Antestor
Encyclopedia
Antestor is an extreme metal
band formed in 1990 in Jessheim
, Norway
. Credited for starting the whole northern European Christian extreme metal scene, Antestor is the only Christian band to have an album released by Cacophonous Records, which has also released records by bands such as Dimmu Borgir
, Sigh
, and Cradle of Filth
. The band's only release on Cacophonous, The Return of the Black Death
, proved influential for the Christian black metal movement, and has sold over 10,000 copies.
In late 1990s they dubbed their musical style as "sorrow metal" rather than black metal because the black metal movement was publicly affiliated with Satanism
in Norway. According to HM Magazine
, the progressive elements on the debut album, Martyrium
, were possibly ahead of their time in the Norwegian extreme metal scene.
The group has gone through several line-up changes over the years, and currently Antestor consists of the founding guitarist Lars Stokstad (Vemod), vocalist Ronny Hansen (Vrede), bassist Erik Normann Aanonsen, guitarist Thor Georg Buer, drummer Henning Børven and keyboardist Nickolas Main Henriksen. The original vocalist Kjetil Molnes (Martyr) and drummer Svein Sander (Armoth) left the band around 2000, and the members of a fellow Norwegian black metal group, Vaakevandring
, joined Antestor. The reputive Norwegian extreme metal drummer Jan Axel Blomberg
(Hellhammer) played session drums for their 2005 album The Forsaken
and Det Tapte Liv
EP.
, Norway. Paul W joined them as a drummer later on. Back then, the band's music style was a mixture of death metal, doom metal, and thrash metal.
In 1991, they recorded and released their first demo, The Defeat of Satan
, which contains three songs and an outro. The band is Christian and over the course of their career have received death threats because of this.
The existence of the band itself caused a debate in the metal underground. For example, during the early 1990s, Bård Faust
of Emperor
brought up the subject when he discussed with Euronymous, guitarist/vocalist from the seminal black metal band Mayhem
, in his zine Orcustus about the Norwegian scene. Faust asked: "Don't you think that something is terribly wrong when it has gone so far that we have a Christian "black metal" band here (Crush Evil)? Any advice on how we should kill them?" Euronymous replied to this: "It's bad enough to have a couple of society bands, but a Christian band is too much. But don't worry, we have plans. They will not continue for a very long time." However, the band persevered despite these threats. Antestor was never forced to split apart, and in an almost ironic twist of fate, Jan Axel Blomberg
(better known as Hellhammer
, the drummer for Mayhem) was Antestor's session drummer on their latest two releases.
In 1994, Antestor recorded their first full-length album titled Martyrium
. Arctic Serenades Records was originally supposed to release that album, but because of unknown reasons that never happened, and the band tried to get another label to release the album. In an interview, the drummer Armoth said: "...we were in contact with a label called Morphine Records. But that was about signing a deal for the Martyrium album. But we never signed a contract but that guy, Burrito, made several promotapes and sold every bit of it illegally 'cause he didn't have a contract." However, the tape copies circulated in up to fifth generation copies and their audience grew fast.Martyrium was the last album that emphasized on their death/doom metal direction.
On June 3, 1994, Antestor appeared on a local television program called "BootlegTV" where youth could practice and experience recording and video production. Usually local bands from Oslo played on that program which was broadcasted on the television station TVNorge
. During the course of this program, Antestor played five songs from Martyrium. On June 6, 1995, Antestor was featured on the Norwegian weekly newspaper Morgenbladet
s article about the phenomenon of Christian black metal, surrounding the black metal parody controversy of the Australian unblack metal group Horde
's 1994 album Hellig Usvart
. In the article, vocalist Kjetil Molnes explains the band's stance on if a Christian band can play black metal: "We identify ourselves as black metal as a music style, not black metal as an ideology or belief."
and Dimmu Borgir
start their career. Cacophonous signed a record deal for 2 albums with Antestor. In 1998, Cacophonous released Kongsblod under a different name, The Return of the Black Death
, and changed the original cover art of a famous Norwegian painting to artwork by Joe Petagno
, a well-known American heavy metal cover art creator.
Cacophonous being a secular label releasing material by a band that held Christian beliefs generated some interest in the metal scene. In an interview with Art for the Ears Webzine, published on December 12, 1998, Armoth said: "We sent the CD and a short biography. They just wanted to sign us because of the music. And that's exactly what we wanted to do." 2 years later in a 2000 interview with the Finnish The Christian Underground Zine issue 4, the fanzine's interviewer asked Antestor: "However, you had a record deal with Cacophonous Records (ex-Cradle of Filth, Bal-Sagoth). What kind of experiences did you get from that?" The band replied: "Pretty bad, actually. I can not say they did anything else than released the album. No money, no royalties, nothing." The interviewer also asked: "Did the record company set any demands concerning your image?" Antestor replied: "Nothing like that. They just said that it is not recommendable for us to proclaim exactly everywhere that we are a Christian band, and they censored the words 'Lord' and 'Jesus' from our lyrics. We ourselves removed a few texts because we did not want to provoke unnecessarily."
