Sworn

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Sworn
Sworn.svg
General information
Genre (s) Extreme metal , thrash metal , heavy metal
founding 2005
Website sworn.no
Founding members
Christoffer Kjørsvik
Current occupation
Max Wilson (since 2007)
guitar
 Christoffer Kjørsvik
guitar
 Gøran Myster Hope (since 2005)
Tom Ian Rogne Klungland (since 2005)
former members
singing
 Lars Jensen (2005 (session musician), 2006-2007)
singing
 Roland "Røst" Røtne (2005–2006)
bass
 Leif Herland (2005-2008)
bass
 Dag "Dreggen" Anderson (2009-2010)
Session musician
bass
 Tor Øyel Bidne Kvitne (since 2010)

Sworn is a Norwegian extreme metal band from Bergen, founded in 2005 . So far, two studio albums have been released on the German label Twilight Vertrieb and one self- published.

history

2005–2007: founding until The Alleviation

Sworn was founded as a solo project by guitarist Christoffer Kjørsvik in spring 2005. On July 5th of the same year he released the demo Night Supremacy together with Lars Jensen von Myrkgrav as a guest singer , which he recorded and produced himself at home. When Kjørsvik's friend Tom Ian Klungland asked if he could join Sworn as a drummer, Kjørsvik decided to turn Sworn into a full-fledged band, also due to the positive response to the demo. Klungland also brought second guitarist Gøran Hope and bassist Leif Herland to Sworn, with whom he had already played in another band. Shortly afterwards the singer Roland "Røst" Røtne joined the band.

After intensive rehearsals and songwriting, the band played their first live shows in the province of Hordaland in the spring and summer of 2006 . A little later, in September, the debut album The Alleviation was recorded and produced in the Bergen Conclave Media Studio , in which Helheim and Taake had already recorded various albums. Before the end of the recording, Røtne left the band in mid-September 2006 and was replaced by Lars Jensen, who had already sung on the demo.

In March 2007 Sworn signed a record deal with the German Twilight distributor and released The Allevitation on July 20th of the same year. Through the album, Torsten Kühn, in turn managing director of the German Showbiz Management & Booking Agency agency, became aware of the band and took over the management of the band. At this time Lars Jensen got out again or was thrown out, which was mainly due to his severe stage fright. Sworn boldly helped to numerous concerts, including a tour with Behemoth , Aborted and Helrunar in Germany, which they already played with the new singer Max Wilson, who had announced himself as the new singer in the summer of 2007 after an advertisement on the Internet. In November of that year Sworn played at the Metal Invasion Festival in Passau .

2008–2009: Bastards and Conquerors

In 2008, the band concentrated on expanding their level of awareness and performing at numerous concerts and festivals such as Ragnarök , Summer Breeze , Walpurgis Metal Days and Ultra Ratio . During this time, bassist Leif Herland dropped out due to musical differences. The work on the next album was then continued as a trio and preparations for the recordings were made in late autumn and winter 2008.

In early 2009, the songwriting for Bastards and Conquerors was completed. With Dag “Dreggen” Anderson replacing Leif Herland, the album was recorded in February and March of the same year at Conclave Media Studio . Was published Bastards and Conquerors , as planned later for smaller complications, October 30, 2009. About a year after joining left Anderson in May 2010, due to personal differences, the band again.

Despite the large number of positive reviews Sworn received for Bastards and Conquerors , it found less sales than the debut album. This is mainly due to the low promotion of the album, as there were some complications with Twilight distribution at the time of release.

2010 to today: creative break and Dark Stars and Eternity

In September 2010 both guitarists received an endorsement contract from the German guitar amplifier company Engl . The songwriting for the third album was completed by the end of 2010, so that the recordings could begin at the turn of the year 2010/2011. Around this time, Tor Øyel Bidne Kvitne joined Sworn as a guest bassist. The vocal tracks were recorded in late March 2011. As a teaser for the third studio album, the band released the song The Silver Asylum on July 31, 2011 on their YouTube channel . The album was originally supposed to be released in late 2010 to early 2011. Due to various problems with the recordings and the bankruptcy of the previous record label Twilight Vertrieb in March 2012, the album release was postponed to an unknown time. To shorten the waiting time, the band released two more songs on August 13, 2012 with Awaken the Keepers and The Fall of Martyrs . There have been no live concerts since 2011 until today (as of 03/2018). On September 4, 2013, a digital EP was released under the name Doomlights . It contains the three songs that were published on Youtube in July 2011 and August 2012.

