Widescreen Mode

R

ock/heavy metal band Widescreen Mode from Riihimäki, Finland were one of the few Scandinavian groups that gained significant international recognition before they released any official releases. WSM, as they are also known, had 30,000 registered fans on the world's largest online community MySpace.com, when it was the largest during the mid-2000's, making them the third most popular Finnish band online - right after His Infernal Majesty and Children of Bodom. The group had been playing shows and recording demos together since the early 90s. Drummer Janne Aaltonen and guitar player Janne Lahtinen shared a thrash metal band called Aggressive Influence already in 1989. Singer Samu Brusila and bass player Janne Stenroos joined the group in 1992 when the act Fairlane was formed. Because of some career decisions and guys moving around, the band wasn't active for few years during the change of the millennium until Aaltonen called the group back together in 2003.

At the end of 2005 Widescreen Mode finished their second promotional EP Another Day, following up on their previous 2004 effort, Hello World. The EP received success and received praising reviews all over the world. In their home country most of the important music publications, such as Soundi, Rumba, Imperiumi and Rokkizine, chose it for the demo of the month and in most of the reviews the EP got four to five stars out of five. Besides this success in the reviews, Widescreen Mode also gained recognition in national and international competitions. In July 2006 WSM was also chosen to participate the national finals of the Wacken Metal Battle. The interest for the band grew rapidly after the Autumn of 2005.