Dark Funeral
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dark Funeral | |
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| Country | Sweden |
| Years active | 1993-current |
| Genres | Black metal |
| Labels | No Fashion Records Metal Blade Records Necropolis Records Regain Records Candlelight Records |
| Members | Lord Ahriman, Emperor Magus Caligula, Chaq Mol, Matte Modin |
| Website(s) | Official Website |
Dark Funeral is a black metal band from Sweden. The band was formed in 1993 by guitarists Lord Ahriman and Blackmoon. Their lyrical themes are often satanism, anti-christianity, apocalypse and highly blasphemous themes. Both Emperor Magus Caligula (the band's vocalist) and Ahriman are known to be ardent satanists, and express their beliefs in artistic fashion lyrically and musically.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] 1993
Dark Funeral was founded by Lord Ahriman (Micke Svanberg) and Blackmoon (David Parland). They were later joined by Draugen and Themgoroth.
[edit] 1994
Their self-titled and self-financed, mini-cd was recorded at Dan Swanö's Uni-Sound studio in January. It was released on May 4th to an unsuspecting world. And on that very same day, the band performed their very first gig at Luse Lottes Pub in Oslo, Norway. After the recording sessions, Draugen (drums) left the band and was replaced by Equimanthorn.
[edit] 1995
The band signed up to No Fashion Records, which later turned out to be their biggest mistake yet, and started preparing songs for a full-length album. After a miserable attempt to record The Secrets Of The Black Arts at Uni-Sound studios (again with Dan Swanö), the band decided to relocate to Abyss Studio and re-record the entire album. In between the studio sessions a new song was written and added to the tracklist "When Angels Forever Die". With engineer Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy) on board, the band finally got the production they were looking for. Shortly after, Dark Funeral played their first festival gig, Under The Black Sun I in Berlin. A few weeks prior to this gig Emperor Magus Caligula joined the band as vocalist and eventually became a permanent member. The band also shot their very first video for the track "The Secrets Of The Black Arts", which was well received and played on music channels all over the world.
[edit] 1996
On January 28th, the band's first full-length-album, "The Secrets Of The Black Arts", was released and the album was soon licensed to Metal Blade (North America) and Mystic Production (Poland). The line-up troubles which first saw vocalist Themgoroth and drummer Equimanthorn leave was soon elevated when co-founding member Blackmoon also left. Fortunately they were more than compensated with the addition of Alzazmon (drums), Typhos (guitars) and Emperor Magus Caligula (vocals/bass). With the addition of Caligula (Masse Broberg, the original vocalist of Hypocrisy), Dark Funeral was brought to a new level of aggression and intensity. Together with Necromass the band embarked on the Satanic War Tour I throughout Europe. Also during 1996, the line-up of Emperor Magus Caligula, Lord Ahriman, Alzazmon and Blackmoon recorded their unholy version of Bathory's "Call From The Grave" and "Equimanthorn" for the Bathory tribute, In Conspiracy With Satan. (These also appeared later re-mastered for the re-titled re-release of the band's legendary debut "In The Sign…".).
[edit] 1997
The second leg of Satanic War Tour followed with Ancient and Bal Sagoth as support. Also, Dark Funeral played their very first show in America at the Expo Of The Extreme festival in Chicago. From there the band embarked on the "The American Satanic Crusade Tour" with Usurper_(band) in support. Originally the tour was supposed to also feature Acheron and Destroyer 666, but after too many hassles, both bands had to cancel. In September, the road dogs returned to the Abyss studio to record "Vobiscum Satanas". Ultra-raw and hyper-fast, the unholy duo Ahriman/Caligula had delivered a record that even the last sceptics had to admit that Dark Funeral were spearheading Swedish black metal together with Marduk.
[edit] 1998
The Ineffable Kings Of Darkness Tour with Enthroned and Liar Of Golgotha took place with Dominion coming into the band as a session bass player. The band also made their second major festival appearance at the Swedish Hultsfreds festival. After the festival, Thyphos was kicked out and Dominion, (who originally was a guitarist), was taken on as the band's second guitarist and Caligula reverts back to doing both vocals and bass. Before the band headed out on the "Bleed For Satan" tour, with Cannibal Corpse and Infernal Majesty, Alzazmon (drums) left and the band's long time friend Gaahnfaust (who was also in the band back in 1996 for a short time) was recruited.
