Shade Empire

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Shade Empire
Origin	Kuopio, Finland
Genre(s)	Dark metal^[1], Melodic Black metal^[2]
Years active	1999 – present
Label(s)	Dynamic Arts Records Avantgarde Music
Website	ShadeEmpire.com
Members
Juha Harju (Vocals) Janne Niiranen (Guitars) Juha Sirkkiä (Guitars) Olli Savolainen (Synths) Eero Mantere (Bass) Epi Rasane (Drums)
Former members
Antti Makkonen (Drums; 1999 - 2006) Tero Liimatainen (Guitars; 1999)

Shade Empire are a Finnish Dark Metal band, born in 1999 in the city of Kuopio.

Shade Empire's prevalent lyrical subjects are Satanism, anti-Religion, Death, Destruction, Hatred and Pain ^[3]^[4]. The music on their two official full-length releases, Sinthetic and Intoxicate O.S. bears a melodic sort of Black Metal, featuring the usage of both Electronic and Symphonic elements. Their lyrics are mainly in English, except for one song that has lyrics in Finnish, "...Ja Pimeys Laskeutui", the title of which can be translated as "...And Darkness Descended", (The last word "Laskeutui" can also be translated as "Fell", "Came" or "Landed").

The third demo CD of the band, Essence Of Pain, raised the interest of the Italian label Avantgarde Music (Mayhem, Behemoth, etc), as a result of this, their debut album Sinthetic was released on March 29, 2004 under the aforementioned label.

In 2006, the band signed with the Finnish label Dynamic Arts Records (Impaled Nazarene, Scorngrain, etc). The same year, their second album Intoxicate O.S. was released on May 24, 14 days after the release of the single Slitwrist Ecstasy. Intoxicate O.S. had moderate success, reaching #25 in weekly Finnish album sales, as stated at FinnishCharts ^[5].

After releasing the album, Shade Empire continued playing at several events such as Jörisrock and Qstock, mainly beside other Finnish artists. They also performed on a series of independent gigs.

The same year, Shade Empire played their first official concert outside of Finland, in the encompassment of the Popkomm trade show in Berlin at the Kulturbrauerei (Culture Brewery).