The Return of the Black Death was mostly well-received by both Christian and non-Christian black metal fans and critics. For example, the British metal magazines Kerrang!
and Terrorizer
both gave the album 4 points out of 5. Musically, The Return of the Black Death is a mixture of black metal and doom metal. The album relies on hypnotic, cold atmosphere and showcases influences from Norwegian folk music, which led some to label Antestor as Viking metal. Unlike previously, around this time the band themselves said they felt uncertain whether a Christian band can play black metal, because the movement was still strongly associated with Satanism. The drummer Svein Sander says in the 1998 interview:
In 2000, Antestor was signed by Endtime Productions, a metal record label that also helped to start the career of the Norwegian metal band Extol
. The original vocalist Kjetil Molnes (Martyr) left Antestor. However, the breakup of another Christian metal band in Norway, Vaakevandring
, led to several former Vaakevandring members joining Antestor. Namely, Ronny Hansen, adopting the new moniker Vrede, became Antestor's new vocalist, and Morten Sigmund Mageroy (known in Antestor as Sygmoon) stepped in as the new keyboardist. Ann-Mari Edvardsen
, who has sung in the Norwegian gothic metal
group The Third and the Mortal, joined the band as a female vocalist. For the first time in their career, Antestor began using the infamous corpse paint
masks as a part of their live shows and overall image.
In 2000, Endtime Productions released Martyrium with cover art done by the reputive Swedish metal music cover artist Kristian Wåhlin
. Antestor toured the United States with Extol that year, playing small venues and finally performing at Cornerstone Festival
. Over the next several years, the band remained somewhat quiet; they did not release any more albums until 2003, when they re-released their two earliest demos on one CD, titling it The Defeat of Satan
. The drummer, Svein Sander (in Antestor, Armoth), left the band during this time, and Antestor would not find a new full-time drummer for several more years.
In 2004, Antestor changed their style into a more modern black metal, and released their first set of new songs since The Return of the Black Death in an EP
called Det Tapte Liv
("The Lost Life"). Det Tapte Liv concentrated less on the black metal aspects of Antestor's style, instead focusing more on instrumental songs. However, it hinted at what the band was preparing for their 2005 full-length, The Forsaken
. The cover arts for both releases were once again done by Kristian Wåhlin, and the cover for the EP depicts the Borgund stave church
. Hellhammer
played all drums on both of these releases. In an interview with the Russian metal site Metal Library on January 7, 2007, Blomberg was asked what did his Mayhem colleagues and record company think about his participation in Antestor, and he said: "To be honest, it was a big 'f--- off!' to them all. I will repeat again that I decide what I do and I play not only in black metal groups." The band also asked Hellhammer to play live for them, but Blomberg refused. Hellhammer also went to state: "In my opinion, black metal today is just music. I will tell you that neither I nor other members of Mayhem never really were against religion or something else. We are primarily interested in music." Ronny Hansen commented on Blomberg's appearance:
Some of the members still play in the black metal band Vaakevandring, who played a reunion concert in 2007 together with Antestor at the Endtime Festival held at the end of March 2007 in Halmstad. Antestor performed the concert with numerous session musicians. In this concert the band announced that this is their last live show. In a message in the forum of Endtime Productions, and a substantially identical bulletin on the band's MySpace
, Lars Stokstad stated that the reasons for the decision were that the last 2 and half years the only consistent members of the band have been Vrede and Vemod, and they have constantly had problems finding musicians willing to commit to Antestor. After three years of hiatus on January 29, 2010, the band launched an official Facebook
page. Later they announced new members: Bassist Thor Georg Buer (Grave Declaration), guitarist Robert Bordevik (Grievance, Vardøger), drummer Jo Henning Børven (Morgenroede) and keyboardist Nickolas Main Henriksen (Aspera, Desdemon). With this line-up, the band played a stage show at Nordic Fest 2010 in Oslo. On November 4, 2010 they announced signing to Bombworks Records to record a new album and an EP. After some line-up changes, Erik Normann Aanonsen (Moddi
) joined on bass while Thor Georg switched to guitar, and played the Nowegian Seaside Festival with that line-up.
metal with correspondingly slow songs and death growl
singing, the band began playing black metal on the 1998 album The Return of the Black Death. On that album the band showcased screaming vocals, tremolo guitar riffs and drum passages with increased speed typical for the black metal genre. Keyboard is also in a central role, which for the typical black metal is used to perform epic interludes and dominates the soundscapes. For example, over the first three minutes of the song "Sorg," only the keyboard melody leads the performance.
With the third album The Forsaken the band developed more in the direction of a more technical style, as it is apparent on the style of The Return of the Black Death. The band's musical development resulted in that The Forsaken includes several guitar solos. Also the quality of production compared to The Return of the Black Death improved. Through the introduction of the two ex-members of Vaakevandring
, the style became more melodic and atmospheric.
