1999 – The band is started and its name is chosen to be The Sanitarium. The Sanitarium consisted of Marko Kämäräinen, Jani Hakkarainen, Aki Karhu and Jussi Karjalainen. The guys throw one gig in Kitee at a band review, after which Pirkka Maksimainen joins them.
2000 – Hard training and a few small gigs, until in the fall Aki leaves to join the UN troops in Kosovo. There were no further gigs, but the training continued with Tomi Kallio replacing Aki.
2001 – The name had to be changed when it was noticed that The Sanitarium was already in use. The band became Dunces. The guys get to know Tero "TeeCee" Kinnunen and take their last pennies to the Kitee Caverock Studio and make "Waiting For..." vanity press edition.
2002 – The focus was in making new songs. Gigs were played all over "the hood". At a "Rock night" held in Tohmajärvi the band Bitch Driven performed for the very first time. In the band, based by TeeCee, played along Mako and Jussi some Tuomas Holopainen and Jukka Nevalainen.
2003 – The new album was worked on in the beginning of 2003 in the homes of band members. The drums were recorded at the Caverock Studio and the album was mixed and mastered TeeCee Kinnunen, again. The new album "Kingdom of Darkness" was released in July 2003. KOD included a few new and interesting experiments, among others the song "Alone". In its beginning is played a 36-string acoustic Finnish zither. "Drunk Dream" from KOD was chosen for the weekly demo in the radio station YleX, and the album in its whole got good reviews in other media in the field of music.
2004 – Dunces performed with Trio Niskalaukaus at the publishing consert of Nightwish's "Once" in the Kitee Ice Hall. After this the band was getting ready for the studio recording starting in the spring. The intention was to tape three new songs. At the end of the year Dunces had a gig in Petrozavodsk, Russia, at the "Rock Bridge" festival.
2005 – The Burning Heart Fron Hell is finished. In the summer there were a few gigs, for example in Ilosaarirocks Club Metelli. In the fall Jani Hakkarainen decided to leave the band for family reasons. This happened in a positive atmosphere for all parties. Gig mixer Juha Lehtinen was chosen to replace Jani. With Juha in the solo guitar the band travelled again to Russia with the Joensuu Pop Musicians to perform at another "Rock Bridge" festival in Pedrosavodsk. The audience was a nice crowd, as much as 2500-3000 people, and the atmosphere was great.
2006 – Hard training and occasional gigs around Pohjois-Karjala. The Joensuu Pop Musicians organized an Ilosaarirock winter tour in the spring 2006. As artists for example Viikate, Indica, Ankara and Dunces.
2007 – New songs are started to record. The drums were recorded in Tohmajärvi, Guitars/Bass at Tempputupa (former Caverock) Studio and vocals/syntheziser at the E-Major studio in Kerava. This time tere are also quest artists in the album, for example Tapio Wilska, Senni Eskelinen and the vocalist of Stella Marja Kiiskilä. The band won a public contest (over 2500 votes) organized by the newspaper Karjalainen and got to play in Ilosaarirock, this time at the Rekkalava. The band also got the honours to be the first demo band to use pyrotechnique in Ilosaarirock.
2008 – The name changes, funeral for Dunces are held and a contract is made with Stayheavyrecords by the name of Silentrain.