Andras (band)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Andras
General information
Genre (s) Pagan Metal , formerly Black Metal
founding 1994
Founding members
Brother Amon (until 1995)
Lord Asgaqlun (until 1996)
Electric guitar
 Count Damien Nightsky
Lord Asmoday (until 1997)
Current occupation
guitar
 Nightsky
singing
 Khenaz (since 2016)
Keyboard
 Ghwerig (since 2011)
bass
 Black Abyss (1995–2000, since 2016)
guitar
 Executioner (since 2017)
Drums
 Dor Gust (since 2017)

Andras is a German pagan metal band from Schneeberg in the Ore Mountains . It is named after the demon Andras , who she claims to have encountered in the Necronomicon .

history

Andras was formed after Lord Asmoday and Count Damien Nightsky (since 2002 only "Nightsky") left the band Demoniac, which then renamed itself Moonblood , and initially played black metal . Three demo recordings were released under different line- ups . In 1997 the label Last Epitaph released the debut album The Return of the Dark Warriors , two years later it was released on the label Sword of Revenge, which has since been renamed Last Episode .

With the release of Quest of Deliverance in 2000, there was a change of style. The music became more epic, was more influenced by classical metal and clearer vocals found its way into the compositions. With Of Old Wisdom (2005), on which only the guitarist Nightsky remained from the original line-up, this development was continued, the sound approached that of Borknagar and Vintersorg . Instead of satanic texts, the topics were now about the Erzgebirge , the home of the band members, with which they feel strongly connected. Each text on the album deals with a legend from the region; The band said that the Erzgebirge has been known for “for a long time mixing the fears, superstitions and everyday occurrences of people in the form of legends and thus passing them on.” The text concept seems to the band therefore “natural, because we didn't know why we should tell from distant places or fictional stories where we have enough narrative material right on our doorstep. Given the nature of the music, it is obvious that we tend to refer to the mystical and darker legends. "

With the release of Iron Way (2008), the band gained greater prominence within Germany.

In 2013 the band announced that all members except guitarist and founding member Count Damian Nightsky had left the band by mutual agreement. The post on drums was filled with Bileeam from Ancient Wargod. In 2014 Occulta Mors (already active in the band from 2002 to 2005) returned as a bassist for a little over a year. During this time the 2005 album … Of Old Wisdom including the 2002 demo Legends with a new cover was re-released as a limited digipack.

In spring 2017 the band consisted of the members Nightsky, Khenaz, Black Abyss and Ghwerig. Unit Productions announced a new album for autumn 2017 . In October 2017, the album Reminiszenzen ... was released via Einheit Produktionen. Unlike on the previous albums, the lyrics on the album are mostly in German. In terms of lyrics, the album is divided into three parts: one mystical, one anti-Christian and one with legends from the Ore Mountains.

Together with the new Andras members Henker and DorGust, the album Reliquien ... was recorded for the 25th anniversary of the band in 2019 and published via Sturmglanz Black Metal Manufaktur. It consists of seven re-arrangements of older songs between 1994 and 2000, which were restructured and re-recorded. There is also a Bathory cover by Man of Iron , the completely new piece Thy last Redeemer and the outro Aufbruch . Stylistically, they went back to the Black Metal of the 1990s. The album was released as digipak CD, limited wooden box and vinyl.

style

The band calls their style Epic Pagan Metal . Most of the texts are in English ; German-language songs were also found on older publications . The album Reminiscences ... is predominantly in German.

criticism

In the black metal scene of the 1990s, the group was "smiled at" by many because of their "rumbling" sound. Their debut album was in Tales of the Macabre as a mixture of Eminence (with correspondingly doom -lastigem style), Burzum , "Nordic standard shit" and old metal (such as old, slow -Frühwerken Kreator riffs) and to Summoning described reminiscent vocals; the album is mediocre, but the presentation of the band is pathetic and ridiculous. Her second album Sword of Revenge in turn was criticized by Costa Stoios in the following issue because of its sterile production and described as a below-average standard black metal album in the Nordic style with a weak guitar sound; such music would probably be bought by people who didn't know what real black metal sounds like. Their affiliation with the Last Epitaph or Last Episode label caused commercial allegations, especially since the label produced some very similar sounding bands that had just formed during the black metal boom in the early 1990s. Only after the change of style was the group taken seriously in the subculture and also increasingly received positively. However, some reviewers repeatedly alluded to their early works.

