Like all bands, the personnel was bound to change soon though, and the lineup was soon filled with rhythm guitarist Timo Ikonen. Toni was replaced by Iikka Luhtamäki in the winter. The band started to focus on the upcoming demo recording. Demo "Bad Coffee" was released in March 2009. By April the band had gone through some big changes. No more keyboardist and no drummer. Payload never assigned another keyboardist since and the present sound of Payload was born. During the summer also Iikka and Timo departed due to their personal life obligations eating up their time and resources.
In the autumn of 2009 after a few unsuccessful trials Payload found new drummer Samuli Rova, new bassist Jari Rinnemäki and new rhythm guitarist Miro Aalto. This was also the lineup for the first official gigs for the band in the spring of 2010.
In autumn 2010 Payload released its first official recording "Last Action Hero" EP and embarked on a winter of multiple shows, stages and competitions. The band played on some of the major stages in the country, such as Semifinal, Loose, On the Rocks etc.
The summer of 2011 proved another turning point for the band, as again, personal life obligations forced the departures of Miro, Jari and Samuli. The band again changed its sound a bit, this time by not searching for a new rhythm guitarist. The songs were re-arranged to suit one guitar. It did not take long to complete the setup though, with Jukka Linna joining on the bass and Marko Siira, a nationally renown drummer coming in for the beat. Again, as the band had the set complete, they took to the stages.
In the spring of 2012 Jukka decided that he couldn't keep up with the band, so Iikka returned to the fold for the bass. It was as if he never left, within a few weeks the band was back on stage and soon off to the studio. Recordings were done for the forthcoming 2013 LP release, "Odyssey Dawn". The summer, once again, proved a hard luck omen for the band. Marko suffered health issues and later that year had to give up playing drums altogether. It was a bitter pill for the band that was on the biggest rise it had ever been on.
The band withdrew to the training facilities and after a long search, found a new drummer in Mika Mönkkönen. Currently the band is in the process of starting touring early in 2013 again along with the album release.