SUPREME DEATH/ BLACK METAL ART SINCE 1993

BELPHEGOR emerges as one of the most extreme line ups to ever come out of the death black metal scene. The band members themselves describe their hellride as “Supreme Death/ Black Metal Art”

SEYN TODT IN SCHWARTZ

1993: The now legendary demo on Maxi Cd format, BLOODBATH IN PARADISE, is circulated within the underground and earns BELPHEGOR the reputation of an unrepentant, blasting war machine. 1995: The first studio album, THE LAST SUPPER, is released on Lethal Records and is a welcomed collection of infernal hymns for their growing fan base. Following their own path of sin and befitting their ever-evolving anti-religious, anti-life attitude, BELPHEGOR’s logo gets revamped to incorporate two inverted crosses completely surrounded by blood representing the slaughter of Christians and martyrs.
1997: Last Episode Records releases BLUTSABBATH. BELPHEGOR’s sinister reputation continues to gain momentum.

MUSICA INFERNALIA

2000: Stagnation means death! The band spreads their disease once again via NECRODAEMON TERRORSATHAN, logging yet another volume of blasphemy added to The Vatican Library. 2002: BELPHEGOR celebrates their 10th anniversary by capturing a live set with songs played even faster than their original studio recordings on INFERNAL LIVE ORGASM
(released on their own label, Phallelujah Productions).

DIE TOTEN REITEN SCHNELL

2003: Produced at Mastersound Studios, BELPHEGOR cram their high-speed murderous brutality into the 8-track release of LUCIFER INCESTUS, and then tour again throughout Europe. 2005: The band opts to once again to work with Alex Krull at Mastersound to create the morbid GOATREICH – FLESHCULT, and later shredding Europe with the infamous X-Mass Festival and an eighteen dates headliner tour. “We don’t give a fuck about anything and don’t let anyone talk us into doing anything. Only the music counts!”
PEST TEUFEL APOKALYPSE

Produced, mixed, and mastered by Andy Classen at Stage One Studio in Kassel, Germany, and featuring artwork by Seth Siro Anton PESTAPOKALYPSE VI is, on the one hand, a concept album based on The Devil, Pestilence, and The Apocalypse, and on the other, a lesson in infernology. Incorporating unconventional harmonies with dynamic execution and monumentally aggressive vocal work, its multi-language approach (the German verses in “Bluhtsturm Erotika” are taken from the works of Marquis de Sade & Goethe; “Sanctus Perversum” defiles the church’s monopoly on Latin) accurately represents the infernal musical landscape BELPHEGOR comfortably inhabits.

Accept it: our world is necessarily haunted by evil, and when the armies of the dead return with their pestilence to annihilate the living, there will be no better guides while traveling down the fiery road to the endless abyss of Hell than BELPHEGOR.

BONDAGE GOAT ZOMBIE: BDSM & SATHAN 2008

With their seventh Album, suitably titled BONDAGE GOAT ZOMBIE, the Death/ Black Metal institution crushes all their previous releases! A real massacre of pounding Death Metal and majestic, hyper fast Black Metal spread out over nine killer songs full of diabolical possession, and pure darkness! BONDAGE GOAT ZOMBIE is their most mature effort up to day, this time BELPHEGOR have managed to melt ultra blastbeats and heaviness to one union.

The Fleischwerk was once again recorded in three sessions form November 2007 to January 2008 with Andy Classen in the famous Stage One Studios in Kassel/Germany – guarantying a smashing and powerful production.
The concept of the album is inspired by the infamous Marquis De Sade (1740 – 1814), giving the lyrics of the album a blessed touch of Evil. As on the last album, the vocals are held in English, German and Latin.
BONDAGE GOAT ZOMBIE is once again a lesson in violence and a true offering when it comes to crushing Metal with the extra punch in the face.

BELPHEGOR continue to keep the fucking devil and demonic spirit in Metal music alive…

Merciless, enormous and all-encompassing, Origin deliver a sonic barrage of inhuman proportions. Faster, darker and more complex than anything the death genre has issued to date, Origin’s otherworldly musicianship while delivering heinous amounts of the band’s unique “aggro-tech” extremity. Akin to awakening into a previously unknown state of consciousness, Informis Infinitas Inhumanitas is an audio head trip where the rules of time and space no longer exist.

Formed in 1996, Shining is a Swedish Extreme band that incorporates many doom metal elements in the music. Due to the depressive undertones of their music and the mostly suicide-themed lyrics, Shining’s music is often referred to as “suicidal black metal” although the band themselves would point out that they are not a Black Metal band.

