Норвежская христианская экстремальная метал группа Antestor

Norwegian extreme metal band

Antestor is a Norwegian Christian extreme metal band formed in 1990 in Jessheim. Credited for starting the northern European Christian black metal scene, Antestor is the only Christian band to have an album released by Cacophonous Records, which has also released records by bands such as Dimmu Borgir, Sigh, and Cradle of Filth. The band's only release on Cacophonous, The Return of the Black Death, proved influential for the Christian black metal movement, and has sold over 10,000 copies. The group has gone through several line up changes over the years, and currently Antestor consists of the founding guitarist Lars Stokstad (Vemod), vocalist Ronny Hansen (Vrede), bassist Erik Normann Aanonsen, guitarist Robert Bordevick, and drummer Henning Børven. The original vocalist Kjetil Molnes (Martyr) and drummer Svein Sander (Armoth) left the band around 2000, and the members of a fellow Norwegian black metal group, Vaakevandring, joined Antestor. The reputable Norwegian extreme metal drummer Jan Axel Blomberg (Hellhammer) played session drums for their 2005 album The Forsaken and Det tapte liv EP. A fourth studio album, Omen, was released in 2012.

In 1990, the band was formed under the name Crush Evil by Lars Stokstad, Kjetil Molnes, Øyvind Hope and Erling Jørgensen in Jessheim, Norway. Paul W joined them as a drummer later on. Back then, the band's music style was a mixture of death metal, doom metal, and thrash metal. In 1991, they recorded and released their first demo, The Defeat of Satan, which contains three songs and an outro. The band is Christian and over the course of their career have received death threats because of this. The existence of the band itself caused a debate in the metal underground. For example, during the early 1990s, Bård Faust of Emperor brought up the subject when he discussed with Euronymous, guitarist/vocalist from the seminal black metal band Mayhem, in his zine Orcustus about the Norwegian scene. However, the band persevered despite these threats. Antestor was never forced to split apart, and in an almost ironic twist of fate, Jan Axel Blomberg (better known as Hellhammer, the drummer for Mayhem) was Antestor's session drummer on their latest two releases.

In 1993, Vegard Undal joined the band as a bassist and Svein Sander became their drummer. During that time, they changed the name Crush Evil to Antestor, which is Latin for "to call to witness" or "testify". 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 ("Jesus, Jesus, Be With Me"). Strawberry Records pressed 600 copies of the recording. In December 1994, Antestor recorded their first full length album titled Martyrium. Arctic Serenades Records was originally supposed to release that album, but because of unknown reasons that never happened, and the band tried to get another label to release the album. American based label Morphine Records would subsequently distribute bootleg copies of the album in 1997. In an interview, the drummer Armoth said: " we were in contact with a label called Morphine Records. But that was about signing a deal for the Martyrium album. But we never signed a contract but that guy, Burrito, made several promotapes and sold every bit of it illegally 'cause he didn't have a contract."

In 1997, Antestor recorded a promotional CD titled Kongsblod. The promo CD caught the interest of British Cacophonous Records, one of the biggest labels with experience in the black metal style and helped established groups such as Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir start their career. Cacophonous signed a record deal for 2 albums with Antestor. In 1998, Cacophonous released Kongsblod under a different name, The Return of the Black Death, and changed the original cover art of a famous Norwegian painting to artwork by Joe Petagno, a well known American heavy metal cover art creator. Cacophonous being a secular label releasing material by a band that held Christian beliefs generated some interest in the metal scene. In an interview with Art for the Ears Webzine, published on December 12, 1998, Armoth said: "We sent the CD and a short biography. They just wanted to sign us because of the music. And that's exactly what we wanted to do." The Return of the Black Death was mostly well received by both Christian and non Christian black metal fans and critics. For example, the British metal magazines Kerrang! and Terrorizer both gave the album 4 points out of 5. Musically, The Return of the Black Death is a mixture of black metal and doom metal. The album relies on hypnotic, cold atmosphere and showcases influences from Norwegian folk music, which led some to label Antestor as Viking metal. Unlike previously, around this time the band themselves said they felt uncertain whether a Christian band can play black metal, because the movement was still strongly associated with Satanism. The drummer Svein Sander says in the 1998 interview:

We don't even call our music black metal We call it Atmospheric Sorrow Metal. Because that's more neutral. Then people wouldn't say, "oh, you play black metal, you are Satanists". There really is a sorrow sound, sad sound, in our music. And it's kinda cold, winterly, Nordic in a way. New drummer Tony Kirkemo joined the band later in 2005 as live session drummer. The band played live shows rarely and only at explicitly Christian music festivals. Examples of performances the group have made in 2000s include the concerts at Bobfest in 2000 in Stockholm and 2004 in Linköping, and at the Nordic Fest 2004 in Oslo. Some of the members still play in the black metal band Vaakevandring, who played a reunion concert in 2007 together with Antestor at the Endtime Festival held at the end of March 2007 in Halmstad. Antestor performed the concert with numerous session musicians. In this concert the band announced that this is their last live show for a while.