A fusion of two bands in the fall of 1994 lead to the birth of Contrast. The drummer, Saku Holmqvist and bassist, Kim Haglund, of Etmo-6 were already friends with Mikko Tamminen (keyboards and programming) and Sami Halmesmäki (vocals), previously of Lyrical Outlaws and as somewhat of a friend to the latter two Ove Ritola started playing the guitar.

Etmo-6 guys had a more of a metal background having played a lot of old Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden covers among their original songs whereas Lyrical Outlaws were strictly a hiphop-act. So it isn't much of a surprise that in the beginning the music was fairly simple and direct blend of metal and rap but as the band developed both musically and as players were they forced to depart with Sami as his views on Contrast and its music differed greatly to the rest of the crew. The new vocalist, Ilkka Kujansivu, fit in nicely as the band were close friends with him already and had former experience as a vocalist in a couple of hiphop projects.

This line-up change brought also other changes with it; Mikko started to get on the mic on some songs and majority of the old songs were scrapped. The remaining oldies were also transformed to fit the new Contrast.

The demo Contrast made in August '96 - Long Live the Win - defined the new direction in the music as the four songs on the demo were quite different from each other but still managed to sound like the same band. Also lyricwise it took a slightly different approach with the delivery being more metaphoric and indirect as opposed Sami's style of writing. The lyrics are basically about selfobservation and giving the people someting to think about rather then just giving away the answers.

In October '96 Contrast received questionable honor of finishing seventh in the official Rock championships in Finland. Check out gigs for the complete experience.

The winter '96-'97 Contrast spent writing new songs of which six were recorded in Steel Studios with Micke Wägar during three days in February/March. Just as these songs were about to be released as a demo under the title "Full Flavor" a greater tragedy than any of the band could have even had nightmares about occurred.

Late in the evening March 26th Kim Haglund passed away. Not only a bassplayer but first and foremost a loved friend among all those who knew him. As this changed the lives of all of his friends, it also caused great disturbance in the functions of Contrast, a band for which Kim's playing had been one of the key elements right from the start.

First it seemed that the band couldn't go on as before and a lot of different alternatives on the remaining four's future in music were considered with the only 100 per cent sure thing being that they would continue playing in some form or another. That is the way Kim would have wanted it. Among other choices were changing the band's name, forming a completely new band (with programming) and Mikko starting to play bass but the band agreed on keeping the name and the concept same for it was the music they loved playing and they had worked far too hard to just dump the Contrast-name. So the conclusion was that they needed a new bassist and that's what they did.

Nicklas Hägen had been playing bass in various Vaasa-bands like the old school hardcore outfit, No Support and had caught the attention of Contrast members even prior to Kim's death. He seemed to be the only guy even considered to be tried out. When asked to join, Nicke accepted and after a couple of rehearsals things started to roll again.

Contrast's comeback gig was at the Night of Arts in their hometown of Vaasa. This gig was held at the town square with them being the last performers that night. Sure, the guys weren't in the best of shapes as they'd not played a gig in six months and there was this new guy along too but they did their best and the gig proved out to be almost a perfect comeback as the audience was vast and supportive all the way through. Thanks on part of Contrast are due to all the people there that night.

In November 1997 Contrast started finally to work on their CD debut. Recorded at Martin Kantola Audio , this MCD contained five tracks which of only Taproot was an older song. In total eight songs were recorded. Also this recording was made with assistance, especially in the mixing stages, from M. Wägar.

During Christmas holidays 1997 Contrast spent a few days working on a video for Nevernever , one of the songs on the MCD. Video was mostly shot in the basement of Keltsu which is one of the locations bands come to play at in Vaasa. The shooting was made in sub-zero degrees but this didn't affect the outcome in any way as Contrast were very pleased with the outcome. The main character in the video is played by Ilkka's stepfather and the man in charge of this production was keyboardplayer and vocalist for the band, Mikko Tamminen.

The MCD Release was finally released after multiple difficulties with the sleeves and other aspects of the process in March 1998 by Hallajulkaisut.

Rest of the year 1998 Contrast spent their time mostly promoting Release and writing new songs. Nevernever was also shown on Jyrki - a musicshow on Finnish National TV.

Just like the previous year Contrast were active again during Christmas holidays of 1998. Recordings were made for eight new songs of which only two included vocals. These two were released on a compilation CD by AKL in February 1999. The recordings were made at Sugarfactory Megastudios by Contrast themselves head-honcho once again being Mikko.

Vocals, noises and more instruments were recorded throughout the spring and the final versions were finally ready in April 1999.

The new songs will probably appear in one form or another sometime this May. Stay tuned to Contrast HQ.

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