The band's third album 'Eternal Winter`s Prophecy' was recorded in their home country in 2000 at Tico-Tico Studios with Ahti Kortelainen (Kalmah, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Dawn of Relic). Their last album for Massacre Records was entitled 'Eskhata', released in 2002, recorded in Oulu, Finland at SoundMix Studios with producer Mika Pohjola (The Black League). After the release and promotion of 'Eskhata' Catamenia renewed their contract with Massacre Records for three more albums, citing good working relations.

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Catamenia faced many line-up changes during the rehearsal of their fifth album, but their line-up steadied and again were a six-piece for its release.

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Catamenia recorded their fifth album 'ChaosBorn' at Neo Studio in Oulu, Finland with Kari V?h?kuopus and Immu Ilmarinen (Burning Point, Embraze, Afterworld, Sentenced). 'ChaosBorn' combines melodics and aggressive metal with excellent balance. After praise from media and their fans for 'ChaosBorn', 'Winternight Tragedies' was slated as their sixth studio release, again with Mastervox Studios and producers Kakke V?h?kuopus and Immu Ilmarinen.

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While working on this album the band encountered problems with collaboration, distance and lack of practice. Line-up changes were made. Vocalist Mika and bassist Timo were replaced by new vocalist O.J. Mustonen and bassist Mikko Hepo-oja.

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'Winternight Tragedies' features raw, aggressive and angry songs while still keeping the melodious background intact.

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Black metal: Black metal is a musical genre which emerged in the early 1980s predating the great expansion of heavy metal 'extreme' genres. It evolved out of thrash metal, like death metal....

Oulu: This article is about the Finnish city; for other uses see Oulu (disambiguation)....

Finland: The Republic of Finland (Finnish: Suomen tasavalta Swedish: Republiken Finland) is a Nordic country in northeastern Europe, bounded by the Baltic Sea to the southwest, the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west. Finland has land frontiers with Sweden, Norway and Russia. The...