Yesterday, metal mastermind Tuomas Saukkonen announced the end of the line for all of his current metal projects. Saukkonen, who has had success with the bands including Before the Dawn, Dawn of Solace and Black Sun Aeon has written some of metals greatest albums this side of the millennium including Before the Dawn's fantastic album Rise of the Phoenix which was released last year.
Saukkonen has said that he had been losing interest in Before the Dawn for some time, explaining that this is why he had so many other side projects. “At some point I realized I was keeping the band alive without feeling right anymore. I lost the passion to make music my own way. Now that Before The Dawn is done, it’s logical for me to clean the table completely and start building something from scratch again.”
From the closure of this chapter is the opening of another for Saukkonen. He has announced that he has started a new project/band called Wolfheart. Saukkonen is the sole musician in the band enabling him to maintain complete creative control and put all his focus into the one project. By starting with a clean slate, he will be able to integrate the various styles of all of his previous projects into one single entity. Saukkonen started writing for the new band late last year and has confirmed that half the albums songs have been recorded and mixed. He has also said that eventually he would like to recruit some more musicians for the purpose of touring with the new band.
A 3CD box set with a mixture of all of Saukkonens previous projects is due to be released later this year and plans for an unplugged tour have been announced for February for anyone lucky enough to be in Finland.
Here is a teaser of whats to come in future from what is considerably one of metals greatest musicians.
