Antestor is a Norwegian black metal^[1] band that formed in 1990. The group is credited for starting the whole northern European Christian extreme metal scene with their 1991 demo The Defeat of Satan, according to the liner notes of the writer Michael Bryzak on the band's compilation album of the same title.^[2] 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. In 1990s, Antestor, together with Horde, were the only two Christian black metal groups who had a record deal with a secular label. The band's only release on Cacophonous, The Return of the Black Death, proved influential for the Christian black metal movement. They dubbed the style of their early work as "sorrow metal" rather than black metal.^[3]

The group has gone through several line-up changes over the years, and currently Antestor consists only of the founding guitarist Lars Stokstad (Vemod) and vocalist Ronny Hansen (Vrede). The original vocalist Kjetil Molnes (Martyr) and drummer Svein Sander (Armoth) left the band around 2000, when the members of a fellow Norwegian black metal group, Vaakevandring, joined Antestor. The reputive Norwegian extreme metal drummer Jan Axel Blomberg (Hellhammer) played session drums for their 2005 album The Forsaken and Det Tapte Liv EP.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Crush Evil era

Jessheim, the town where Antestor was formed.

In 1990, the band was formed by Lars Stokstad, Kjetil Molnes, and Erling Jørgensen in Jessheim, a small town in the Ullensaker municipality in Akershus county of Norway, under the name "Crush Evil". Paul W joined them as a drummer. Back then, the band's music style was a mixture of death metal, doom metal, and thrash metal.^[4] 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 serious death threats because of this.^[5] A reviewer describes: "During the time the Norwegian black metal inner circle was rearing its ugly head, Antestor was stirring things up by playing extreme metal that spoke of hope in Jesus Christ and the deception of satan."^[2]

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.^[6] Faust asked: "Don't you think that something is terribly wrong when it has gone so far that we have a Christian "death metal" band here (Crush Evil)? Any advice on how we should kill them?"^[6] Euronymous replied to this: "It's bad enough to have a couple of society bands, but a Christian band is too much. But don't worry, we have plans. They will not continue for a very long time."^[6] 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.

[edit] Name change

 Music samples:

"Depressed"

29 second sample of "Depressed" by Antestor, from Martyrium (1994). The song represents the band's early death/doom sound with some black metal elements.

Problems listening to the file? See media help.

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 "call to witness" or "testify").^[7] 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.^[8]

In 1994, Antestor recorded their first full-length album titled Martyrium. Arctic Serenades Records was originally sopposed to release that album, but because of unknown reasons that never happened, and the band tried to get another label to release the album. 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."^[9] However, the tape copies circulated in up to fifth generation copies and their audience grew fast.^[10] Martyrium was the last album that emphasized on their death/doom metal direction.^[4]

In June 3, 1994, Antestor appeared on a local television program called "BootlegTV" where youth could practice and experience recording and video production. Usually local bands from Oslo played on that program which was broadcasted on the television station TVNorge. During the course of this program, Antestor played five songs from Martyrium.^[11] In June 6, 1995, Antestor was featured on the Norwegian weekly newspaper Morgenbladet's article about the phenomenon of Christian black metal, surrounding the black metal parody controversy of the Australian unblack metal group Horde's 1994 album Hellig Usvart. In the article, vocalist Kjetil Molnes explains the band's stance on if a Christian band can play black metal: "We identify ourselves as black metal as a music style, not black metal as an ideology or belief."^[12]

[edit] Record deal with Cacophonous Records

Music samples:

"A Sovereign Fortress"

Sample of "A Sovereign Fortress" by Antestor, from The Return of the Black Death (1998). The song illustrates Antestor's "sorrow metal" style, which is a mixture of black metal and doom metal with folk influences.

Problems listening to the file? See media help.