"Sorg" (Norwegian for: grief, sorrow, sadness), however, deals with the themes of the sorrow and the search for hope, with the song based on darker imagery, and the lyrics are not explicitly Christian yet are not negative in the end. An example (in the Norwegian language):
Another song that is also a dark, but this takes on Christian theme, is "Ancient Prophecy". The lyrics tells that the man was sinful, and no one can escape the court of God. Antestor process in their lyrics also topics such as suicide
, doubts about the certainty of salvation
, and longing death, all of which are rare themes for a Christian band. An example from the text "Betrayed" from the album The Forsaken:
in their appearances and on photos. One example is the booklet photos in the album The Return of the Black Death, depicting Antestor in viking
outfits and black and white face paints at a snowy Norwegian mountain location. Sometimes the group uses art blood
, as known for the session bassist Ravn Furfjord's (Frosthardr
) appearance at the Bobfest 2004 concert. The band explains that corpse paint "is the same for us as masking is for actors or mimes; One way to express certain feelings in the battle we are in. The main purpose is to concentrate on God and not to twist the knife in the wound in side issues like these."
Very few published reviews of the band's albums exist, yet the ones that are available are positive, often good and some excellent. Michael Bryzak writes in the liner notes of The Defeat of Satan / Despair that, although the first album was not officially released until 2000, "Martyrium was rightfully considered a cult classic."
The group's position in the Norwegian metal scene was controversial from the beginning. Bryzak writes that "standing up for their faith in Life and Hope, Antestor received serious death threats during this time from some of the major bands and key players of the scene." When asked if the band ever played with other groups in the black metal scene, Antestor said in a 2000 interview with Tcu zine: "We played with some early form of the band Old Man's Child
once. Apparently they expressed their opinion of us with their legs and walked out of the venue during our set. It was their way of saying 'screw you Christians.'" In the liner notes of Martyrium, Antestor corresponds in a slightly bitter tone: "For those of you who despised us, disbelieved in us and misplaced your anger upon us, may God have mercy on your poor souls!"
On Antestor's achievements, Bryzak wrote that "The birth of northern Europe's Christian extreme metal scene can be attributed to only one act, Antestor." In 2010, HM Magazine ranked The Return of the Black Death #40 on their Top 100 Christian metal albums of all time list with Beck stating about the album, "Devastatingly dark, TRBD set the standard for Christian black metal."
Jamie Lee Rake of HM Magazine wrote of the Endtime Productions re-release of Martyrium, wondering if the progressive elements of the album made the band unnoticed innovators in the early Norwegian extreme metal scene:
Extreme metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...
band formed in 1990 in Jessheim
Jessheim
Jessheim is a large village in the Ullensaker municipality in Akershus of Norway.The name "Jessheim" is from Norse Jasseimr or Jesseímr where the first part has unknown origin, while the second part means home. It is also possible that the first part "Jess" can mean jarl or jarls...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. Credited for starting the whole northern European Christian extreme metal scene, Antestor is the only Christian band to have an album released by Cacophonous Records, which has also released records by bands such as Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir is a Norwegian black metal band from Oslo, Norway, formed in 1993. Dimmu borgir means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic, Faroese and Old Norse. The name is derived from a volcanic formation in Iceland, Dimmuborgir...
, Sigh
Sigh (band)
is a Japanese extreme metal band from Tokyo, formed in 1990. They are credited as being one of the first Japanese black metal bands, when the majority of black metal in early 1990s came from Scandinavia. They gradually shifted from a more traditional black/thrash metal sound, to a more...
, and Cradle of Filth
Cradle of Filth
Cradle of Filth are an English extreme metal band, formed in Suffolk in 1991. The band's musical style evolved from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic black metal, and other extreme metal styles, while their lyrical themes and imagery are heavily...
. The band's only release on Cacophonous, The Return of the Black Death
The Return of the Black Death
The Return of the Black Death is the second studio album by the Norwegian unblack metal band Antestor, released in 1998. It is the band's only release on the British Cacophonous Records label. This album's working title was Kongsblod....
, proved influential for the Christian black metal movement, and has sold over 10,000 copies.
In late 1990s they dubbed their musical style as "sorrow metal" rather than black metal because the black metal movement was publicly affiliated with Satanism
Theistic Satanism
Theistic Satanism, sometimes referred to as Traditional Satanism, Spiritual Satanism or Devil Worship, is a form of Satanism with the primary belief that Satan is an actual deity or force to revere or worship. Other characteristics of Theistic Satanism may include a belief in magic, which is...
in Norway. According to HM Magazine
HM Magazine
HM: The Hard Music Magazine is an American bimonthly publication focusing on both Christianity and hard rock. Articles include news, album and festival reviews, posters, artists to watch, indie artist reviews, devotionals and interviews with Christian artists...
, the progressive elements on the debut album, Martyrium
Martyrium (album)
Martyrium is the debut album of the unblack metal band Antestor. It is one of the earliest Christian extreme metal albums released in Norway...
, were possibly ahead of their time in the Norwegian extreme metal scene.
The group has gone through several line-up changes over the years, and currently Antestor consists of the founding guitarist Lars Stokstad (Vemod), vocalist Ronny Hansen (Vrede), bassist Erik Normann Aanonsen, guitarist Thor Georg Buer, drummer Henning Børven and keyboardist Nickolas Main Henriksen. The original vocalist Kjetil Molnes (Martyr) and drummer Svein Sander (Armoth) left the band around 2000, and the members of a fellow Norwegian black metal group, Vaakevandring
Vaakevandring
Vaakevandring is a Norwegian unblack metal band that was active from 1996 to 2001. The name in Norwegian is a reference to the resurrection of Jesus. Vaakevandring played atmospheric, epic unblack metal with keyboards and folk melodies. Their self-titled EP was produced by Stian Aarstad of Dimmu...
