Notre Dame (band)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Notre Dame
General information
Genre (s) Dark metal
founding 1997
resolution 2004
Last occupation
singing
 Snowy Shaw
singing
 Vampirella
Guitar, bass
 Jean-Pierre de Sade
Drums
 Mannequin de Sade

Notre Dame was a Swedish Metal - band , which was founded in 1997 and disbanded of 2004.

Band history

Tommie Helgesson aka Snowy Shaw , drummer with the Scandinavian metal groups Mercyful Fate , Memento Mori and King Diamond , found the music of his bands monotonous in the mid-1990s and regretted not being able to influence the songwriting . After breaking away from them and working on various projects, including two tribute albums , he launched an ambitious band in 1997: From a Norwegian Gothic band that came close to his own ideas of theatrical metal productions, he succeeded Poach Jean-Pierre de Sade (a pseudonym, of course), but only on the condition that his brother Mannequin de Sade may come along. Since the latter, in contrast to his brother, who could use both bass and guitar , could only play drums, Shaw did without his traditional instrument. With Jean-Pierre he alternated on the stringed instruments, both playing a double-necked production with guitar and bass sides, which even enabled them to switch within a song. According to the band legend, the pair of brothers should come directly from Paris , led by fourth band member Anna. His former girlfriend, who had moved to Paris to work as a dancer but ultimately only got engagements as a stripper , had returned to Sweden frustrated and seized the opportunity to continue her stage life in a more self-determined manner. Shaw had in mind to cause a sensation with alternating male / female vocals , although he had missed the fact that bands like the Theater of Tragedy from Norway were already doing this successfully. She also got a pseudonym, matching the band image she chose "Vampirella".

So if Shaw was active as a guitarist, bassist and singer in his own band, his drumming skills were still coveted outside of them. While he was at least nominally still a permanent member of the Swedish metal band Illwill, with whom he had recorded an album, during the development phase of Notre Dame, in 1999 he turned down the offer of another Swedish band, Dream Evil , where the vacant one Taking up the position of drummer gave me the promise to work as a session drummer on the LP production. It wasn't until 2002, when Notre Dame's career was still not gaining momentum and the label turned up its nose at Shaw's own initiative in terms of promotion , that he asked for full membership. By the time he left in 2006 due to internal tensions and a planned new solo attempt, he had recorded four albums with Dream Evil.

Shaw explained the strange sequence of the first Notre Dame releases in Rock Hard : “Our actual debut was an EP called Coming Soon To A Theater Near You , which was released on a small Norwegian label and served as an appetizer for the first long player Vol. I - Le Theater Du Vampire was intended to be released in September '99. Unfortunately, the lazy dog ​​who was responsible for the cover artwork didn't get out of the quark at all, and if I hadn't at some point sat behind him and his computer with a whip in hand, the thing would still not be finished. The release date was then moved to Halloween , and on that day we wanted to have a huge release party - with a live concert and the videos we shot. Unfortunately, our drummer took this whole vampire concept a little too seriously and drank animal blood during the video shoot. He ended up in the hospital with blood poisoning, of course. The show had to be called off, and so the record didn't hit the shops on Halloween either, but only appeared in January 2000. However, in the meantime we had recorded the Nightmare Before Christmas disc, which thematically dealt with things like the prophecies of Nostradamus , turns all the millennium bullshit and hated Christmas traditions. This record just had to be in the shops before Christmas. ”Thus the first recorded work appeared later than the one recorded afterwards. The farewell album Creepshow Freakshow Peepshow caused further irritation , as it is a live recording of a concert from the early days. Shaw justified this with the consideration of when his band was most harmonious and unused. Problems of harmony in the band became more and more common over time and they culminated in Anna Vampirella's subsequent complaint to remove her naked and lightly dressed pictures from covers and videos.

style

The band described their music as " horror metal " and named as stylistic influences u. A. the classic scary and horror films of the 20s and 30s and the British Hammer Studios . In addition, childhood memories of Alice Cooper and Kiss as well as various horror comic series were style-defining. The same goes for the bizarre aesthetics of the TV series at the time such as The Addams Family and Tales from the Crypt , which Shaw eventually turned into a freak spectacle and vaudeville theater fan.

While Robert Pöpperl from Rock Hard dismissed the concept as “cliché shit”, editorial colleagues Frank Albrecht and Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann defended it as “lovingly worked out to the last detail” or as varied and surprising, “because all the theatrics that thick applied drama, the gothic list do not appear striking, but subtle and perfidious ”. Mühlmann, however, also admitted that there were “songwriting defects”.

Discography

  • 1999: Coming Soon to a Theater Near You !!! (CD-EP)
  • 1999: Nightmare Before Christmas (CD, LP with different artwork)
  • 1999/2000 (contradicting information): Abattoir, Abattoir du noir '(live) (CD single, vinyl single)
  • 2000: Vol 1: Le theater du vampire (CD, DoLP with 2 bonus tracks , empty fourth page and different artwork)
  • 2001: Thrillogy (VHS, later DVD)
  • 2002: The 2nd Coming to a Theater Near You (remastered CD-EP with bonus tracks)
  • 2004: Demi Monde Bizarros (CD)
  • 2005: Creepshow Freakshow Peepshow (live) (CD)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Frank Albrecht: Notre Dame. Double necked vampires . In: Rock Hard , No. 154 (March 2000), p. 113.
  2. ↑ a b c d Interview on metalcovenant.com , accessed July 21, 2013.
  3. ↑ Interview on metalassault.com , accessed July 21, 2013.
  4. ↑ Interview on drummerforum.de , accessed on July 21, 2013.
  5. ↑ Interview on truemetal.org , accessed on July 21, 2013.
  6. ^ Robert Pöpperl: Notre Dame. Nightmare Before Christmas (section “plusminus”). In: Rock Hard , No. 153 (February 2000), p. 101.
  7. ^ Frank Albrecht: Notre Dame. Nightmare Before Christmas (section “plusminus”). In: Rock Hard , No. 153 (February 2000), p. 101.
  8. ↑ a b Wolf-Rüdiger Mühlmann: Notre Dame. Vol. 1: Le Theater Du Vampire . In: Rock Hard , No. 154 (March 2000), p. 94.