In a glutted underworld of black metal, Abigail Williams may be just the band to spark some life and vibrancy back into the wavering genre. The group’s second full album, In The Absence of Light, taps into the spirit of the band’s chosen style but injects it with intricate touches of classic and thrash metal. Raw, but clear production and a venomous zeal, it is as infectious as it is lethal.

“The whole record is pretty bleak and depicts a world completely void of light,” says frontman Sorceron. “And I think it’s just a product of the environment we live in and a reflection of the way I see humanity heading.”

In some ways, In The Absence of Light is true to the rules of black metal. The vocals are harsh and shrill, sounding like the product of a lacerated larynx. The guitars buzz, rip and roar alongside articulate, rapid licks and blazing solos. And the drums slam and crash like exploding mortar shells, whether battering with blast beats, double-bass rolls or syncopated snare hits. There is just the right amount of haunting keyboard washes, though the keys (all played by Sorceron) take a definitive back seat to those on Abigail Williams’ 2008 disc In The Shadow of a Thousand Suns.

“I like keyboards, but before we started this record we decided to get rid of a lot of them because we wanted to do something different. We don’t want to make the same record over and over.”

In addition to scrapping the keyboard overload, Sorceron did away with the studied, belabored work ethic he had when he wrote In The Shadows of a Thousand Suns. All of the songs for In the Absence of Light were written and recorded in a frenzied four weeks between February and March 2010. And while none of the songs on the album sound rushed, they’re filled with gripping urgency and immediacy.

“We kept everything raw and didn’t allow ourselves to embellish anything,” Sorceron says. “When it was time to do the lyrics, I wrote them the same day I performed them on the record. We wanted to take a real spontaneous approach and not over think anything. I’m really proud of what we did.”

Abigail Williams tracked In the Absence of Light at Conquistador Studios in Cleveland, Ohio. For the first three weeks, the band collaborated in ways unlike previous recordings. Sorceron, guitarist Ian Jekelis and drummer Ken Bedene jammed out ideas working as a collective unit. “I only had two songs written when we came into the studio,” reveals Sorceron. “We literally played and recorded for hours. Then we would listen back and pick out what we thought was good and we’d start to put songs together.”

In the Absence of Light was produced by Sorceron with additional engineering assistance by Cole Martinez. The album was mixed by the legendary Peter Tagtgren (Hypocrisy, Dimmu Borgir, Immortal). “Peter was amazing,” Sorceron says. “I sent him rough mixes of how I wanted things to sound, and he surpassed what I wanted. He left intact the sound sonically and left the rawness in there and he mixed it quickly, too, which I prefer for our sound. I couldn’t have asked for the record to come out better.”

Formed in 2005, Abigail Williams is named after the eleven year old girl who was one of the first two accusers in the Salem witch trials of 1692. After touring exhaustively, the band released their debut EP Legend in 2006. Touring continued leading the band in 2008 to enter the studio with producer James Murphy (ex-guitarist of Death, Disincarnate and Testament) to track their full-length debut In the Shadows of a Thousand Suns. The album featured a guest performance from Emperor/Zyklon drummer Trym Torson. More touring and a rash of lineup changes followed before Abigail Williams went to Cleveland for In the Absence of Light.

“We did it in Cleveland because it’s one of the grimmest cities I’ve ever been in,” Sorceron says. “It’s where we wrote the last album as well. There’s just something about the city that fits this music. It’s a crappy, dark, cold place, especially in the winter. It’s already a ghost of a place and the winter really amplifies that. I couldn’t wait to get back to New York afterwards, but I think being in Cleveland allowed us to capture the vibe we were after.” With the band’s strongest lineup to date and best material so far, Abigail Williams are prepared to change people’s preconceptions about what black metal is supposed to be. In September the band will tour North America with Immolation, Vader, Lecherous Nocturne and Pathology and, while they plan to be more selective than they’ve been in the past about bills they’ll play, Abigail Williams hope to spread the black magic onstage until their name is synonymous with the progenitors of the genre that once inspired them.

Nucleus is a death metal band from Chicago, formed in 2012.

Blood of the Wolf is a blackened death metal band from Chicago, Illinois. Formed in 2012, Blood of the Wolf combines razor–sharp riffing with memorable melodic passages, relentless drumming and intense vocal delivery. For fans of: Belphegor, God Dethroned, Marduk, Vader