, joined Antestor. The reputive Norwegian extreme metal drummer Jan Axel Blomberg
Jan Axel Blomberg
Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg is a three time Spellemannprisen award-winning heavy metal drummer. He is most well known for his drumming with the band Mayhem, with which he began his career...
(Hellhammer) played session drums for their 2005 album The Forsaken
The Forsaken (album)
The Forsaken is the third studio album by the Christian black metal band Antestor released in 2005 on Endtime Productions. The album features guest appearances of the established metal musicians Jan Axel Blomberg and Ann-Mari Edvardsen....
and Det Tapte Liv
Det Tapte Liv
Det Tapte Liv is an EP by the Norwegian unblack metal band Antestor, released in 2004.-Recording:The EP contains songs recorded at Antestor's studio sessions in 2004 at Top Room Studios. The band felt that these songs did not fit into the 2005's The Forsaken full-length and were released on this EP...
EP.
Crush Evil era
In 1990, the band was formed under the name "Crush Evil" by Lars Stokstad, Kjetil Molnes, Øyvind Hope and Erling Jørgensen in JessheimJessheim
Jessheim is a large village in the Ullensaker municipality in Akershus of Norway.The name "Jessheim" is from Norse Jasseimr or Jesseímr where the first part has unknown origin, while the second part means home. It is also possible that the first part "Jess" can mean jarl or jarls...
, Norway. Paul W joined them as a drummer later on. Back then, the band's music style was a mixture of death metal, doom metal, and thrash metal.
In 1991, they recorded and released their first demo, The Defeat of Satan
The Defeat of Satan
The Defeat of Satan is an album by the Norwegian band Antestor. The album comprises their first two demos Despair and The Defeat of Satan . The songs were remastered and remixed in 2003 and was published by the Norwegian label Momentum Scandinavia...
, which contains three songs and an outro. The band is Christian and over the course of their career have received death threats because of this.
The existence of the band itself caused a debate in the metal underground. For example, during the early 1990s, Bård Faust
Bård Faust
Bård Guldvik "Faust" Eithun is a Norwegian drummer. He is best known for his work with early black metal band Emperor, especially on the releases As the Shadows Rise and In the Nightside Eclipse...
of Emperor
Emperor (band)
Emperor was a Norwegian black metal band formed in 1991. They dissolved in 2001, but reunited in 2006 and again in 2007 for a few festival dates and brief US tours. The group was founded by Samoth and Ihsahn .-Biography:...
brought up the subject when he discussed with Euronymous, guitarist/vocalist from the seminal black metal band Mayhem
Mayhem (band)
Mayhem is a Norwegian black metal band formed in 1984 in Oslo, Norway and regarded as one of the pioneers of the influential Norwegian black metal scene...
, in his zine Orcustus about the Norwegian scene. Faust asked: "Don't you think that something is terribly wrong when it has gone so far that we have a Christian "black metal" band here (Crush Evil)? Any advice on how we should kill them?" Euronymous replied to this: "It's bad enough to have a couple of society bands, but a Christian band is too much. But don't worry, we have plans. They will not continue for a very long time." However, the band persevered despite these threats. Antestor was never forced to split apart, and in an almost ironic twist of fate, Jan Axel Blomberg
Jan Axel Blomberg
Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg is a three time Spellemannprisen award-winning heavy metal drummer. He is most well known for his drumming with the band Mayhem, with which he began his career...
(better known as Hellhammer
Jan Axel Blomberg
Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg is a three time Spellemannprisen award-winning heavy metal drummer. He is most well known for his drumming with the band Mayhem, with which he began his career...
, the drummer for Mayhem) was Antestor's session drummer on their latest two releases.
Name change
In 1993, Vegard Undal joined the band as a bassist and Svein Sander became their drummer. During that time, they changed the name Crush Evil to Antestor, which is (Latin for "call to witness" or "testify"). Despair was their first self-released demo, and was released under the band name Antestor. The demo starts with an intro and ends with a cover of an old Norwegian hymn, called Jesus, Jesus, Ver Du Hjå Meg ("Jesus, Jesus, Be With Me"). Strawberry Records pressed 600 copies of the recording.In 1994, Antestor recorded their first full-length album titled Martyrium
Martyrium (album)
Martyrium is the debut album of the unblack metal band Antestor. It is one of the earliest Christian extreme metal albums released in Norway...
. Arctic Serenades Records was originally supposed to release that album, but because of unknown reasons that never happened, and the band tried to get another label to release the album. In an interview, the drummer Armoth said: "...we were in contact with a label called Morphine Records. But that was about signing a deal for the Martyrium album. But we never signed a contract but that guy, Burrito, made several promotapes and sold every bit of it illegally 'cause he didn't have a contract." However, the tape copies circulated in up to fifth generation copies and their audience grew fast.Martyrium was the last album that emphasized on their death/doom metal direction.
