Sunrise was formed in 1994, which was a time of transition for Poland and Eastern Europe in general. Poland, like other East European countries, had rid itself of communism several years earlier and was adjusting to a system of capitalism and free enterprise -- and in post-communist Poland, one of the results of having more freedom was a wide variety of music flourishing. That included punk and hardcore, which had been viewed as subversive and counterrevolutionary by Poland's old Soviet-style regime back in the '80s. After months of rehearsing, Sunrise played their first gig on New Year's Eve 1995-1996. The first thing they recorded was Fire Walk with Me, a five-song demo. Generation of Sleepwalkers, the band's first full-length album, was released on Sanctuary in 1998; that disc was followed by Child of Eternity on Sober Mind Recordings in 2000 and Still Walking with Fire on the Youth Culture label in 2002. In 2003, Sunrise signed with Germany's metal-friendly Lifeforce Records, which released Decontaminate (a split CD with the Belgian straight-edge band Liar) in 2003. Traces to Nowhere, Sunrise's first full-length album for Lifeforce, came out in 2004 (the year in which the band celebrated its tenth anniversary). Along the way, Sunrise has had its share of personnel changes. In 2004, the five-man lineup consisted of Pat on lead vocals, Daniel and Piotr on guitar, Adam on bass, and Arek on drums; like a lot of musicians who play in hardcore, metalcore, and punk bands, the members of Sunrise prefer to use only their first names professionally and have been reluctant to give their last names to the media.
