CANAAN, consisting of Mauro (guitars, keyboards, samples and vocals), Luca (drums and keyboards) and Matteo (guitars and bass) was formed back in January 1996 after the split of RAS ALGETHI, universally known as the one of the forefathers of funeral doom and the one and only doom band ever born out of Italy. The new project's musical approach was directed towards a contamination of dark, wave and experimental music, something nobody tried before. The extremely important role played by samplers and keyboards, mixed and intertwined with "traditional" instruments (guitars, drums and bass) led CANAAN to new frontiers, disclosing a personal and peculiar way of composing music.
The band's first album BLUE FIRE (recorded in various locations and in various periods between 1995/1996 and released in November 1996 through EIBON RECORDS) came out as a pretty innovative canvas, destined mainly to open-minded listeners. Without any kind of promotion, this cd received extremely positive reviews from virtually everywhere, and reached a satisfying worldwide spreading, selling an almost incredible 5.000 copies. In May 1997, a bass player (Anthony Duman) was recruited in order to add depth to the band's rhythmic section and strengthen the songs' arrangements. With this new line-up CANAAN started (in May 1998) the recordings of the second full-length album (always under the wise supervision of sound engineer Paolo Sannazzaro), at Avatara studio in Milan. After two months of recordings, the new double cd WALK INTO MY OPEN WOMB: THE APATHY MANIFESTO was brought to completion; released by EIBON RECORDS in September 1998, this album progressed further into the fields open with BLUE FIRE, and turned out as a pretty successful release as well.
After a long break, in mid 1999 the band started new rehearsals and in March 2000, having signed a contract with the german label Prophecy Productions, CANAAN entered the studio again to record the third cd BRAND NEW BABYLON, always at Avatara Studios but this time with a new sound engineer - Max Moioli. BRAND NEW BABYLON was released in July 2000, in two different versions: a luxurious leather bookpack with 6 cards and booklet and a regular digisleeve + booklet. Once again the album was welcomed warmly - very warmly to say the truth. After a 6-months break, the band was ready to rehearse again, but had to replace on bass Tony who quit the band for lack of time. The newly acquired bass player Nico joined in February 2001 and CANAAN started composing new material for the fourth album. After a few more weeks spent with this 4-members line-up, Andrea joined on drums, Luca focused exclusively on keyboards and Mauro switched to second guitar.