On June 3, 1994, Antestor appeared on a local television program called "BootlegTV" where youth could practice and experience recording and video production. Usually local bands from Oslo played on that program which was broadcasted on the television station TVNorge
TVNorge
TVNorge is a Norwegian television channel.TVNorge went on the air December 5, 1988 and was the first advertising-supported Norwegian channel. The channel was started with 50 000 NOK...
. During the course of this program, Antestor played five songs from Martyrium. On June 6, 1995, Antestor was featured on the Norwegian weekly newspaper Morgenbladet
Morgenbladet
Morgenbladet is a Norwegian weekly newspaper. It was founded in 1819 by the book printer Niels Wulfsberg, and was the country's first daily newspaper. For a long time, it was also the country's biggest newspaper. It was closed down by the German Wehrmacht during World War II...
s article about the phenomenon of Christian black metal, surrounding the black metal parody controversy of the Australian unblack metal group Horde
Horde (band)
Horde is the single-album unblack metal project of Australian musician Jayson Sherlock, formerly of Mortification and Paramaecium. In 1994 the only album Hellig Usvart was released on Nuclear Blast. With a session line-up, Horde played live-shows in 2006, Norway, and in 2010 in Finland and Germany...
's 1994 album Hellig Usvart
Hellig Usvart
Hellig Usvart is the debut album by Australian unblack metal band Horde, released in 1994 on Nuclear Blast Records. Upon its release in 1994, the album created a controversy among the black metal fans; death threats were sent to Nuclear Blast demanding the label to drop the album from its catalogue...
. In the article, vocalist Kjetil Molnes explains the band's stance on if a Christian band can play black metal: "We identify ourselves as black metal as a music style, not black metal as an ideology or belief."
Record deal with Cacophonous Records
In 1997, Antestor recorded a promotional CD titled Kongsblod. The promo-CD caught the interest of British Cacophonous Records, one of the biggest labels with experience in the black metal style and helped established groups such as Cradle of FilthCradle of Filth
Cradle of Filth are an English extreme metal band, formed in Suffolk in 1991. The band's musical style evolved from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic black metal, and other extreme metal styles, while their lyrical themes and imagery are heavily...
and Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir is a Norwegian black metal band from Oslo, Norway, formed in 1993. Dimmu borgir means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic, Faroese and Old Norse. The name is derived from a volcanic formation in Iceland, Dimmuborgir...
start their career. Cacophonous signed a record deal for 2 albums with Antestor. In 1998, Cacophonous released Kongsblod under a different name, The Return of the Black Death
The Return of the Black Death
The Return of the Black Death is the second studio album by the Norwegian unblack metal band Antestor, released in 1998. It is the band's only release on the British Cacophonous Records label. This album's working title was Kongsblod....
, and changed the original cover art of a famous Norwegian painting to artwork by Joe Petagno
Joe Petagno
Joe Petagno is an artist known principally for creating images used on rock album covers, for bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Nazareth, Motörhead, Roy Harper, Marduk, Nightshade, and Illdisposed....
, a well-known American heavy metal cover art creator.
Cacophonous being a secular label releasing material by a band that held Christian beliefs generated some interest in the metal scene. In an interview with Art for the Ears Webzine, published on December 12, 1998, Armoth said: "We sent the CD and a short biography. They just wanted to sign us because of the music. And that's exactly what we wanted to do." 2 years later in a 2000 interview with the Finnish The Christian Underground Zine issue 4, the fanzine's interviewer asked Antestor: "However, you had a record deal with Cacophonous Records (ex-Cradle of Filth, Bal-Sagoth). What kind of experiences did you get from that?" The band replied: "Pretty bad, actually. I can not say they did anything else than released the album. No money, no royalties, nothing." The interviewer also asked: "Did the record company set any demands concerning your image?" Antestor replied: "Nothing like that. They just said that it is not recommendable for us to proclaim exactly everywhere that we are a Christian band, and they censored the words 'Lord' and 'Jesus' from our lyrics. We ourselves removed a few texts because we did not want to provoke unnecessarily."
The Return of the Black Death was mostly well-received by both Christian and non-Christian black metal fans and critics. For example, the British metal magazines Kerrang!
Kerrang!
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...
and Terrorizer
Terrorizer
Terrorizer is an American grindcore and death metal band formed in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. After disbanding, its members gained recognition by playing in influential extreme metal bands, such as Morbid Angel , Napalm Death and Nausea...
both gave the album 4 points out of 5. Musically, The Return of the Black Death is a mixture of black metal and doom metal. The album relies on hypnotic, cold atmosphere and showcases influences from Norwegian folk music, which led some to label Antestor as Viking metal. Unlike previously, around this time the band themselves said they felt uncertain whether a Christian band can play black metal, because the movement was still strongly associated with Satanism. The drummer Svein Sander says in the 1998 interview:
Record deal with Endtime Productions
Extol
Extol is a Christian progressive extreme metal band from Bekkestua, Norway, that was formed in 1993. In 2007, they announced they were splitting up to work on separate projects. The band is known for playing a variety of different styles of metal which include progressive death metal, melodic death...
