In 1996, Fall of the Leafe assembled in the Finnish city of Turku with Jani Lindström handling vocals, Jussi Hänninen and Kaj Gustafsson on guitars, Juha Kouhi on bass, and Marko Hyytiä behind the drums. Their 1998 debut album Evanescent, Everfading captured the standard traits of Finnish heavy metal by blending Scandinavian death and doom techniques with folk elements and draping the results in elaborate song titles. Several demos preceded their deal with the small independent imprint Defiled, though the musicians had yet to settle on a clear artistic course. The arrival of vocalist Tuomas Tuominen and keyboardist Petri Hannuniemi introduced gothic touches to the sophomore effort August Wernicke, issued in 2000. Returning guitarist Gustafsson, who had been briefly substituted by Mika Rostedt on the previous record, joined the sessions for 2002’s Fermina, an album that refined the band’s approach and moved it nearer to the mainstream hard-rock template popularized by Finnish leaders Amorphis while retaining a distinctive edge. With Matias Aaltonen now on drums, 2004’s Volvere became the group’s first release for the English independent label Rage of Achilles Records.
