After releasing Hwainoo, Japanese Soundholic records got interested of it and wanted to license Hwainoo to Japan and so it was seen 25th September: first official Ultimatium release in Japan, with a bonus track. Before that, Ultimatium was able to get their pack together for a couple of gigs. First one in Hevimesta, Oulu, was a great blast of live powermetal at its best and audience and even we were stunned of how our energy on stage. Another gig took place on very birthplace of Ultimatium, in Suomussalmi. Ultimatium performed a petrol scented show in Heikki Kovalainen karting race. Bass player for those gigs was Sauli Jauhiainen, our to-be second guitarist.
At the time, Hwainoo was getting more and more interest abroad and received couple of stunning reviews, especially from USA, but other countries seemed to like Hwainoo more than expected. Unfortunately, this didn’t show up as new licensing deals or even distribution deals to Europe & USA. Nevertheless, it seemed as Hwainoo was available worldwide, thanks to Soundholic’s japan-versions finding many import shops across the globe.
As there were no new gigs confirmed, band decided late 2008 to start looking towards third album. Hard drive was filled up with songs and there was enough material to make even three albums, but as Matti started picking up the diamonds from the pile of songs, it was obvious that third album would shift to heavier powermetal, with bit more leaning to progressive stuff, because that was starting to become the sound of the band in rehearsals and overall feelings were, that we want and especially can go to darker shadows. Of course, the fact that we had two guitarists now, had a lot to do with new songs, as Matti was able to write more and more guitar riffs with harmonies and stuff.
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