From the end of 2016, the band used Facebook to provide more information about the newly started and ongoing songwriting and recording process for the third studio album. The third studio album Dark Stars and Eternity was self- published by the band on March 8, 2018 and initially only offered digitally as a paid download or for streaming via the market-leading music portals. A physical release is planned for a later date.

style

music

Sworn's style mixes influences from 1990s Black Metal with Thrash and Heavy Metal influences as well as echoes of Power and Viking Metal . The band itself describes their style of music as Melodic Extreme Metal and describes the classification as a Black Metal band as a sign of ignorance. The author Hannes from the webzine Heavyhardes.de describes the music as "bombastic, but mainly epic and at the same time slightly melancholic Black Metal" . Both on her debut album and on the successor, many songs stand out due to their - according to the reviews - extremely well thought-out composition. Daniel "Nilgoun" Dervaric from the webzine dark-news.de compares the riffing of the song The Archaic Wrath with Catamenia , but says that "everything just seems to be more mature and coherent." Also comparisons with bands like Immortal , Windir , Bathory , Primordial , Dissection , Wallachia , Naglfar , and I are drawn.

In addition to the various metal influences, Sworn's compositions also contain folkloric elements, predominantly from Scandinavian folklore. Most of these are incorporated into a song in instrumental interludes or represent a separate instrumental piece, like the songs Derived , Somnolence and Descendant . In Derived , violin samples are also used; In The Beauty of My Funeral there are also flute samples.

The songwriting is done exclusively by front man and guitarist Christoffer Kjørsvik. According to his own statements, he found Sworn's style as follows:

“When I started playing guitar, I created standard thrash / heavy metal, and I looked for a band after having created a couple of songs. One day, I heard the song "Funeral Procession" by Gorgoroth, and I was completely blown away. The use of minor and major chords in this song is really amazing, and I found out that I wanted to create music with the same type of chord progressions. All of the thrash ideas were thrown in the thrash can, and my new inspiration resulted in the sound of Sworn as you know it today. It doesn't sound much like Gorgoroth though. I feel that I've found my own way of composing music - mainly mixing melodic black metal elements with heavy metal riffs and rhythms. "

“When I first started playing guitar, I was writing standard thrash / heavy metal and looking for a band after writing a few songs. Then one day I heard the song Funeral Procession by Gorgoroth and it blew me away. The combination of major and minor chords in this song is just amazing, and that's when I realized that I wanted to write music in the same style. I ditched all thrash metal ideas and my new inspiration led to the sound of how Sworn now sounds. It doesn't sound like Gorgoroth, but I think I've found my own way of composing music - mainly combining melodic black metal elements with heavy metal riffs and rhythms. "

- Christoffer Kjørsvik

In addition, he says he is also inspired by Burzum . The mid-tempo character is dominant in all songs. Most of the pieces are too long with playing times of around five to eight minutes.

The vocals of Lars Jensen and Max Wilson are screaming typical of the Black Metal genre , although deep growls are occasionally used as stylistic devices. Clear vocals are not used, only speech samples as in Beyonder or short, spoken passages as in Damnation Spawned .

Playing the drums is very diverse. As usual for the Black Metal, many will blast beats and fast double bass -Läufe used, but other ways of playing as variations of the basic beats , builds on it bearing rhythms and many fill-ins characterize the style of play Klung country. The author Bluttaufe from schwermetall.ch particularly praises the drummer's “computer-like” precision. Klungland's musical ability is also shown by the skillful alternation between slower and faster tempos.

Just like playing the drums, the guitar characters are usually complex. They are particularly known for their good compositions, driving rhythms, successful tempo changes and catchy melodies. The successful harmonies in polyphonic melodies and technical refinements such as different, complementary and partially building on attack patterns of the two guitars in some melodies are also characteristic. Guitar solos are not an essential stylistic device in Sworn's compositions and are only introduced occasionally, as in Heart of Decay or Vivid Visions . Stylistically, these solos are similar to those of progressive metal or NWoBHM bands. In solo by Heart of Decay will sweep picking used in some other songs, but most particularly for Summoning the gloomy , the game is technique of tapping or the Hammering used. The bass has mostly only an accompanying function; is not completely pushed back by the guitars, and occasionally takes over the melody lead as in Damnation Spawned .

