The story of Silentium goes back to December 1995 into the ashes of a death/gothic metal band called Funeral. From the remains of Funeral, keyboardist Sami Boman and original vocalist Matti Aikio created Silentium by adding violin player Jani Laaksonen, guitar players Toni Lahtinen & Juha Lehtioksa and drummer Jari Ojala into the line-up.


Silentium's first recording was the four-song-demo-tape ``Illacrimó” which was released in the end of year 1996. Their second, six-song Ep-tape ”Caméne Misera” was released in 1998 and featured female vocals by Tiina Lehvonen who then became a permanent member of the band. This second tape caught the attention of Sami Tenetz who was at the time setting up his record label Spikefarm. After some negotiations Silentium signed a deal with Spikefarm and their first Spike-release ``Infinita Plango Vulnera`` in 1999 had the honor of becoming Spikefarm's first CD, NAULA001. The record also introduced the new drummer, Janne Ojala.

``Infinita Plango Vulnera`` got extremely good feedback, pleasing goths worldwide, as did its successors, the 2001 CD ``Altum`` and Altum's little sister, the ``SI.VM E.T A.V.VM `` mini-CD.

Silentium headed to the Walltone studios of Savonlinna, Finland in January 2003 to record their third full-length album ``Sufferion - Hamartia of Prudence``. This was the first time they decided to use a non-member producer for their album: Tuomas Holopainen of Nightwish.
``I felt I needed an outsider's view for my songs and Tuomas crossed my mind. He's definitely one of the greatest song writers in the scene, and has also showed interest towards our music. While Nightwish was on a break, he also had the time and the passion to do this project.``, says Sami.

Before the recordings took place Silentium suffered a major setback : Tiina Lehvonen took a time-out from Silentium for personal reasons. The leading part of Prudence in ``Sufferion`` was then given to Tanya a.k.a ms Whisper Lilith of Soulgrind, and a second female vocalist Maija Turunen was also asked to join the recording process.

Mixing of the album was done in February 2003 by Walltone's Tuomo Valtonen and Tuomas Holopainen. ``Sufferion - Hamartia of Prudence`` was then finished by Mika Jussila at Finnvox studios, and the results are unlike anything heard on the field of melodic goth and doom before. ``Sufferion`` is not just a melodic metal masterpiece, it's also a theatrical music experience, a tale of the star-crossed lovers Antracone and Prudence written and performed by Silentium in a true shakespearean style..