Grand Belial's Key

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Grand Belial's Key
General information
origin Oakton , Virginia , United States
Genre (s) Black metal
founding 1992, 2009
resolution 2006
Founding members
Gelal Necrosodomy
Lord Vlad Luciferian
Current occupation
singing
 Grimnir Wotansfolk (Richard Mills)
guitar
 Gelal Necrosodomy
Demonic
The gulag
former members
Vocals, drums
 The Black Lourde of Crucifixion (Cazz Grant)
Lilith
Electric bass
 The striker
Electric bass
 The Marauder

Grand Belial's Key ( GBK ) is an American NSBM band from Oakton , Virginia . The band sees itself as one of the founding fathers of the US black metal scene, which did not exist at the time of its formation, and is also considered by parts of the scene as one of the first serious US black metal bands and one of the founders and important representatives of the local scene, who did a lot for the credibility of the US underground.

history

The band was founded in 1992 by guitarist Gelal Necrosodomy and singer Lord Vlad Luciferian, who later left them due to differences of opinion and joined the band Ancient , which had moved from Norway to the USA, under the pseudonym Lord Kaiaphas. The band describes their original interest in Black Metal as a result of their interest in the then Death Metal from bands like Autopsy and Morbid Angel as well as old bands like Razor , Possessed , Carnivore , Dark Angel and Mercyful Fate .

The band's first album, Mocking the Philanthropist , which was released in 1997 on the Belgian small label Wood-Nymph Records, was boycotted by Rough Trade Distribution from Germany. The decisive factor was a band photo printed in the booklet on which two musicians (one of whom wore the pseudonym “ Der Stürmer ”) wore T-shirts from the neo-Nazi metal bands Bound for Glory and Spear of Longinus . Wood-Nymph Records refused to print a new booklet. The band was boycotted and numerous concerts were prevented, so that they rarely appeared. In addition to their attitude and lyrics, their black-metal-untypical appearance caused controversy. The band itself presents its statements as exclusively anti-religious and describes the boycott because of offensive photos and ideologies as unjustified, as these are not present on the album. She also blames a “left conspiracy” for the boycott, whose supporters in the underground scene she calls “sheep”; Critics see Grand Belial's Key as a right-wing extremist band because of its anti-Semitic tone and the attitudes of the musicians. The album was re-released (with the exception of the title Rapture by the Fenrir Moon , but with other additional material) in 2001 by Barbarian Wrath under the title Castrate the Redeemer .

On August 28, 2006, singer Richard "Grimnir Wotansvolk" Mills, who was also the owner of the NSBM label Vinland Winds Records, died. No cause of death was given either on the label's website or in interviews. A song by the band Schwarze Reichswehr called Richard Mills Was Weak for Killing Himself , however, implies that he killed himself. The last recordings made in 2006 were released two years later under the title Weltenfeind as a split release with the German band Absurd and Sigrblot from Sweden. One of the titles on Grand Belial's Key was the negative approach cover Can't Tell No One , of the four titles only two had never been released; the band had recorded the material when they were in the studio for their album Kosherat , and already planned a release as a split back then. The last release of Vinland Winds in 2008 was a Best Of intended for the North American market by the Russian band Korrosija Metalla called Russian Vodka , not identical to the album from 1989.

Individual band members play or played in other metal bands, the most famous of which is the musically comparable and similarly oriented, racist death metal band Arghoslent. Black Lourde of Crucifixion (Cazz Grant) also plays with Hearse, Infantry, Bludgeon (not the band of the same name on Magic Circle Music ), Aryan War and Infernal Hatred. In the leaflets, similarly minded bands are also greeted, such as the well-known NSBM band Der Stürmer from Greece in the Judeobeast Assassination . On the third and final album Kosherat there were also two cover versions of the American Hatecore band Chaos 88 , in addition to NSBM bands such as Absurd, Totenburg , Ad Hominem or Nokturnal Mortum , the right-wing rock band Landser and , which is banned in Germany , were also found in the booklet greeted their front man Michael Regener .

