1993-2001

1993-1994

Deuteronomium was born in 1993, when brothers Manu (bass, vocals) and Jarno Lehtinen (drums) started making extreme death metal with christian lyrics. The name of the band is the name of the fifth book of Moses, and as some may know, also three other of them have been used as a band name: Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus. The actual reason for picking that name for the band was, however, not so glamorous: it just looked like a perfect name for a death metal -band: it was long, cool and difficult.

Well, two men usually don’t make a band, so brothers started looking for some guitarists for the band. Quite soon they’d got two of ‘em: Miika Partala and Tapio Laakso . With this lineup they started rehearsing the songs that Manu had made, and in the autumn of 1993 they went into studio recording their first demo tape. The demo, Paths Of Righteousness , was released in December, a bit after their first gig in Laukaa, the home county of the brothers on December 3.

The first lineup-changes took place in early 1994 when Jarno moved to another part of Finland because of his studies. At this point also Tapio left the band. The remaining members, Manu and Miika, have become the heart of the band in time. In this time guitarist Kalle Paju also joined the band for the first time. They played one gig with Miika in the drums and his friend Ali Hassinen as a session guitarist in the other guitar on May 31. Unfortunately Deuteronomium lost their rehearsal place, and as they couldn’t find another one, the band sort of fell asleep for a while.

1995-1997

In the late 1995 Manu and Miika decided to activate the band again, and also agreed that Miika would handle the lead vocals. They decided to record some new songs and asked Jarno to help them with the drums. As a result, the second demo tape Crosshope was released in early 1996. During the same year they got Johnny Pesonen as a session drummer and Jari Mantour joined the band as the second guitarist. With this lineup they played two gigs in their hometown Jyvaskyla. After them Jari left the band, and Deuteronomium played two more gigs as a trio.

In January 1997 the band went into Studio Watercastle in Jyvaskyla, to record their first EP. This 4-song CD, Tribal Eagle, was released in early summer. It was the first CD-release from a christian metal band in Finland, soon becoming a classic release in the scene, and also gaining the first foreign fans for the band.

During the time Tribal Eagle was released, Kalle Paju re-joined and drummer Janne-Jussi Kontoniemi joined the band, and the lineup settled into the current form. During 1997 Deuteronomium played 8 gigs with bands like Dust Eater Dogs, Terapia, Dark Liturgy and No Man’s Band.

1998

In March 1998 the band went into studio again to record their debut album. The album Street Corner Queen was released on May 20 in Lutakko , the biggest rock club in their hometown, under Manu’s and Miika’s new record label, Little Rose Productions . As a curiosity: on the album release show Manu’s sister Meira jumped onto the stage during the song III and cut off Manu’s long hair! So he started the gig as long-haired and ended it as bald. Both the other members of the band and the audience were quite shocked to see that happen…

Street Corner Queen was very diverse album musically, and because of that some loved it, some hated it. However, it sold pretty well and during years, three different versions of it has been released.

During that year they played 9 gigs and also spent a lot time writing, composing, arranging and rehearsing songs for the following album.

1999

In January and February was spent recording and mixing the new album. From the midst of the recordings they were offered a chance to support Sentenced in Lutakko, which they gladly accepted. In early spring they released single …To Die And Gain to promote the new album. The album itself, Here To Stay , was released in April and supported with a mini-tour and some separate gigs around Finland. Musically the new album differs from the debut like day differs from the night. Whereas SCQ was a mixture of many musical styles, HTS was very solid package of tractor pulling death’n roll, sounding a bit like Entombed with death metal vocals. And again, the album split opinions. Some liked it more than SCQ, some were disappointed in Deuteronomium’s new style.

In late June the band played their first gigs outside of Finland as they travelled to Holland to play two shows there. On the second one they supported christian metal legends Mortification at Nighttown -club in Rotterdam. Only a few days later they played with Mortification again, this time in Finland. Little Rose Productions had organized the gig to Pakkahuone -club in Tampere, where the bands performed for around 500 people.

In November Deuteronomium played in front of almost 1000 people at Maata Nakyvissa -festivals in Turku.

In 1999 also the sold out Tribal Eagle -ep and Street Corner Queen -album were released as a digipak-album with a cover song Red River, originally recorded by american punk-thrash band One Bad Pig .

2000

The new millenium started under bad signs, since Miika decided to leave the band because of some difficulties and disagreements that the band hadn’t been able to solve. However, he agreed to play the upcoming gigs that were already booked, so in late March the band played at Bobfest in Stockholm, Sweden with bands like Antestor, Veni Domine, Crimson Moonlight etc. In early summer also J-J decided to leave the band for the same reasons than Miika. Also he agreed to play the remaining gigs, and in June Deuteronomium returned to Holland, where they played at De Baroeg -club in Rotterdam on June 30 – as the first christian band that has ever played at that metal club. The next day they performed on the main stage at Seaside -festival in Norway , right before Narnia .

At the end of July the band made their last trip at that time, which took them to Germany , where they played three gigs: in Oelsnitz at Heavy Und Biker -club on July 20, and the next day in Stuttgart, Che -club with Sacrificium. Their last gig was played at Freakstock -festival at Gotha.

Paradoxically, that was propably also their best live performance ever.

Markus “Black Raven” Vainionpaa wins air guitar world championship with Deuteronomium’s song Crosshope .

2001

Deuteronomium announced on their website that the band is officially dead. The band members continued making music with other bands and project, some more actively, some more as a hobby.