SARALEE

The foreword of the band SaraLee were pronounced in early 2000’s by the founding members Joonas (vocals), Clansman (drums) and Saurus (bass). The three had started playing together in several different projects a few years back with an alternating success. A couple of demos were made and a bunch of gigs played.
In the mentioned year Juha was hired to play the guitar. In that era the band, still operating under the name Restless, released three demos assisted by a girlie named Anne playing the keyboards and another guitar player Kimmo. This was the first line-up when in 2003 they decided to carry on under the title SaraLee.
The following years SaraLee quite rapidly increased their group of loyal followers and gigs were played more and more every year. New songs were made and and recorded. Because of the great demand, the earlier Restless-demos were put under the name SaraLee and released on a demo-collection, titled Demo(n)s (2004). The record was quite unexpectedly sold nearly 2000 copies via gigs and the band website.
In 2005 finnish Firebox Records offered the band a recording contract. The debut album Darkness Between was recorded at Studio Watercastle in Jyväskylä, Finland. The first single, titled Dance reached the finnish official single chart position 16 on it’s third week from the release. A music video was also made and it was included in Inferno magazines collectional DVD.
Darkness Between was released in july 2006. The following tour took the band all around the country, including Killerirock in Jyväskylä and Cabel Factory Halloween Party in Helsinki just to mention a few. The album was noticed both in domestic and foreign medium. Even the UK Metal Hammer released a 2-page interview on its issue and the song Cries A River was featured in the magazines CD-collection. Just before the whole debut album-rumble Anne decided to step aside to gain time on other projects. She was replaced by Arzka, also known from the band The Myth of Autumn.
In 2007 SaraLee continued touring and started to work on it’s next album. Later that year the bands form was reduded into a quintet when Kimmo and the rest of the group decided to go separate ways.
The year 2008 started and so did rehearsing of the songs that would eventually become the next album. In march SaraLee relocated in Grooveland Studios in Lahti to start the recordings with the producer Aksu Hanttu. After a couple of months of recording and post-producing and driving back and forth between Jyväskylä and Lahti the guys had the master-tape in their hands.
In june ’08 SaraLee played 2 shows during the same day, first one situated in Sataman Yö-festival in Jyväskylä and the second in a youth event in a close-by town Muurame. The latter turned out to be the end of one era in the band when Saurus announced he’d leave the band.
During the rest of the year the band have been busy doing promotional work for the upcoming album, titled Damnation to Salvation. The album will be released 19.11 and after that SaraLee will spend the end of ’08 and early ’09 on the road. On stage SaraLee will take the form of the four remaining members completed by reinforcements in the bass as well as in the keyboards, since Arzka will be seen playing the guitar from now on.
Over the years SaraLee has succeeded to attract a rather large group of dedicated listeners. For you yet unfamiliar with the band I would describe their music as an interesting mixture of strong melodies of metal and the energy and deep passion of rock music spiced up with a hint of goth every here and there