Crystalic

Crystalic is a melodic death metal band from Finland. Line-up: Lasse Heinonen - vocals (Garcharot) Toni Tieaho - guitar (Falchion) Mikko Mattila - guitar (ex-Dreamtale) Arto Tissari - fretless bass (ex-Korpiklaani, Masterstroke) Timo Hanhijoki - drums (Corpset) History: It all began in 1998 at a local youthcenter's bombshelter in Tampere. Guitarist Toni Tieaho formed Crystalic, wanting to play his kind of music. In the beginning the band suffered from a lack of interest by the other members and Crystalic was put on ice at the end of 1999. After three years of silence and Tieaho focusing on some other band projects Crystalic was resurrected in 2002, with a completely new line-up. The new line-up besides Tieaho consisted of Arto Tissari on bass, Jarno "Frank" Moberg on vocals and two session players from Masterstroke, namely Niko Rauhala on guitar and backing vocals and Janne Juutinen on drums. With this line-up the band recorded a new demo and played a few local gigs. After a while the session guys went their way to concentrate on their own band and Crystalic got a new drummer in Matti Johansson and later in 2005 Erik Grönroos on guitar. Tissari and Johansson were also both playing in Korpiklaani besides Crystalic and when the schedules with both bands were getting busy they had to make a choice which band was to be their priority. Tissari left Korpiklaani and chose Crystalic, Johansson stayed in the Klaani camp. Timo Hanhijoki was soon selected as the new drummer after convincing the guys that he was truly a perfect choice. Next, the band decided it was time to record their first full lenght album. The debut album consisted of selected tracks from two previous demos and a couple of new tunes fresh from rehearsals. Recordings took place at local MSTR-Studio with producer/engineer Jussi Kulomaa taking care of the sonical qualities. The album "Watch Us Deteriorate" was released in the beginning of 2007 by Thundering records/Manitou music. "Watch Us Deteriorate" got really good reviews in the media and the biggest Finnish internet metal community imperiumi.net picked Crystalic as the newcomers of 2007. All was still not in place though as guitarist Grönroos decided to leave the band in the autumn. Quick replacement was soon found in Mikko Mattila (ex-Dreamtale) and the band could return to the stages. Crystalic warmed up the stage multiple times for acts like Before the Dawn and played shows together with Gloria Morti, Pressure Points and Sightless. Around christmas 2007 between shows the band also filmed their first music video for "Severe Punishment". The next few months would prove really difficult for the band as vocalist Moberg decided to leave Crystalic citing personal reasons. It was without a doubt the hardest period in the band's history, but giving up was never even considered an option. A temporary replacement was found in the form of Matti Auerkallio (ex-Farmakon, Soulfallen), the band rehearsed some new material and started planning the recording of a new album. The recordings for the second album started in December 2008 with Auerkallio engineering and again the band producing by themselves. However during the sessions it was discovered that things with Auerkallio didn't really work out as they should have. So it was decided to halt the recordings and start the process of getting a vocalist, that would fit better in the big boots left by Moberg. After a long search and many candidates Crystalic finally found what they were looking for. Lasse Heinonen took over the vocal duties and the recordings continued at the familiar MSTR-Studio. In October 2009 a roughmix promo was finished and the band began searching for a new record deal. After an endless and work filled search for a new label the band was really fed up with all the rip-off deals being offered. In august 2010 it was decided to release the new album "Persistence" as a free download on the internet.