Atem was formed in the winter 1995 in Kemi, a little town in northern Finland. The founding members were Olli Heikkinen and Pentti Penttilä. Line-up at the time was: Olli Heikkinen - guitar, Antti Kalasniemi - vocals, Pentti Penttilä - drums, Ilkka Kuusisto - Bass and Petri Lackman - guitar.

In the beginning the name was different but after Petri moved away in 1999 the name was changed. In the year 2000 Mikael Laukkanen joined the band filling the gap of the second guitar. Three years later Mikael was forced to left the band for the same reasons as Petri before him. In summer 2004 Petri visited the band line-up during the recording of the "Pedon Laulu". Six months later Henri Mäki-Jokela stepped into the guitarists shoes.

Back in the days Olli composed most of the material but now almost everyone is involved. The songs are arranged together. Atem has never categorized their music too specifically, somewhere death/black/folk/proge -metal region. The very essence of the style comes from every player's own influences. The lyrics are made by Olli and Henri, mostly in Finnish.

Atem has had about twenty gigs, recorded six demo/promo-tapes, participated in two compilation CDs and filmed a music video. The first two records were made under their early name, Morgue.

Recently Atem signed a record-deal with a Austrian company named CCP-records.