Masquerade began in late 2012, founded by vocalist Suzi Sabotage and then-bassist Sebastian Holm. Preceding the formation Suzi had a hardcore punk background, fronting an all-female group and Sebastian had been doing vocals in a goth band Loistava Polku. Before the end of 2012, Masquerade was quite a long time a more vague post-punk project with no specific name, riddled with temporary musicians who changed frequently. The first shows were set up under these circumstances, which included playing at Finland’s most long-running goth festival, Lumous, the next summer which the band was accepted in already on basis of a seedy rehearsal room recording of “Play Dead” (first song Masquerade ever made), featuring a drum machine.