Wintersun is a Finnish heavy metal band from Helsinki originally formed as the side project of Jari Mäenpää, then-vocalist and guitarist of folk metal band Ensiferum. In 2003, Mäenpää began pulling together songs that he had been working on since 1995. These songs followed specific themes described by Mäenpää as majestic, "spacy", and melodic. While Mäenpää planned to perform and record each instrument for the first album himself, he still required a drummer. He sent demos to Kai Hahto, former member of Rotten Sound, who agreed to perform the drums. After obtaining a record deal, Mäenpää scheduled studio time to record the first album. Ensiferum's tour to support their 2004 release was scheduled at the same time, which forced Mäenpää to request time off from the band. The band instead fired him, and Mäenpää was free to go ahead with the production of his self-titled album, Wintersun. After the release of Wintersun, the band found permanent members to perform shows and promote the album, although a keyboardist would never be found. In 2006, Wintersun began work on their second and third albums, Time I and Time II, which were initially intended to be released as a single album. Recording began in May of that year, but the albums would be the recipient of years-long delays for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which was the complexity of each song's mix. Two of the band's members, drummer Kai Hahto and bassist Jukka Koskinen, are also members of symphonic metal band Nightwish. History 2003–2004: Creation and Wintersun Jari Mäenpää began Wintersun in 2003 "to make songs that make you feel like you are floating in space." Mäenpää chose the name "Wintersun" from a list a friend had produced, later explaining, "Winter reflects the cold and stormy side of the album and also the Finnish melancholy and magic. Sun is related to the 'universe, space and stars'-feel of the album, which is also strongly connected to the lyrics." Although the songs that would appear on Wintersun had collectively been written between 1995 and 2004 (see each track's respective composition dates here), Mäenpää kept his songwriting efforts primarily focused on folk metal band Ensiferum, with whom he had been playing since 1996. Mäenpää contacted Rotten Sound drummer Kai Hahto, who, upon hearing demos, agreed to work as the session drummer for Wintersun. Mäenpää and Hahto recorded demo versions of "Winter Madness", "Beyond