[edit] 1999
The band returned overseas for another mini-tour "Black Plague Across The West", when they played in Mexico for the first time before they headed north and laid waste to the state of California. Afterwards they also embarked on their longest and most successful European tour "The Satanic Inquisition" together with Dimmu Borgir.
[edit] 2000
With engineer Tommy Tägtgren, the band recorded the EP "Teach The Children To Worship Satan" at the Abyss studio B (featuring the new song "An Apprentice Of Satan" and cover-versions from Slayer, Mayhem, Sodom and King Diamond). For the EP, the band also filmed a live video for "An Apprentice Of Satan". They joined Deicide, Immortal and Cannibal Corpse for the No Mercy festivals. After the departure of Gaahnfaust, Matte Modin (Defleshed) joined the band as a permanent member and made his debut at the With Full Force festival.
[edit] 2001
In January/February the band again entered Abyss Studio to record their third (and long awaited) full-length album. The new album "Diabolis Interium." With the help of producer Peter Tägtgren and studio technician Lars Szöke, Dark Funeral created the masterpiece of their recording career thus far, a record which would be considered a mile-stone in the evolution of black metal in the future. Beside the usual highspeed-songs, the band showed a new side, slowing down for “Goddess Of Sodomy”. “An Apprentice Of Satan”, already known from the last EP, was reworked for "Diabolis Interium." Other highlights of the CD were “Armageddon Finally Comes”, "Hail Murder" and the brutal opener “The Arrival Of Satan’s Empire”.
Due to the overwhelming positive response of "Diabolis Interium" from the public and the press, the band were able to secure deals that brought their music across to a much wider audience with licenses in Japan (Soundholic Co.Ltd), Brazil (Hellion Records), Poland (Mystic Productions), Romania (Rocris Disc), Bulgaria (Rocris Disc), Thailand (S.Stack Co. Ltd), Russia (Irond Records Ltd), Taiwan, Hong Kong & China (Magnus Music). With the exceptional response to the album in Brazil which was released through Hellion Records, another local label, Somber Records licensed the band's entire back catalogue.
As soon as "Diabolis Interium" hit the streets, Dark Funeral once again hit the road. First they toured Europe, supported by Tidfall (NO), Anorexia Nervosa (FR) and Ragnarok (NO). On this tour the band brought in Mikael Hedlund (Hypocrisy) to play the bass. After this tour Mikael resumed duties with his main band. They recruited Richard Cabeza for the session bassist slot. The band also toured the US, supporting their long time friends Cannibal Corpse. With "Diabolis Interium", the Swedish radio station ROCKET 95.3 FM nominated Dark Funeral in the category “Best Swedish Hardrock Band”. Other bands nominated at the same time and in the same category were Breach, Entombed and Arise.
[edit] 2002
In October 2002 the band made their very first tour in the Far East. The tour included shows in Japan, Taiwan and Singapore. The band was the very first western extreme metal band to play Taiwan and Singapore. They received a warm welcome from the Asian crowd, whom not only understood their brand of dark and majestic music, but also the essence of the band itself.
November 29th 2002, the band and MNW/No Fashion Records announced that they were no longer contractually bound to Necropolis Records, who had licensed the band's 2001 masterpiece "Diabolis Interium" for North America. Official Termination of contract papers had already been delivered to Necropolis Records, putting an official end of Dark Funeral's tenure with said record label. This was a result of Necropolis' deliberate breach of contract with the band and label. The band have since put this unfortunate incident behind them and begun moving on with the future.
After the Asian tour, guitarist Dominion felt that he could not give 100% to Dark Funeral and felt it was in everyone’s best interest to resign his position. He had felt his lack of motivation to dedicate himself to a full-time touring band was not fair to the band, and also wanted to explore other musical options. Dominion officially resigned upon their completion of the Asian tour. Dominion would always be regarded as a very good and close comrade and brother to the band.
[edit] 2003
After the Asian tour, the band begin auditioning guitarists to replace the departed Dominion. A new guitarist was found in the form of Chaq Mol, who has a long history in different local metal acts. He is also in the two man doom/black metal project Mordichrist. He made his official debut with the band at Wacken Open Air 2003.
After a successful gig at the Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany the band headed down to South America for a tour through Brazil, Chile and Colombia. This tour became one of the most successful tours ever undertaken by the band. During the tour the band recorded a couple of the shows with plans to release a live album. After sifting through the recorded material with their live sound engineer (Erik Lidbom, Hitfire Productions), “De Profundis Clamavi Ad Te Domine" was born.