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.^[9] 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 in 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."^[9] 2 years later in a 2000 interview with the Finnish The Christian Underground Zine issue 4, the fanzine's interviewer asked Antestor: "However, you had a record deal with Cacophonous Records (ex-Cradle of Filth, Bal-Sagoth). What kind of experiences did you get from that?" The band replied: "Pretty bad, actually. I can not say they did anything else than released the album. No money, no royalties, nothing."^[13] The interviewer also asked: "Did the record company set any demands concerning your image?" Antestor replied: "Nothing like that. They just said that it is not recommendable for us to announce exactly everywhere that we are a Christian band, and they censored the words 'Lord' and 'Jesus' from our lyrics. We ourselves removed a few texts because we did not want to provoke unnecessarily."^[13]

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. The band themselves called this style "atmospheric sorrow metal"^[9] because of the overall depressive output. 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.^[9][3]

Antestor's record deal with Cacophonous Records was valid for years but, according to the band, the label did nothing else aside from publishing their second recording. Cacophonous never paid Antestor their royalties, nor kept contact with them after the album release.^[13] There are rumors among metal fans that Antestor was immediately dropped from the label after their Christian beliefs were discovered.^[14] However, Antestor has stated otherwise in their interviews.^[13] Contrary to general belief, The Return of the Black Death is still part of Cacophonous Records' catalogue and the label has taken new prints of the album.^[15][16]

[edit] Record deal with Endtime Productions

Borgund stave church is depicted in the Det Tapte Liv (2004) EP's cover art.

Music samples:

"Rites of Death"

27 second sample of "Rites of Death" by Antestor, from The Forsaken (2005). The sample showcases the group's more modern, faster and more melodic sound with advanced production.

Problems listening to the file? See media help.

In 2000, even though the band's deal with Cacophonous was still valid,^[17] Antestor was signed by Endtime Productions, a metal record label that also helped to start the career of the Norwegian metal band Extol. The original vocalist Kjetil Molnes (Martyr) left Antestor. However, 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, who has sung in the Norwegian gothic metal group The Third and the Mortal, joined the band as a female vocalist.^[18] For the first time in their career, Antestor began using the infamous corpse paint masks as a part of their live shows and overall image.^[19]

In 2000, Endtime Productions released Martyrium with cover art done by the reputive Swedish metal music cover artist Kristian Wåhlin. Antestor toured the United States with Extol that year, playing small venues and finally performing at Cornerstone Festival.^[11] 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. The drummer, Svein Sander (in Antestor, Armoth), left the band during this time, and Antestor would not find a new full-time drummer for several more years.

In 2004, Antestor changed their style into a more modern black metal,^[1] and released their first set of new songs since The Return of the Black Death in an EP called Det Tapte Liv ("The Lost Life"). Det Tapte Liv concentrated less on the black metal aspects of Antestor's style, instead focusing more on instrumental songs. However, it hinted at what the band was preparing for their 2005 full-length, The Forsaken. The cover arts for both releases were once again done by Kristian Wåhlin, and the cover for the EP depicts the Borgund stave church. Hellhammer played all drums on both of these releases. His participation on the recording session caused some controversy among metal press and black metal fans.^[20] Ronny Hansen commented on Blomberg's appearance:

[edit] Recent years

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^[22] and 2004 in Linköping,^[23] and at the Nordic Fest 2004 in Oslo.^[24]

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.^[25] Antestor performed the concert with numerous session musicians. In this concert the band announced that this is their last live show. In a message in the forum of Endtime Productions,^[26] and a substantially identical bulletin on the band's MySpace,^[27] Lars Stokstad stated that the reasons for the decision were that the last 2 and half years the only consistent members of the band have been Vrede and Vemod, and they have constantly had problems finding musicians willing to commit to Antestor. Stokstad explained that the band did not want to play at Endtime Festival but the head of Endtime Productions label insistently demanded them to play:

They also announced to have written enough material for a full-length: "We do have material to fill another album."^[28] Therefore the possibility of publishing another Antestor album was not excluded.

