Rapture is a

doom metal Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...

melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...

band formed in 1997 in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

History

In 1999, Rapture signed a contract with

Spinefarm Records Spinefarm Records is a Finnish independent record label focusing mainly on heavy metal artists. It is a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. History Spinefarm Records was originally founded in 1990 by Riku Pääkkönen as a mail-order distrib ...

and released their debut album, ''Futile'', in late 1999. The album was also licensed to

Relapse Records Relapse Records is an American independent record label based in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. It was founded by Matthew F. Jacobson in 1990. The label features many grindcore, death metal, metalcore and sludge metal artists. History The label was ...

for distribution outside of

. In early 2002, the band recorded their second effort, titled ''Songs for the Withering''. This album sold better than their debut and gave Rapture recognition beyond the local scene, eventually leading them to sign a contract with

Century Media A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

. Rapture released their third album, ''Silent Stage'', in 2005. This album continued in the vein of the previous two, with a morose, depressive atmosphere and a combination of both clean vocals and

death growl A death growl, or simply growl, is an extended vocal technique usually employed in extreme styles of music, particularly in death metal and other extreme subgenres of heavy metal music. Death growl vocals are sometimes criticized for their ...

s. The band is currently without a record label.

Members

Current members

* Petri Eskelinen – vocals * Tomi Ullgren – guitar * Aleksi Ahokas – guitar * Pete Raatikainen – drums

Former members

* Henri Villberg – vocals *

Jarno Salomaa Jarno Salomaa, also credited as J.S,, is a Finnish musician. He formed the funeral doom metal group Shape of Despair in 1995 under the name Raven (not to be confused with the NWOBHM band, Raven). Salomaa's first role was guitars and synth in Ra ...

– guitar * Joni Öhman – bass * Sami Hinkka – bass * Samuel Ruotsalainen – drums

Discography

*''Broken Daydream'' (Demo, 1998) * ''Futile'' (1999) * ''Songs for the Withering'' (2002) * ''Silent Stage'' (2005)

External links

Rapture
at

Encyclopaedia Metallum Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives (commonly known as Metal Archives per the URL or abbreviated as MA) is an online encyclopedia based upon musical artists who predominantly perform heavy metal music along with its various sub-genres. E ...

Rapture
at Myspace Finnish doom metal musical groups Finnish melodic death metal musical groups Musical groups established in 1997 Musical quintets {{Metal-music-stub