The Kovenant
| The Kovenant | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Black metal , industrial metal |
| founding | 1993 as a covenant |
| Founding members | |
| Stian "Nagash" / "Lex Icon" Arnesen | |
| Amund "Blackheart / Psy Coma" Svensson | |
| Current occupation | |
| Stian "Lex Icon" Arnesen | |
Electric guitar |
Psy coma |
Electric guitar |
Audun "Angel" stem |
| Geir Bratland | |
Drums |
Küth |
| former members | |
Drums |
Jan Axel "Hellhammer" / "Von Blomberg" Blomberg |
Electric bass |
Kharon |
Electric guitar |
Jamie "Astennu" Stinson |
Keyboard |
Steinar "Sverd" Johnsen |
singing |
Sarah Jezebel Deva |
The Kovenant is a Norwegian metal band that was originally founded under the name Covenant , but had to abandon it because it is trademarked by the Swedish future pop band Covenant .
biography
The band was formed in 1993 by Nagash and Blackheart . After a demo recording in 1994 ( From the Storm of Shadows ), the first album In Times Before the Light about Mordgrimm was released in 1997 as the record company's first release. The style of this album is based on atmospheric and melodic Black Metal .
For the second album Nexus Polaris in 1998 the drummer Hellhammer from Mayhem , the keyboardist Sverd from Arcturus and the guitarist Astennu from Carpe Tenebrum and Dimmu Borgir joined the band. Sarah Jezebel Deva from Therion and Cradle of Filth appeared as a guest singer. A contract was also signed with the German label Nuclear Blast to release the album; according to the band, over 15,000 copies of the album were sold in the first week of its release. Sverd left the band for personal reasons and due to musical differences. Nagash left Dimmu Borgir to devote himself entirely to The Kovenant, and the band began work on their next album. She was nominated for the Norwegian music award Spellemannprisen for the hard rock album of the year; the band did not attend the award ceremony, but won the award as the first extreme metal band and thus prevailed against Dimmu Borgir with Godless Savage Garden and Mundanus Imperium with The Spectral Spheres Coronation .
While working on their album, Covenant had to change their name to The Kovenant for legal reasons. After renaming and changing their musical style, the band split from Astennu, who wanted to concentrate on Dimmu Borgir, and Sarah Jezebel Deva, and the musicians changed their pseudonyms: Nagash was now called Lex Icon, Blackheart was called Psy Coma um and Hellhammer in Von Blomberg. The third album Animatronic , which came out under the working title Prophecies of Fire , was released in October 1999. On this album, the band mixed the atmospheric black metal elements of Nexus Polaris with electronic and keyboard-heavy sounds. In 2002 the band remixed their debut album In Times Before the Light and released this version on the Hammerheart Records label .
In 2003, the band released a fourth album titled SETI (named for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence , the search for extraterrestrial civilizations ), which significantly by contemporary electronica is affected. Von Blomberg then left The Kovenant, while Küth von Ram-Zet and Geir Bratland from Apoptygma Berzerk joined the band. In 2003, the next album The Dreaming Spiers was announced, which was to be released at the end of 2004 and should be “more guitar-oriented and darker” than SETI . In December 2003 it was announced that the band would record a demo recording of some songs for The Dreaming Spiers in the studio . In September 2004 it was announced that the band would start recording in the winter of 2004 and that the album would be released in mid-2005. It was announced under the title Aria Galactica in 2007, but has not yet appeared.
The Kovenant have not disbanded, but are only active sporadically. In April 2010 they appeared in the almost complete line-up of Nexus Polaris (Nagash, Psy Coma, Hellhammer, Sverd and Sarah Jezebel Deva) at the Norwegian Inferno Metal Festival Norway and played the album live. At the end of October 2011 Nagash played Troll Covenant's debut album live at the Dutch Aurora Infernalis Festival.
style
The style of the demo recording From the Storm of Shadows was described in the Rites of Eleusis as technical Black Metal in the style of Satyricon with influences from Darkthrone and Emperor ; Covenant seems to be a very good and talented band. The band itself describes the music of their early days as atmospheric Black Metal with many melodies. The second album Nexus Polaris , described by the band as “progressive dark pulsing atmospheric metal” and referred to by Blackheart as “Progressive Space Metal”, is fast and raw with neoclassical-inspired lead passages and keyboard fills . Under the pseudonym Tornado, Metalion wrote in Slayer in 2000 that retrospectively the two Covenant albums were "pretty crappy"; the band's change is "terrifying", Nuclear Blast is handing out the cards and there is still room for another Marilyn Manson clone. You couldn't seriously listen to the band, they were a money machine following Nuclear Blast and Hellhammer was wasting his talent in this band.
With Animatronic , the first album after the renaming, The Kovenant developed in the direction of the 1990s mainstream, in the style of Cradle of Filth and with a theatricality similar to the Marilyn Manson; According to Steve Huey from Allmusic , however, the band had problems developing their own cohesive style. The few remaining metal elements on Animatronics were watered down on the successor SETI , here too there were Marilyn-Manson comparisons.
Discography
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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As a covenant
- 1994: From the Storm of Shadows (Demo)
- 1995: Promo 1995 (demo)
- 1997: In Times Before the Light
- 1998: Nexus Polaris
As The Kovenant
- Albums
- 1999: Animatronic
- 2002: In Times Before the Light (Remix)
- 2003: SETI
- 2007: In Times Before the Light 1995 (re-release of the debut album, including From the Storm of Shadows )
- Singles
- 2003: SETI (Club Single)
- Sampler contributions
- 2000: New World Order - Clubmix on Extrem Terror and Beauty in Darkness Vol. 4
- 2002: The Memory Remains on A Tribute to the Four Horsemen (only on the German version)
- 2004: Star by Star (Apoptygma Berzerk Remix) on Erinys Music from & Inspired by the Erinys Graphic Novel and Advanced Electronics Vol.3
Web links
- Official website (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Biography .
- ↑ MORDGRIMM , accessed October 7, 2012.
- ↑ a b Vinnere / Nominerte ( Memento of the original from September 21, 2013 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. .
- ↑ THE KOVENANT Editing Video Footage, Pursuing Outside Projects ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ The Kovenant - naming! ( Memento of the original from May 22, 2015 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. .
- ↑ The Kovenant - Demo! ( Memento of the original from May 22, 2015 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. .
- ↑ THE KOVENANT To Enter Studio This Winter ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2004 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. .
- ↑ News .
- ^ Arlette Huguenin: Inferno Festival 2010 , vampster , accessed on February 9, 2013.
- ↑ Mystery Flame: Stories: ABSU, DHG, COVENANT, KHOLD, VIRUS, NEGUR ( Memento of the original from June 8, 2012 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. , avantgarde-metal.com , accessed February 9, 2013.
- ^ Covenant . 'From the Storm of Shadows' . In: Rites of Eleusis , No. 2, 1995, p. 42.
- ^ Antti J. Ravelin: Nexus Polaris - Kovenant .
- ^ Jon Kristiansen : Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries . Brooklyn, New York: Bazillion Points Books 2011, p. 384.
- ↑ Tornado : Up Against the Wall Motherfucker !!!! . A Worst Case Scenario Written by Tornado! . In: Jon Kristiansen: Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries . Brooklyn, New York: Bazillion Points Books 2011, p. 406.
- ↑ Steve Huey: Animatronics - Kovenant .
- ↑ Quentin Kalis: The Kovenant - SETI .
- ↑ Chart sources: DE