Texts

The main themes of the song lyrics, which are written exclusively in English , are darkness, despair, pain, suffering and death, madness, insanity and madness. According to drummer and lyricist Tom Ian Rogne Klungland, they are particularly about "deep human emotions and the progress of evil " . Religious or political issues are not dealt with. Klungland already wrote the lyrics for the demo and only then became the band's drummer. At Kjørsvik's suggestion, he still wrote the lyrics.

Discography

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Markus Eck: "Interview with Sworn - Portraits of death and madness" (February 9, 2007) , metalmessage.de, accessed on January 1, 2011 (English).
  2. ↑ a b c d Filip Dupont: I know many people say we play "true Norwegian black metal", but that's far from the truth, and in our opinion that's just a lack of knowledge from those who say so. ( English ) archaic-magazine.com. Retrieved on June 27, 2011.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.archaic-magazine.com
  3. ↑ News ( Memento of July 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), sworn.no (English).
  4. ↑ Sworn , reverbnation.com, accessed December 3, 2012
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Kai Brennert: Interview with Sworn (September 2007) , the-pit.de, accessed on June 27, 2011.
  6. ↑ a b SWORN 2010 - 3rd album, live, etc. , myspace.com, accessed on June 27, 2011 (English).
  7. ↑ Album update, endorsement, contest +++ , myspace.com, accessed on June 27, 2011 (English).
  8. ↑ Entering the studio ... , facebook.com, accessed on June 27, 2011 (English).
  9. Jump up ↑ Sworn - The Silver Asylum , youtube.com, accessed August 5, 2011
  10. ↑ Simon Lindner: Twilight sales insolvent! (March 13, 2012) ( Memento of the original from October 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.metal4.de 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. , metal4.de, accessed on January 5, 2013
  11. ↑ Sworn - Awaken the Keepers (August 13, 2012) , youtube.com, accessed January 5, 2013
  12. ↑ Sworn - The Fall of Martyrs (August 13, 2012) , youtube.com, accessed January 5, 2013
  13. ↑ Doomlights EP released , facebook.com/SwornBand, accessed on September 7, 2013 (English)
  14. ↑ a b SWORN - Info , facebook.com, accessed on June 27, 2011 (English).
  15. ↑ a b c d The Alleviation Review ( English ) webzine.pivotalalliance.com. Retrieved January 1, 2011.
  16. ↑ a b Hannes: CD Review: Sworn - The Alleviation , heavyhardes.de, accessed on June 27, 2011.
  17. ↑ a b c d The Alleviation (Promo-Demo) Review , metalmesage.de, accessed on January 1, 2011 (offline).
  18. ↑ a b c Brösel: SWORN - The Alleviation :: Rezension / Review ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) 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. , metal-district.de, accessed on June 27, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.metal-district.de
  19. ↑ a b Hannes: CD Review: Sworn - Bastards And Conquerors , heavyhardes.de, accessed on June 27, 2011.
  20. ↑ a b c Ricarda Schwoebel: Sworn (N) / The Alleviation - Review , powermetal.de accessed on June 27, 2011.
  21. ↑ a b nilgoun: Sworn - Bastards and Conquerors (review and criticism) , dark-news.de, accessed on June 27, 2011.
  22. ↑ a b c d Bastards and Conquerors Review ( German ) pure-metal.de. Retrieved on December 31, 2010.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ).@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / pure-metal.de
  23. ↑ a b Sworn - The Alleviation , lordsofmetal.nl, accessed on June 27, 2011 (English).
  24. ↑ Claudia "Kruemel" Machwirth: Sworn - Bastards And Conquerors (November 20, 2009) , bleeding4metal.de, accessed on June 27, 2011
  25. ↑ Florian Krapp: Concert report: Behemoth + Aborted + Helrunar + Sworn . In: Metal Hammer , November 2007 edition, Axel Springer Mediahouse München GmbH, Munich 2007, p. 135
  26. ↑ a b c d e Danny Hoff: Sworn: The Alleviation , the-pit.de, accessed on June 27, 2011.
  27. ^ A b Lars Christiansen: Review: Sworn - The Alleviation , metalcrypt.com, accessed on June 27, 2011 (English).
  28. ^ Rüdiger Stehle: Sworn (N) / Bastards And Conquerors - Review , powermetal.de, accessed on June 27, 2011.
  29. ↑ a b baptism of blood: Sworn - The Alleviation Review , schwermetall.ch, accessed on June 27, 2011.
  30. ^ Daniel: Sworn , music-scan.de, accessed on June 27, 2011.