Leviathan (California)

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Leviathan
General information
Genre (s) Black metal
founding 1998
Founding members
all instruments
 Wrest (Jef Whitehead)
Current occupation
all instruments
 Wrest (Jef Whitehead)

Leviathan is an American black metal band whose only member is Jef "Wrest" Whitehead. Wrest also takes part in other projects (including Sunn O))) , Twilight and his solo project Lurker of Chalice ). The music can be assigned to Depressive Black Metal .

history

Whitehead, who earned his living as a tattoo artist, played drums for the instrumental rock band Gift Horse between 1991 and 1996 . After listening to Filosofem by Burzum in 1997 and coming into contact with the music of Ved Buens Ende , he began recording his own music at home in 1998, some of which was stylistically oriented towards ambient . The reason for this was that he said he wanted to make harder music than in his previous bands. Since then, Whitehead, who plays guitar and bass in addition to drums, has been recording all of Leviathan's tracks in his home studio using very simple technology. He uses a 4-track recording device from TASCAM , a DI box for the alienation of the vocal recordings and an electronic drum kit from Roland . Between 1998 and 2002 Whitehead recorded dozens of demos , most of which were distributed through Amoeba Music in San Francisco . The first official release was a compilation of these demo recordings, which appeared in 2002 under the title Verräter on the US independent label Tumult. In 2003, Moribund Records released the first official album entitled The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide . Since then, the project has released numerous splits in addition to three other albums and several EPs , including with Xasthur , Crebain and Blackdeath.

style

Leviathan plays Depressive Suicidal Black Metal, a subspecies of Black Metal. The music is very slow with sluggish, heavily alienated vocals and a few ambient and double bass passages. Whitehead describes his texts as "very angry", but nothing is known about their contents as they are not printed in the booklets . The demo recordings show a development from gorgoroth- inspired riffs to keyboard arrangements reminiscent of Burzum and cold melodies. Wrest's newer material is faster and shows Swans , Bauhaus and Lungfish influences as well as Mathcore tendencies.

The band is described as one of the best black metal bands in America and seen as the logical continuation of the Norwegian scene of the 1990s, but also as exaggeratedly clichéd with song titles like Howl Mockery at the Cross , the use of the words Black Metal in the title the split EP Black Metal Against the World , which was therefore called " Venomesque " , and images of demons on their record sleeves.

Discography

Studio albums and EPs

  • 2003: The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide
  • 2004: Tentacles of Whorror
  • 2006: The Speed ​​of Darkness
  • 2006: The Blind Wound
  • 2008: Massive Conspiracy Against All Life
  • 2011: True Traitor, True Whore
  • 2015: Scar Sighted

Split releases

  • 2003: Live in Eternal Sin / The Speed ​​of Darkness (split with Iuvenes) (self-published as The Speed ​​of Darkness )
  • 2004: Leviathan & Crebain (split with Crebain)
  • 2004: Black Metal Against the World (split with Ad Hominem , Funeral Winds and Eternity )
  • 2004: Leviathan & Xasthur (split with Xasthur )
  • 2005: Portrait in Scars (Split with Blackdeath)
  • 2006: Leviathan & Sapthuran (Split with Sapthuran, without Sapthuran also published as The Blind Wound )
  • 2009: Sic Luceat Lux (split with Acherontas )

Demos

  • 1998: Time End
  • 1998: Three
  • 2000: MisanthropicNecroBlasphemy
  • 2000: Five
  • 2000: Shadows of No Light
  • 2000: Slaveship (Seven)
  • 2000: Video Brolo (Eight)
  • 2001: Inclement Derision (Nine)
  • 2001: Ten
  • 2001: Intolerance (Eleven)
  • 2001: Howl Mockery at the Cross
  • 2001: Sacrifice Love at the Altar of War
  • 2002: White Devil, Black Metal
  • 2002: XV
  • 2002: The 10th Sub Level of Suicide

Compilations

  • 2002: traitor
  • 2005: Demos Two Thousand
  • 2005: A silhouette in splinters
  • 2005: Howl Mockery at the Cross

Sampler contributions

  • 2004: Dark December and Nocturnal Gathering on Gathered Under the Banner of Strength and Anger: A Homage to Ildjarn
  • 2005: Hissing and Sullen on Destroyers from the Western Skies (As Night Devours the Sun)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Roberto Martinelli: Leviathan: Massive Conspiracy Against All Life. (No longer available online.) Maelstrom Zine # 61, April 2008, archived from the original on November 20, 2011 ; accessed on December 10, 2010 (English).
  2. ↑ Chris Mitchell: Interview with Wrest. Metalcrypt, April 8, 2004, accessed December 10, 2010 .
  3. ↑ Alex: Leviathan Demo Discography (1998–2002) ( Memento from January 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ).
  4. ↑ Brandon Stosuy: A Blaze in the North American Sky. The Believer, 2008, accessed April 7, 2011 .
  5. ↑ LEVIATHAN / CREBAIN. (No longer available online.) Blackmetal.com, formerly in the original ; accessed on April 7, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.blackmetal.com
  6. ↑ Stewart Voegtlin: Leviathan / Acherontas - Sic Luceat Lux. TheLeftHandPath.com, June 17, 2009, accessed April 7, 2011 (English).