[edit] Style

[edit] Music

While the band's style on the first publications was primarily death/doom metal with correspondingly slow songs and death growl singing, the band began playing black metal on the 1998 album The Return of the Black Death. On that album the band showcased screaming vocals, tremolo guitar riffs and drum passages with increased speed typical for the black metal genre. Keyboard is also in a central role, which for the typical black metal is used to perform epic interludes and dominates the soundscapes. For example, over the first three minutes of the song "Sorg," only the keyboard melody leads the performance.^[3]

With the third album The Forsaken the band developed more in the direction of a more technical style, as it is apparent on the style of The Return of the Black Death. The band's musical development resulted in that The Forsaken includes several guitar solos. This addition received some criticism, and for example Roel de Haan of the Dutch Lords of Metal webzine wrote that "the elaborate solos simply are not beautiful and [are] completely out of context."^[29] On that album, Also the quality of production compared to The Return of the Black Death improved. Through the introduction of the two ex-members of Vaakevandring, the style became more melodic and atmospheric.^[29] The output also borders on other genres at times; "Circus Brimstone" of Scandinavianmetal.info wrote that "'As I Die,' perhaps, is a whimsical number for Antestor due to the fact that the beginning sounds more suited to power metal than any other genre."^[30]

[edit] Lyrics

Antestor's lyrical themes include hope and despair, but also deal with the personal Christian faith of the band members. Therefore, many metal fans oppose classifying Antestor's style to the category of black metal, as their lyrics are often contrary to the ideology of black metal.^[29] The lyrics are mostly in English. Norwegian texts are also rare for the group, but on the album The Return of the Black Death the Norwegian language dominates the lyrics. On this album, only part of the lyrics are listed in the booklet; words directly referring to Jesus Christ and God were omitted. The song "A Sovereign Fortress" dealt with, for example, the acknowledgments of God who protects and supports the lyrical I since birth. It is portrayed in the chorus of this song as:

"Sorg" (Norwegian for: grief, sorrow, sadness), however, deals with the themes of the sorrow and the search for hope, with the song based on darker imagery, and the lyrics are not explicitly Christian yet are not negative in the end. An example (in the Norwegian language):

Another song that is also a dark, but this takes on Christian theme, is "Ancient Prophecy". The lyrics tells that the man was sinful, and no one can escape the court of God. Antestor process in their lyrics also topics such as suicide, doubts about the certainty of salvation, and longing death, all of which are rare themes for a Christian band. An example from the text "Betrayed" from the album The Forsaken:

[edit] Appearance

Antestor are one of the few bands in the Christian metal scene who use corpse paint in their appearances and on photos. One example is the booklet photos in the album The Return of the Black Death, depicting Antestor in viking outfits and black and white face paints at a snowy Norwegian mountain location. Sometimes the group uses art blood, as known for the session bassist Daniel Ravn Fufjord's (Frosthardr) appearance at the Bobfest 2004 concert.^[19]

[edit] Reception

The numbers of Antestor's record sales remain unknown. Generally, the group has always been a "cult favorite" of a small audience rather than a mainstream success: The writer "Circus Brimstone" of Scandinavianmetal.info wrote that "Antestor has been deified in the Christian metal kingdom, simply because they deliver quality black metal on a consistent basis. Furthermore, only a few other Christian groups have garnered acclaim from the secular community, namely Crimson Moonlight, Horde, and Kekal."^[30] Most of the copies of The Return of the Black Death, released on Cacophonous Records, are distributed to mainstream sellers. According to Scott Waters of No Life 'til Metal, the album's first edition sold out almost as soon as it was released.^[31]

Very few published reviews of the band's albums exist, yet the ones that are available are positive, often good or excellent. Michael Bryzak writes in the liner notes of The Defeat of Satan / Despair that, although the first album was not officially released until 2000, "Martyrium was rightfully considered a cult classic." In a 2006 review of the album, Joel Hemmerling of the Christian metal site The Whipping Post gave the album 95/100,^[32] and Matt Morrow of the same site gave The Return of the Black Death 10/10,^[3] as he did for The Forsaken.^[33] For secular reviews, Lords of Metal gave The Forsaken 75/100,^[29] and Nocturnal Horde gave it 8/10, calling it "a very powerful album," and "an amalgamation of innovation, energy, and anger."^[30]