On October 27, 2009 the band announced on their official website a concert in Chicago, Illinois with Absurd, Heathen Hammer and Martial and an appearance at the Hammer Open Air Metal Festival with, among others, The Devil's Blood , Urfaust , Pagan Altar , Heretic, Goatmoon , Celestia and Ad Hominem in Lieto (Finland). Both concerts took place. Her appearance in Lieto was accompanied by Hitler salutes from the audience throughout , and her music was very different from that on her albums.

style

music

The band emphasizes that they have not been influenced by Norwegian Black Metal, one of the musicians points out that they also did not listen to the bands Hellhammer , Celtic Frost and Sodom, which were influential for the black metal bands of the 1990s . Gelal names Master's Hammer , Autopsy and VON as influences , the later member Black Lourde of Crucifixion mentions the influence of Autopsy as well as typical bands such as Bathory , King Diamond , Venom , Slayer and Sodom. The style of Grand Belial's Key differs significantly from that of the Norwegian groups and is particularly characterized by Gelal Necrosodomy's guitar riffs . The music on Kosherat, which has been further developed compared to the minimalist debut album Mocking the Philanthropist, is riff- oriented and relatively technical with black, thrash , death and doom and traditional heavy metal , but also hardcore punk and rock influences, what According to Ian Duncan-Brown, it gives it more musical depth, such as the occasional use of keyboards, as in the song Sun of the Black Ram , while the keyboards on the debut had been criticized a little. The difference to the predecessor Judeobeast Assassination lies in the replacement of the singer The Black Lourde of Crucifixion by Grimnir Wotansvolk, although this resembles the singing style of his predecessor. The drumming is more inspired by traditional metal than the typical blast beats . The originality of their music is controversial, however: while some reviews emphasize the uniqueness of Grand Belial's Key's musical style, Heathen Harvest's Achromaticus writes that compared to the absurd titles on the split release Weltenfeind , their style is a bit slower and more atmospheric, you could but also easily assume that it is the same band; Absurd's music, which is described as comparable, was described there as talented, brutal and well-produced.

Texts

Initially, the band's lyrics made reference to Satanism ; The text of the piece The 7th Enochian Key, for example, comes from Anton Szandor LaVey , the founder of the Church of Satan (who had taken it over from John Dee and changed it without citing the source ). Black Lourde of Crucifixion was initially strongly influenced by LaVey and, according to his own statements, was a member of the Church of Satan, he also named his daughter Xena in reference to LaVey; some time after his death, Grant found his own path. However, he was the only member of the band interested in the Church of Satan, while the band itself had no connection to it. The title of the first demo Goat of a Thousand Young also alludes to Shub-Niggurath from the Cthulhu myth by HP Lovecraft . Lord Vlad Luciferian said he supported racism and Nazism as they upset people; he himself is not a great racist or a National Socialist, but he stands behind extremists. He is not interested in the problems of others and hopes for their misfortune.

From 1996 at the latest, however, the content changed to a mostly pseudo-historically oriented, offensive, blasphemous , anti-Christian ideology, which is always associated with a vulgar, contemptuous anti-Semitism. In a review of the split publication Weltenfeind , the webzine Heathen Harvest called the lyrics of Grand Belial's Key poor. These are written somewhat similar to religious scriptures, but full of vulgar descriptions of sexual processes; On the album Judeobeast Assassination , for example, the figure of Jesus is consistently portrayed as homosexual and in the song Pimps of Gennesaret ( pimp from the Sea of ​​Galilee ) his disciples are portrayed as necrophiles who molest the body of Christ and as junkies . On their record sleeves, images of biblical scenes are provided with corpse paint in order to make them ridiculous. Black Lourde also believes that the world would be better if Adolf Hitler had succeeded in his plans for conquest; at the same time the band claims not to be involved in politics.

