Eternal Tears of Sorrow (commonly abbreviated to EToS) is a Finnish symphonic death metal band formed in Pudasjärvi in Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland. Romantic lyrics and soft keyboard melodies show gothic metal influence.
The band was formed in 1994 by Jarmo Puolakanaho, Altti Veteläinen and Olli-Pekka Törrö, after some various projects that featured several people that later were members of Eternal Tears of Sorrow. Andromeda, a first death/doom/thrash metal project, had been put on hold in late 1992 because the rehearsal place had burned down. They could not find a new rehearsal place in their home town, so the three members started a new sideproject (M.D.C.) and recorded a demo tape, Beyond The Fantasy in autumn 1993.
In spring 1994, they recorded a new demo, The Seven Goddesses of Frost. Then the band decided to change their name to something they felt more serious, Eternal Tears of Sorrow. Between 1994 and 1996 the band had a couple of songs on some compilation CDs in Europe and Canada, and recorded their debut, Sinner's Serenade. It took more than a year for the debut album to get released by X-Treme Records, a small underground label from Gothenburg in Sweden. After they recorded their second album (with their own money), Vilda Mánnu, Spinefarm Records approached the band and soon they signed a deal with the label.
Like a mother takes care of her children, the nightwind cries for her
Hear those silent whispers... Like an infant's very first words
Light a candle for those who once were, and the dreams that never came true
Hear the silent crying of souls who lost their way home
See a child and how he dies under the shade of a birch
The silent nightwind's lullaby rocks the cradle of this world
Like a falling star of darkness gives the final sign of its life
This forsaken child of the full moon searching for a peaceful place to die
He sees a tree, the mighty one, like the one of his early years
Now he feels the safe under the tree and calls his mother wind
Chorus
See the circle of light and the child and his heart full of nightly peace
Hear the divine tune, the prettiest one, the nightwind's nightly verse
Light a candle for those who once were (and their) hopeful dreams that never came true
Hear the silent weeping of souls who lost their way home