. The original vocalist Kjetil Molnes (Martyr) left Antestor. However, the breakup of another Christian metal band in Norway, Vaakevandring
Vaakevandring
Vaakevandring is a Norwegian unblack metal band that was active from 1996 to 2001. The name in Norwegian is a reference to the resurrection of Jesus. Vaakevandring played atmospheric, epic unblack metal with keyboards and folk melodies. Their self-titled EP was produced by Stian Aarstad of Dimmu...
, led to several former Vaakevandring members joining Antestor. Namely, Ronny Hansen, adopting the new moniker Vrede, became Antestor's new vocalist, and Morten Sigmund Mageroy (known in Antestor as Sygmoon) stepped in as the new keyboardist. Ann-Mari Edvardsen
Ann-Mari Edvardsen
Ann-Mari Edvardsen is a Norwegian singer and keyboardist most notable for her stint as vocalist and keyboardist of The 3rd and the Mortal from 1995 to 1997. She has also been vocalist for Tactile Gemma and has been a guest vocalist for Novembre and session vocalist for Antestor. Along with a career...
, who has sung in the Norwegian gothic metal
Gothic metal
Gothic metal or goth metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines the aggression of doom metal with the dark melancholy of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music...
group The Third and the Mortal, joined the band as a female vocalist. For the first time in their career, Antestor began using the infamous corpse paint
Corpse paint
Corpse paint or corpsepaint is a style of black-and-white makeup, used mainly by black metal bands during live concerts and photo shoots. The makeup is used to intensify the bands' imagery of evil, inhumanity, and corpse-like decay. It is most commonly used just on the face, but also on arms and...
masks as a part of their live shows and overall image.
In 2000, Endtime Productions released Martyrium with cover art done by the reputive Swedish metal music cover artist Kristian Wåhlin
Kristian Wåhlin
Kristian Wåhlin is a Swedish musician, graphic designer, and album cover artist for many bands in the extreme metal scene worldwide. He is often credited under his pseudonym, Necrolord....
. Antestor toured the United States with Extol that year, playing small venues and finally performing at Cornerstone Festival
Cornerstone Festival
Cornerstone Festival is a Christian music festival put on by Jesus People USA and held annually around the 4th of July near Bushnell, Illinois. In a given year, many artists that play at Cornerstone also play at other events such as Creation Festival and mainstream festivals and tours such as the...
. Over the next several years, the band remained somewhat quiet; they did not release any more albums until 2003, when they re-released their two earliest demos on one CD, titling it The Defeat of Satan
The Defeat of Satan
The Defeat of Satan is an album by the Norwegian band Antestor. The album comprises their first two demos Despair and The Defeat of Satan . The songs were remastered and remixed in 2003 and was published by the Norwegian label Momentum Scandinavia...
. The drummer, Svein Sander (in Antestor, Armoth), left the band during this time, and Antestor would not find a new full-time drummer for several more years.
In 2004, Antestor changed their style into a more modern black metal, and released their first set of new songs since The Return of the Black Death in an EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
called Det Tapte Liv
Det Tapte Liv
Det Tapte Liv is an EP by the Norwegian unblack metal band Antestor, released in 2004.-Recording:The EP contains songs recorded at Antestor's studio sessions in 2004 at Top Room Studios. The band felt that these songs did not fit into the 2005's The Forsaken full-length and were released on this EP...
("The Lost Life"). Det Tapte Liv concentrated less on the black metal aspects of Antestor's style, instead focusing more on instrumental songs. However, it hinted at what the band was preparing for their 2005 full-length, The Forsaken
The Forsaken (album)
The Forsaken is the third studio album by the Christian black metal band Antestor released in 2005 on Endtime Productions. The album features guest appearances of the established metal musicians Jan Axel Blomberg and Ann-Mari Edvardsen....
. The cover arts for both releases were once again done by Kristian Wåhlin, and the cover for the EP depicts the Borgund stave church
Borgund stave church
Borgund Stave Church is a stave church located in Borgund, Lærdal, Norway. It is classified as a triple nave stave church of the so-called Sogn-type. This is also the best preserved of Norway's 28 extant stave churches.-Construction:...
. Hellhammer
Jan Axel Blomberg
Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg is a three time Spellemannprisen award-winning heavy metal drummer. He is most well known for his drumming with the band Mayhem, with which he began his career...
