Excalion Primal Exhale (2005) @320

1.Temptation Wasteland
2.A Moment in the Spotlight
3.Reality Bends
4.Dire Waters
5.Stage of LIes
6.Heart & Home
7.Megalomania
8.My Legacy
9.Obsession to Prosper
10.Luopio (bonus)

Excalion was born in December 2000 in Konnevesi, central Finland. Keyboard player Jarmo "Jappe" Myllyvirta had written some melodic power metal-style songs and began looking for a group to play his ideas aloud. So it happened that four people gathered in a tiny rehearsal room: Jappe, drummer Henri Pirkkalainen, bassist Timo Sahlberg and guitarist Tero Vaaja. After some playing, some chatting and some playing again, those four people realized that they had a band. For reasons that have partly escaped everyone, the band was named Excalion.

The next obvious task was to find someone to sing the songs. Solution was near. Jarmo Pkknen was a guy known of his big voice; Jarmos former band had recently split up, so he was available to join the band. .

Excalion played its first gig ever in spring 2001 at Tyventalo, Konnevesi. Apart from Excalions own songs, the setlist included Stratovarius covers and some Nightwish songs without vocals (!) Soon after this Excalion acquired its full line-up when Kimmo Hnninen, who had played together with Jarmo before, joined the band as guitarist. In autumn 2001 Excalion recorded their first demo. This was done at Studio Kaktus near Jyvskyl, where they had two days to record and mix three songs: Forlorn, Heart & Home and Sinners Symphony.

In autumn 2002 Excalion started to make their second demo, this time with their own equipment and studio software. The unwillingness to pay large fees for studio time led the band to learn how to do things independently and experiment. The demo was worked in short sessions all the time through spring 2003.

This demo was convincing enough. At the end of 2003 the band signed a deal with Sound Riot Records, and the recording of Excalions debut album was fixed at autumn 2004. The tracks to be recorded included brand new songs written during 2004 and some reworkings of the older songs. The work was done at Studio Watercastle in Jyvskyl in September.

The debut album, which was named Primal Exhale, was released in autumn 2005. The album ended up featuring ten tracks. The album received some very positive feedback.

Early 2005, before the release, changes in the line-up took place. Kimmo decided he wanted to leave the band because of lack of time and motivation, and Excalion had to look for a new guitar player. When bassist Timo soon also left the band and new, excellent guitarist Vesa Nupponen joined in, the decision was made that Tero would switch to bass, and Excalion would continue as a five-member band with one guitar. The decision was ultimately very easy, because the new line-up immediately started to work extremely well.

May 2006 was time for recordings of band´s second album Waterlines. Recordings took place once again in Watercastle Studio. During the fall 2006 it came clear that album had potential and some bigger record companies were interested in licensing the album. Eventually Limb Music licensed the album. Release date is scheduled 2nd of March 2007.