Benjamin Rehmer from Endstation Rechts accuses the band of openness to right-wing extremism and a lack of distancing. Occulta Mors, who was a member of Andras until 2005, was active in the NSBM band Totenburg and in the controversial band Nachtfalke ; Occulta Mors made right-wing extremist statements in connection with Nachtfalke and was dismissed from the band Lyssa because he raised his arm in the Hitler salute during their performances and the musicians wanted "no Nazis in their band". Former drummer Shardik was also active with Nachtfalke. The musicians of Andras emphasize that they are proud of their own homeland, but that they do not associate the music with any political statements. Regardless of this, they used the poem Ewiger Wald - Ewiges Volk from the Nazi blood-and-soil film Ewiger Wald from 1936 in the intro of their album … Of Old Wisdom .

Discography

  • 1995: The sword of our ancestors (demo, MC , self-distribution; re-release 1999: CD, Last Episode)
  • 1995: The True Darkness (demo, MC, self-distribution)
  • 1996: Live in Annaberg (demo, MC, self-distribution)
  • 1997: The Return of the Dark Warriors (Album, CD / LP , Last Epitaph)
  • 1999: Sword of Revenge (CD, album, last episode ; MC, Nephilim Records)
  • 2000: Demo (MC, demo, self-distribution)
  • 2000: Quest of Deliverance (Album, CD / MC, Last Episode)
  • 2002: Legends ... (EP, MC, self-distribution, re-release 2014: CD, unit productions )
  • 2005: … Of Old Wisdom (album, CD, Perverted Taste , re-release 2014: CD, unit productions)
  • 2008: Iron Way (album, CD, unit productions; MC, Wulfrune Worxxx )
  • 2010: Warlord (album, CD / CD + DVD-V, unit productions; MC, Wulfrune Worxxx)
  • 2017: Reminiscences ... (album, CD, unit productions; MC, worship tapes)
  • 2019: Relics ... (album, CD, Sturmglanz Black Metal Manufactory)

Contributions to compilations (selection):

  • 1997: The Harbingers on The Final Days Of Frost (CD, Last Episode)
  • 1998: Diabolical Christening on From Within The Purgatory (2xCD, Extremity Records)
  • 2000: Quest Of Deliverance on The Return Of The Last Warriors 3 (CD, Last Episode)
  • 2008: Pagan Path on Pagan Battle Tunes Vol. 2 (CD, Trollhorn)
  • 2019: Miasma Track on Haamitland Arzgebirg - retro perspective (CD, Heimatland Records)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Andras: Interview with the entire band [sic!]. Retrieved October 27, 2009 .
  2. ↑ Andras. Retrieved May 20, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Unit productions. Retrieved May 20, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Sturmglanz Productions ANDRAS - Reliquien ... CD / Vinyl. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Andras "The Return of the Dark Knights" . In: Tales of the Macabre , No. 5.
  6. ↑ Costa Stoios: Andras "Sword Of Revenge" . In: Tales of the Macabre , No. 6, p. 31.
  7. ↑ Review of Sword of Revenge. Vampster , accessed November 27, 2007 .
  8. ↑ Benjamin Rehmer: Nazi Festival is establishing itself in Vogtland ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 9, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.endstation-rechts.de
  9. ^ Christian Dornbusch , Hans-Peter Killguss: Unheilige Alliances . Black Metal between Satanism, Paganism and Neo-Nazism. Unrast Verlag, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-89771-817-0 , p. 182 .
  10. ↑ cf. to the film Thomas Meder: The Germans as forest people. The cultural film ETERNAL FOREST (1936) . In: Guili Liebman Parrinello (ed.): Il bosco nella cultura europea tra realtá e immaginario . Bulzoni, Rom 2002, pp. 105-129. Johannes Zechner: Forest, national community and history: The parallelization of natural and social orders in the NSKG cultural film EWIGER FOREST (1936) . In: Ramón Reichert (Hrsg.): Kulturfilm im “Third Reich” . Synema, Vienna 2006, pp. 109–118. Text protocol of the film Eternal Forest (1936). Copy in the Federal Film Archive Berlin. Quoted in Karl Kovacs: The forest as an ideological instrument in the Third Reich . GRIN Verlag , ISBN 978-3-640-33708-8 , p. 2.