played all drums on both of these releases. In an interview with the Russian metal site Metal Library on January 7, 2007, Blomberg was asked what did his Mayhem colleagues and record company think about his participation in Antestor, and he said: "To be honest, it was a big 'f--- off!' to them all. I will repeat again that I decide what I do and I play not only in black metal groups." The band also asked Hellhammer to play live for them, but Blomberg refused. Hellhammer also went to state: "In my opinion, black metal today is just music. I will tell you that neither I nor other members of Mayhem never really were against religion or something else. We are primarily interested in music." Ronny Hansen commented on Blomberg's appearance:
Recent years
New drummer Tony Kirkemo joined the band later in 2005 as live session drummer. The band played live shows rarely and only at explicitly Christian music festivals. Examples of performances the group have made in 2000s include the concerts at Bobfest in 2000 in Stockholm and 2004 in Linköping, and at the Nordic Fest 2004 in Oslo.Some of the members still play in the black metal band Vaakevandring, who played a reunion concert in 2007 together with Antestor at the Endtime Festival held at the end of March 2007 in Halmstad. Antestor performed the concert with numerous session musicians. In this concert the band announced that this is their last live show. In a message in the forum of Endtime Productions, and a substantially identical bulletin on the band's MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
, Lars Stokstad stated that the reasons for the decision were that the last 2 and half years the only consistent members of the band have been Vrede and Vemod, and they have constantly had problems finding musicians willing to commit to Antestor. After three years of hiatus on January 29, 2010, the band launched an official Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
page. Later they announced new members: Bassist Thor Georg Buer (Grave Declaration), guitarist Robert Bordevik (Grievance, Vardøger), drummer Jo Henning Børven (Morgenroede) and keyboardist Nickolas Main Henriksen (Aspera, Desdemon). With this line-up, the band played a stage show at Nordic Fest 2010 in Oslo. On November 4, 2010 they announced signing to Bombworks Records to record a new album and an EP. After some line-up changes, Erik Normann Aanonsen (Moddi
Moddi
Pål Moddi Knutsen also known as Moddi is a Norwegian musician from Senja.-History:His debut-EP Rubato was released on Playground Music in august 2008. The EP was a split EP with Einar Stray...
) joined on bass while Thor Georg switched to guitar, and played the Nowegian Seaside Festival with that line-up.
Music
While the band's style on the first publications was primarily death/doomDeath/doom
Death/doom, sometimes writes as death-doom or deathdoom, is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It combines the slow tempos and pessimistic or depressive mood of doom metal with the deep growling vocals and double kick drumming of death metal...
metal with correspondingly slow songs and death growl
Death growl
A death growl, also known as death metal vocals, guttural vocals, death grunts, and harsh vocals among other names, is a vocalisation style usually employed by vocalists of the death metal and black metal music genre, but also used in a variety of heavy metal and hardcore punk subgenres.Death...
singing, the band began playing black metal on the 1998 album The Return of the Black Death. On that album the band showcased screaming vocals, tremolo guitar riffs and drum passages with increased speed typical for the black metal genre. Keyboard is also in a central role, which for the typical black metal is used to perform epic interludes and dominates the soundscapes. For example, over the first three minutes of the song "Sorg," only the keyboard melody leads the performance.
With the third album The Forsaken the band developed more in the direction of a more technical style, as it is apparent on the style of The Return of the Black Death. The band's musical development resulted in that The Forsaken includes several guitar solos. Also the quality of production compared to The Return of the Black Death improved. Through the introduction of the two ex-members of Vaakevandring
Vaakevandring
Vaakevandring is a Norwegian unblack metal band that was active from 1996 to 2001. The name in Norwegian is a reference to the resurrection of Jesus. Vaakevandring played atmospheric, epic unblack metal with keyboards and folk melodies. Their self-titled EP was produced by Stian Aarstad of Dimmu...
, the style became more melodic and atmospheric.
Lyrics
Antestor's lyrical themes include hope and despair, but also deal with the personal Christian faith of the band members. Therefore, many metal fans oppose classifying Antestor's style to the category of black metal, as their lyrics are often contrary to the ideology of black metal. The lyrics are mostly in English. Norwegian texts are also rare for the group, but on the album The Return of the Black Death the Norwegian language dominates the lyrics. On this album, only part of the lyrics are listed in the booklet; words directly referring to Jesus Christ and God were omitted. The song "A Sovereign Fortress" dealt with, for example, the acknowledgments of God who protects and supports the lyrical I since birth. It is portrayed in the chorus of this song as:"Sorg" (Norwegian for: grief, sorrow, sadness), however, deals with the themes of the sorrow and the search for hope, with the song based on darker imagery, and the lyrics are not explicitly Christian yet are not negative in the end. An example (in the Norwegian language):
Another song that is also a dark, but this takes on Christian theme, is "Ancient Prophecy". The lyrics tells that the man was sinful, and no one can escape the court of God. Antestor process in their lyrics also topics such as suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, doubts about the certainty of salvation
Salvation
Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...
, and longing death, all of which are rare themes for a Christian band. An example from the text "Betrayed" from the album The Forsaken:
Appearance
Antestor are one of the few bands in the Christian metal scene who use corpse paintCorpse paint
Corpse paint or corpsepaint is a style of black-and-white makeup, used mainly by black metal bands during live concerts and photo shoots. The makeup is used to intensify the bands' imagery of evil, inhumanity, and corpse-like decay. It is most commonly used just on the face, but also on arms and...
in their appearances and on photos. One example is the booklet photos in the album The Return of the Black Death, depicting Antestor in viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
outfits and black and white face paints at a snowy Norwegian mountain location. Sometimes the group uses art blood
Blood plasma
Blood plasma is the straw-colored liquid component of blood in which the blood cells in whole blood are normally suspended. It makes up about 55% of the total blood volume. It is the intravascular fluid part of extracellular fluid...
, as known for the session bassist Ravn Furfjord's (Frosthardr
Frosthardr
Frosthardr is a Norwegian Christian unblack metal band, formed in 1997. The band plays a rawer type of black metal music with occasional punk influences and lyrics from Christian point of view...
) appearance at the Bobfest 2004 concert. The band explains that corpse paint "is the same for us as masking is for actors or mimes; One way to express certain feelings in the battle we are in. The main purpose is to concentrate on God and not to twist the knife in the wound in side issues like these."
