Antestor

Antestor formed in 1990 in Norway. They released two demos early in their career, and in 1994 they recorded their debut album, Martyrium. They dubbed the style of their early work as "sorrow metal" rather than as black metal, because they mourned the fact that most of Scandinavia's extreme metal subculture was deeply involved in Satanism.



The Defeat Of Satan was their first demo, containing three songs and an outro. The demo was originally released under their first band name "Crush Evil". The band is christian and has received serious death threats because of this. Euronymous from Mayhem once said "The Militants of Norwegian blackmetal will force this band to split up" which has not happened, and Hellhammer was eventually their session drummer.



Despair was their first self-released demo, and was released under the band name Antestor. The demo starts with an intro and ends with a cover of an old Norwegian hymn, called Jesus, Jesus, Ver Du Hjå Meg.



Martyrium, their first full-length, but was not actually released on a wide scale in 1994 due to problems with their record label. Antestor did not release a full-length album until 1998, when they released The Return of the Black Death on Cacaphonous Records.



The Return of the Black Death was actually dropped from Cacophonous Records after the label discovered that Antestor held Christian beliefs. Because of this, there are not many pressings of the album, and it is now rare. It is still sold at some internet-based Christian underground music stores.



However, The Return of the Black Death was well-received by both Christian and non-Christian black metal fans. Antestor was soon signed by Endtime Productions, a Christian metal record label that also helped start the career of Extol. In 2000, Endtime re-released Martyrium.



Over the next several years, the band remained somewhat quiet; they did not release any more albums until 2003, when they re-released their two earliest demos on one CD, titling it The Defeat of Satan. By then, they had replaced several of their members as well. Their original vocalist, Martyr, left the band, as did several others. Fortunately for Antestor, the breakup of another Christian metal band in Norway, Vaakevandring, led to several former Vaakevandring members joining Antestor. Namely, Ronny Hansen, adopting the new moniker Vrede, became Antestor's new vocalist, and Morten Sigmund Mageroy (known in Antestor as Sygmoon) stepped in as the new keyboardist. Ann-Mari Edvardsen joined the band as a female vocalist. The drummer, Svein Sander (in Antestor, Armoth), left the band during this time also, and Antestor would not find a new full-time drummer for several more years.



In 2004, Antestor released their first set of new songs since The Return of the Black Death, in an EP called Det Tapte Liv. Det Tapte Liv concentrated less on the black metal aspects of Antestor's style and more on instrumental songs. However, it did show that the band was preparing for their 2005 full-length, The Forsaken. Jan Axel Blomberg, better known as Hellhammer, was Antestor's session drummer on those two releases. A new drummer, Tony Kirkemo, joined the band later in 2005



Te midden van al het kwaad begon de Noorse black-metal band Antestor 15 jaar geleden aan een geheel eigen missie. Tegen alle trends in gaf de band in hun teksten Satan de schuld van de ellende in de wereld. Het maakte van Antestor binnen enkele jaren een omstreden maar tevens bekende band. Antestor is al die jaren een vreemde eend in de bijt gebleven. De sporadische optredens zijn stuk voor stuk legendarisch geworden, net als ieder album dat Antestor door de jaren heen heeft uitgebracht. Na twee prima demo’s kreeg de band een contract aangeboden van een Amerikaans label. Nog voor de release van ‘Martyrium’ werd de band gedropt en Antestor bleef achter met hoge schulden. In 1998 kwam ‘The Return Of The Black Death’ uit bij het beruchte Cacophonous Records uit. Het leverde Antestor wereldwijd veel bekendheid op, maar opnieuw delfde de band financieel gezien het onderspit. Tal van stille jaren volgden, die Antestor afgelopen jaar onverwachts doorbrak met de EP ‘Det Tapte Liv’. Drumgod HELLHAMMER bleek zijn talent te hebben ingezet voor Antestor, wat de band weer in het middelpunt van de belangstelling plaatste. Nu is daar ‘The Forsaken’ (CATALOGUE FD015), een absoluut meesterwerk met opnieuw HELLHAMMER op de drums. Kosten noch moeite zijn door het label Endtime Productions gespaard om van dit album een succes te maken. Toen Fear Dark de kans kreeg ‘The Forsaken’ van het legendarische Antestor via een licentie-deal in de BeNeLux uit te brengen, hoefden wij dan ook niet lang te twijfelen. De critici winden er geen doekjes om: ‘The Forsaken’ wordt nu al een van de beste black metal releases van 2005 genoemd. Luister zelf waarom…

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Releases:

2005 - The Forsaken CD

2004 - Det Tapte Liv EP

2000 - Martyrium CD

1998 - Return Of The Black Death CD