[edit] 2004
Dark Funeral officially announced their split from MNW/No Fashion Records. Shortly after, the band signed a license deal with Regain Records for their live album “De Profundis Clamavi Ad Te Domine”. It was licensed to several other countries. On May 31st, 2005 it also found it´s long awaited release in the US through Candlelight USA.
In January of 2004 the band partnered with Goatwhore (US) and Zyklon (NO) in Japan on the Extreme The Dojo Volume 9. Shortly after the band continue to tour with a spate of Mexican dates. A few festivals are also being executed, Spanish Piorno Rock (w/ Sepultura, Saxon, Destruction, Lacuna Coil among others), Finnish Tuska and X-Mass Festivals. The band appears as the headline act at Germany's Party San, Swedish Nordic Rage and LA´s Gathering Of The Bestial Legions Festival. The band also hit Italy together with Defleshed for a short, but extremely successful burst of dates. In December 2004 Dark Funeral then resumed touring by first playing Israel and then hitting Russia and Ukraine for the Black Winter Days Tour, together with Horned NecroCannibals and Icewind Blast.
[edit] 2005
On January 20, 2005, they signed a new record deal with Regain Records. The band concentrates on writing material for a new full-length album yet still manage to perform at the Metal Mind Festival in Poland before finally joining the No Mercy Tour with Six Feet Under, Nile, Dying Fetus among others.
On May 23, the band entered Dug Out Studios together with producer Daniel Bergstrand and Örjan Örnkloo to begin work on their new, long awaited full-length album. The band brought in Gustaf Hielm (ex Meshuggah) to play the bass on the record. On August 18, Dark Funeral's new Masterpiece "Attera Totus Sanctus" was completed.
The album was well received by the metal community, despite disappointment in the decline of Caligula's vocals, possibly due to aging.[citation needed] It entered the Swedish top 40 as number 35 and the Swedish Heavy Metal chart as number 3.[citation needed] Few black metal records have hit the charts.
In November, Dark Funeral began working with Dragon Production, which is a division of A.S.S. Concert & Promotion GmbH. Dragon Production were entrusted with handling tour bookings.
[edit] 2006
In Autumn 2006, Dark Funeral made a tour in South America. On October 8, 2006, at a concert in Lima, Peru, Dark Funeral were forced to perform without their vocalist and bassist, Caligula, since he was sick. Many angry fans started a riot, and vandalised the properties near the venue.[1] Following the riot, all the band's instruments were confiscated by Peruvian police. After a week, the band announced they had to postpone their upcoming concerts in Latvia and Lithuania because of this unfortunate situation.[2]
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio releases
- Dark Funeral (1994)
- The Secrets Of The Black Arts (1996)
- Vobiscum Satanas (1998)
- Teach Children To Worship Satan (2000)
- Diabolis Interium (2001)
- Attera Totus Sanctus (2005)
[edit] Live and compilation releases
[edit] Demos and bootlegs
- Dark Funeral [Demo] - (1994)
[edit] Band members
[edit] Current members
- Emperor Magus Caligula (Masse Broberg) - Vocals, Bass - (1996-)
- Lord Ahriman (Micke Svanberg) - Guitar - (1993-)
- Chaq Mol (Bo Karlsson) - Guitar - (2003-)
- Matte Modin - Drums - (2000-)
[edit] Former members
- Themgoroth - Vocals, Bass - (1993-1996)
- Dominion (Matti Mäkelä) - Guitar - (1998-2002)
- Typhos (Henrik Ekeroth) - Guitar - (1996-1998)
- Blackmoon (David Parland) - Guitar - (1993-1996)
- Gaahnfaust (Robert Lundin) - Drums - (1998-2000)
- Alzazmon (Tomas Asklund) - Drums - (1996-1998)
- Equimanthorn - Drums - (1994-1996)
- Draugen - Drums - (1993-1994)
[edit] References
- ^ "Dark Funeral guitarist comments on Peru incident", Blabbermouth.net, 2006-10-13. Retrieved on 2006-10-19.
- ^ "Dark Funeral: Latvia and Lithuania shows postponed", Blabbermouth.net, 2006-10-18. Retrieved on 2006-10-19.