Reception
According Vrede in an interview with Intense Radio on December 13, 2007, "by various sources, The Return of the Black Death has sold over 10,000 copies and still keeps selling."Very few published reviews of the band's albums exist, yet the ones that are available are positive, often good and some excellent. Michael Bryzak writes in the liner notes of The Defeat of Satan / Despair that, although the first album was not officially released until 2000, "Martyrium was rightfully considered a cult classic."
The group's position in the Norwegian metal scene was controversial from the beginning. Bryzak writes that "standing up for their faith in Life and Hope, Antestor received serious death threats during this time from some of the major bands and key players of the scene." When asked if the band ever played with other groups in the black metal scene, Antestor said in a 2000 interview with Tcu zine: "We played with some early form of the band Old Man's Child
Old Man's Child
Old Man's Child is a black metal band from Norway. The band is the brainchild of Galder who is the only permanent member of the band now.-Formation:...
once. Apparently they expressed their opinion of us with their legs and walked out of the venue during our set. It was their way of saying 'screw you Christians.'" In the liner notes of Martyrium, Antestor corresponds in a slightly bitter tone: "For those of you who despised us, disbelieved in us and misplaced your anger upon us, may God have mercy on your poor souls!"
On Antestor's achievements, Bryzak wrote that "The birth of northern Europe's Christian extreme metal scene can be attributed to only one act, Antestor." In 2010, HM Magazine ranked The Return of the Black Death #40 on their Top 100 Christian metal albums of all time list with Beck stating about the album, "Devastatingly dark, TRBD set the standard for Christian black metal."
Jamie Lee Rake of HM Magazine wrote of the Endtime Productions re-release of Martyrium, wondering if the progressive elements of the album made the band unnoticed innovators in the early Norwegian extreme metal scene:
Members
Current members
- Ronny Hansen - vocals (aka Vrede)
- Lars Stokstad - guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
(aka Vemod) - Erik Norman Aanonsen - bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- Jo Henning Børven - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
- Thor Georg Buer - guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
- Nickolas Main Henriksen - keyboard
Former members
- Jan Axel BlombergJan Axel BlombergJan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg is a three time Spellemannprisen award-winning heavy metal drummer. He is most well known for his drumming with the band Mayhem, with which he began his career...
(aka Hellhammer) - session drummer on Det Tapte Liv and The Forsaken - Morten Sigmund Mageroy (aka Sygmoon) - keyboard
- Vegard Undal (aka Gard) - bass (aka Gard)
- Tony Kirkemo - drums
- Kjetil Molnes (aka Martyr) - vocals
- Svein Sander (aka Armoth) - drums
- Erling Jorgensen (aka Pilgrim) - guitar
- Robert Bordevik - guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
- Stig Rolfsen (aka Erkebisp) - guitar
- Tom W. Holm Paulsen - drums
- Tora - session vocals on Martyrium
- Ann-Mari EdvardsenAnn-Mari EdvardsenAnn-Mari Edvardsen is a Norwegian singer and keyboardist most notable for her stint as vocalist and keyboardist of The 3rd and the Mortal from 1995 to 1997. She has also been vocalist for Tactile Gemma and has been a guest vocalist for Novembre and session vocalist for Antestor. Along with a career...
- session vocals on The Forsaken - Ravn Furfjord (aka Jokull) (from FrosthardrFrosthardrFrosthardr is a Norwegian Christian unblack metal band, formed in 1997. The band plays a rawer type of black metal music with occasional punk influences and lyrics from Christian point of view...
) - live bass - Øyvind Hope (Crush Evil only) - bass
Discography
- The Defeat of Satan (demo, 1991)
- Despair (demo, 1993)
- MartyriumMartyrium (album)Martyrium is the debut album of the unblack metal band Antestor. It is one of the earliest Christian extreme metal albums released in Norway...
(1994) - Kongsblod (promo, 1998)
- The Return of the Black DeathThe Return of the Black DeathThe Return of the Black Death is the second studio album by the Norwegian unblack metal band Antestor, released in 1998. It is the band's only release on the British Cacophonous Records label. This album's working title was Kongsblod....
(1998) - The Defeat of SatanThe Defeat of SatanThe Defeat of Satan is an album by the Norwegian band Antestor. The album comprises their first two demos Despair and The Defeat of Satan . The songs were remastered and remixed in 2003 and was published by the Norwegian label Momentum Scandinavia...
(compilation, 2003) - Det Tapte LivDet Tapte LivDet Tapte Liv is an EP by the Norwegian unblack metal band Antestor, released in 2004.-Recording:The EP contains songs recorded at Antestor's studio sessions in 2004 at Top Room Studios. The band felt that these songs did not fit into the 2005's The Forsaken full-length and were released on this EP...
(EP, 2004) - The ForsakenThe Forsaken (album)The Forsaken is the third studio album by the Christian black metal band Antestor released in 2005 on Endtime Productions. The album features guest appearances of the established metal musicians Jan Axel Blomberg and Ann-Mari Edvardsen....
(2005)
External links
- Official Facebook
- Official website (listed as "website coming soon")