The group's position in the Norwegian metal scene was controversial from the beginning. Bryzak writes that "standing up for their faith in Life and Hope, Antestor received serious death threats during this time from some of the major bands and key players of the scene." When asked if the band ever played with other groups in the black metal scene, Antestor said in a 2000 interview with Tcu zine: "We played with some early form of the band Old Man's Child once. Apparently they expressed their opinion of us with their legs and walked out of the venue during our set."^[13] In the liner notes of Martyrium, Antestor corresponds in a slightly bitter tone: "For those of you who despised us, disbelieved in us and misplaced your anger upon us, may God have mercy on your poor souls!"

On Antestor's achievements, Bryzak wrote that "The birth of northern Europe's Christian extreme metal scene can be attributed to only one act, Antestor." As a Christian band, signing with a secular label and releasing their second album on Cacophonous proved influential for the Christian concept of black metal; Matt Morrow writes that "Antestor's The Return of the Black Death" is exactly what the Christian black metal scene needed."^[3] Jamie Lee Rake of HM Magazine wrote of the Endtime Productions re-release of Martyrium, wondering if the progressive elements of the album made the band unnoticed innovators in the early Norwegian extreme metal scene:

[edit] Members

[edit] Current members

• Ronny Hansen - vocals (aka Vrede)
• Lars Stokstad - guitar (aka Vemod)

[edit] Former members

• Jan Axel Blomberg (Hellhammer) - session drummer on Det Tapte Liv and The Forsaken
• Morten Sigmund Mageroy - keyboard (aka Sygmoon)
• Vegard Undal - bass (aka Gard)
• Tony Kirkemo - drums
• Kjetil Molnes - vocals (aka Martyr)
• Svein Sander - drums (aka Armoth)
• Erling Jorgensen - guitar (aka Pilgrim)
• Stig Rolfsen - guitar (aka Erkebisp)
• Paul W - drums
• Tora - session vocals on Martyrium
• Ann-Mari Edvardsen - session vocals on The Forsaken
• Jokull (
   ANTESTOR
  
  album: "Despair" (1993)
  
  Preludium
  Demonic Seduction
  Message From Hell
  Lost Generation
  Human
  Jesus, Jesus, Ver Du Hjå Meg
  
  
  album: "Martyrium" (1994)
  
  Spiritual Disease
  Materalisic Lie
  Depressed
  Thoughts
  Under The Sun
  Inmost Fear
  Searching
  Martyrium
  Mercy Lord
  
  
  album: "The Return Of The Black Death" (1998)
  
  Vinterferden
  A Sovereign Fortress
  Svartedauens Gjenkomst
  Sorg
  The Bridge Of Death
  Gamlelandet
  Kilden - Lik En Endeløs Elv
  Kongsblod
  Battlefield
  Ancient Prophecy
  Ildnatten
  
  
  album: "The Defeat Of Satan" (2003)
  
  Preludium
  Demonic Seduction
  Message From Hell
  Lost Generation
  Human
  Jesus, Jesus, Ver Du Hjõ Meg
  The Defeat Of Satan
  New Life
  Jesus Saves
  Knus Ondskapen
  
  
  album: "Det Tapte Liv" (2004 EP)
  
  Rites of Death
  Grief
  Last Season
  Med Hevede Sverd
  Det Tapte Liv
  
  
  album: "The Forsaken" (2005)
  
  Rites Of Death
  Old Times Cruelty
  Via Dolorosa
  Raade
  The Crown I Carry
  Betrayed
  Vale Of Tears
  The Return
  As I Die
  Mitt Hjerte