Discography

Demos

  • 1992: Goat of a Thousand Young
  • 1994: Triumph of the Hordes (Pagan Records)

Albums

EPs

  • 1996: A Witness to the Regicide (Wood-Nymph Records)
  • 2000: The Tricifixion of Swine (Spikekult Rekords, End All Life Productions)
  • 2005: On a Mule Rides the Swindler (Drakkar Productions)

Compilations

  • 2001: Castrate the Redeemer (Barbarian Wrath)
  • 2017: Goat of a Thousand Young / Triumph of the Hordes (WTC Productions)

Split releases

  • 2001: Satan Is Metal's Master / Sperm of the Antichrist (Split EP with NunSlaughter ; Horror Records)
  • 2003: Hobo of Aramaic Tongues / Le Royaume Maudit (split EP with Chemin de Haine; Painiac Records)
  • 2008: Weltenfeind (split album with Absurd and Sigrblot; WTC Productions, The Shitagogue Records; indexed )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f DRAKKAR Productions. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 17, 2009 ; accessed on March 11, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.drakkar666.com
  2. ↑ a b c Grand Belial's Key: Evils-Darkland.de - Das Metalportal. Archived from the original on December 20, 2004 ; accessed on March 11, 2010 (English).
  3. ^ A b c Michel Renaud: Grand Belial's Key - Mocking the Philanthropist Review .
  4. ↑ a b c d Argamocrypt: Grand Belial's Key - Mocking the Philanthropist (album review) .
  5. ↑ Bruno Zamora: Judas Iscariot interview @ Tartareandesire.com. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 7, 2016 ; accessed on May 20, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tartareandesire.com
  6. ↑ a b Frostkamp Magazine, interview from August 5, 2008
  7. ^ Christian Dornbusch , Hans-Peter Killguss: Unheilige Alliances. Black Metal between Satanism, Paganism and Neo-Nazism . Münster, Unrast Verlag, 2005, ISBN 978-3-89771-817-3 , p. 262
  8. ↑ Vinland Winds ( Memento of December 24, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Skelos: Even God will not find peace here!
  10. ↑ Maija: Butcher's Block interrogation of Grand Belial's Key ( Memento from March 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Various artists: 15 Years Later… The Death of the Underground , Rusted Nails Records 2008.
  12. ↑ chrisALPINO: TheLeftHandPath.com - V / A - Weltenfeind. February 9, 2009, archived from the original on February 12, 2009 ; accessed on March 1, 2010 (English).
  13. ↑ a b Berkay Erkan: ABSURD / GRAND BELIAL'S KEY / SIGRBLOT - Weltenfeind split. Diabolical Conquest, September 23, 2009, archived from the original on November 22, 2010 ; accessed on March 1, 2010 (English).
  14. ↑ a b Ol 'Skool Gangsta Style, Bitch! Archived from the original on April 7, 2014 ; accessed on March 1, 2010 (English).
  15. ↑ a b GRAND BELIAL'S KEY ( Memento from February 13, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  16. ↑ a b c d NOX: Cruficier ( Memento from October 31, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
  17. ↑ Ol 'Skool Gangsta Style, Bitch! Archived from the original on November 20, 2009 ; Retrieved January 7, 2010 .
  18. ^ Mat McNerney (translation by Marja Konttinen): LIVE: Hammer Open Air - Lieto, June 11–12, 2010 .
  19. ↑ a b c BATTLE webzine interview GRAND BELIAL'S KEY
  20. ↑ a b c rasputin: Grand Belial's Key - Kosherat (album review) .
  21. ↑ a b c d e Ian Duncan-Brown: Review of Grand Belial's Key - Kosherat. Metal Reviews, March 18, 2006, archived from the original on November 7, 2007 ; accessed on June 7, 2017 (English).
  22. ↑ a b Achromaticus: Heathen Harvest - Reviews: Absurd + Grand Belials Key + Sigrblot - Weltenfeind. March 1, 2009, accessed March 1, 2010 .
  23. ↑ Melita: Grand Belial's Key (USA) Interview 2005
  24. ↑ "I support it, because it makes people upset. I am not a big racist and I am not a Nazi, but I stand behind Extremists. I really don't care about other people's problems, therefore I hope there are unhappy. Besides, Hate makes you stronger. " Grand Belial's Key . In: Rites of Eleusis , No. 2, 1995, p. 15.
  25. ↑ BAnz. No. 96 of June 30, 2011
  26. ↑ BAnz. No. 200 of December 31, 2010