Norther formed under the name Requiem (Lindroos, Korpas, Hallio) in 1996 after various early stage band formations. The band's debut effort was the album
Dreams of Endless War, released through
Spinefarm Records in 2002. It entered the Finnish charts at number 17. At the time, Norther was playing shows only in and around the
Helsinki area. That changed when the album
Mirror of Madness came out in early 2003 (entering the Finnish charts at number 11). The group toured with
Dimmu Borgir and
Hypocrisy in late 2003. In early 2004, Norther released its third full-length album,
Death Unlimited, which reached 17 on the Finnish charts. Norther played several shows in 2005 and then recorded an EP,
Solution 7 (recorded at Astia Studio). It placed at number 5 on the Finnish charts. Norther added
Kristian Ranta's vocals afterward. In the summer of 2005, Norther entered
Studio Fredman in
Gothenburg to record their fourth full-length-album,
Till Death Unites Us, with producers
Fredrik Nordström and Patrick J. Sten. Soon after, Toni Hallio left the band to pursue other interests; Heikki Saari replaced him on drums. After its release in January 2006,
Till Death Unites Us placed at number six on the Finnish album charts. Later the same year, the band composed the theme song, "Frozen Angel", for a major Finnish feature film,
V2: Dead Angel, produced by Solarfilms, Inc. The band is also featured in the film. In February 2007, Norther released a new EP,
No Way Back, released only in Finland and Japan. The record hit number one in the Finnish charts. Later that year, they released
Amoral & Drone and supported it with a European tour. Their fifth full-length album,
N, was released in February 2008.
Petri Lindroos quit as lead vocalist in February 2009 and was replaced by Aleksi Sihvonen (ex-Imperanon) in April of that year. To mark his debut, the band released an alternate version of the song "Frozen Angel" from their previous album with Sihvonen on vocals. Their sixth studio album,
Circle Regenerated, was released on 19 April 2011. The band made their final appearance at the
Brutal Assault festival in the Czech Republic on 10 August 2012. == Band members ==