The history of REQUIEM goes back to the year 1999. REQUIEM was founded in Haapajärvi, Finland. The founder members were Arto Räisälä (guitar), Matti Auvinen (bass/vocals) and Rami Repola (drums). The band started first as a trio and in the beginning the music was Melodic Death/Power Metal with Neo-Classical vibrations. The first demo “Gods Of War” was released in the late autumn of 99.

In the beginning of 2000, Rami Repola (drums) left the band for some personal reasons. He was replaced soonly by Jari Huttunen who was then only 14 years old! In that period the music was heading into a more technical and melodic direction. So, it was a time to get a keyboard-player and a second guitarist to the band. Ahti Komu (keyboard.) and Teemu Hänninen (guitar) joined REQUIEM in the winter of 2000. With this line-up REQUIEM played a few thundering gigs and in the summer 2000 they recorded their second demo “Into The Night”. It featured 5 epic songs and it received a lot of a positive feedback worldwide.

In the late summer of 2000, REQUIEM started to look for a new lead vocalist to the band. It was because the new songs needed more clean vocals and high, catchy vocal melodies. Jouni Nikula (former MYSTERIUM vocalist/guitarist) heard that REQUIEM was looking for a new singer and he made a call to Arto Räisälä. Things progressed very fast and soon Jouni became a permanent member of the band. REQUIEM started to practice hard with the new line-up. The clean vocal parts of "Into The Night" were re-recorded and some copies were printed for promotion. A live video "Into The Stage!" was filmed in the autumn of 2000. This video was filmed by three cameras and it captured the entire show, it was also released as a limited edition for sale and promotion.

In the late 2000, REQUIEM started to write new songs for their third demo-release. Anyway, in the spring 2001, just a few weeks before it was the time to record their third demo REQUIEM signed a record deal with Sound Riot Records. So, the plans to record their third demo were cancelled. Signing the record deal was also the point when the band said finally goodbye to their Death Metal roots and started to write more Power Metal/Progressive orientated material.

The summer 2001, was a period of some major changes in the line-up. Ahti Komu was replaced by Henrik Klingenberg (keyboard). With Ahti, the things just didn’t work out anymore, so the replacement was inevitable. Matti Auvinen (one of the founder members of REQUIEM) wasn’t satisfied with the musical direction that the band was heading and he wanted still to make more Death Metal influenced music. It was clear that there was no turning back, so the separation between Matti Auvinen and REQUIEM was the only choice. Matti was replaced by Pasi Kauppinen (bass). REQUIEM played a few gigs with this brand new line-up and started to train the new material for their first studio album “The Arrival”. The debut album was recorded at Watercastle Studios, Jyväskylä, Finland in 2001 and it was mastered at Finnvox Studios, Helsinki, Finland.

The legend goes on....