The origins of Altair date back to December 1997. Drummer Daniel Hållams and bassist Martin F knew each other from school and decided to start jamming together. A guitarist named Mathias Brinley joined the duo in early 1998, but was soon discarded in favour of Kalle Stenberg, who also went to school with Hållams and Martin. After about a year of rehearsing covers and having a few attempts at songwriting, the line-up was completed by vocalist PH Andersson, a friend of Hållams. The musical style of the band at this point in time was speed metal with clean vocals and only some elements of thrash. Cover songs played at rehearsals included Running Wilds "Under Jolly Roger", Powermads "Slaughterhouse" and an infamous version of Judas Priests "Breaking the Law" played in less than 90 seconds.
Around the turn of the millennium, the bands music gradually turned more aggressive. While rehearsing a version of the Exodus song "Piranha", we discovered a completely new and more brutal side of Anderssons voice, which we started to incorporate into new compositions. Many old songs were scrapped in favour of harder and thrashier material.
In October 2003, we played live for the first time (not counting that drunken 1 song appearance at "Brankan" in 2001. hrm...), at a small indoor festival just outside our native Stockholm.
Soon after, a rough demo recording made back in the spring of 2002 was accepted for a compilation album. The American record label Metal Inquisition Records requested a proper studio recording of the band, and in September 2004, the track "Manicfesto" was recorded in Stockholm Sound Recording. Four months later, Altair returned to the studio to record "The Icecream Man" and "Scorch and Burn", completing our first somewhat professional demo.
None of the songs were released, however, since Metal Inquisition Records ceased to exist just as the recordings had been completed.
In May 2006, "Manicfesto" and "The Icecream Man" were finally made commercially available by their inclusion on the "Thrashing the Masses" sampler released by Stockholm-based Last Entertainment Productions.
In January 2007, Altair recorded four new tracks for another demo: "Preemptive Strike", "We vs. Us", the instrumental intro "Pyroclastic Flow" and finally "Altair Attack" in which the lyrics are completely made up of song titles by classic thrash metal bands.
Two of the tracks, "Altair Attack" and "We vs. Us", were included on the "Thrashing The Masses 2" compilation released by Last Entertainment Productions in May 2007. All four tracks were then re-mixed and released on a self-financed demo EP called "Two" later that month.
