Dark Funeral is a Swedish black metal band from Stockholm, founded by guitarists Blackmoon and Lord Ahriman in 1993. They emerged during the second wave of black metal.
Their lyrical themes have traditionally pertained to Satanism and anti-Christianity. Certain past and present members including Blackmoon, Ahriman, Caligula, and Chaq Mol have each declared an affinity for Satanism, with Ahriman and Caligula notably being practitioners of LaVeyan Satanism.[1] In their earlier years, their lyrical themes usually revolved specifically around depictions of Hell and Satan. After Emperor Magus Caligula joined the band, their lyrics came to focus more on blasphemy and anti-Christian rhetoric, although there have been several exceptions to this.
The group have released seven full-length albums and are one of the most prominent acts in the Swedish black metal scene.
History
Dark Funeral EP and The Secrets of the Black Arts
In 1993, guitarists David Parland, also known as Blackmoon, and Mikael Svanberg, also known as Lord Ahriman, established Dark Funeral, recruiting Paul Mäkitalo, also known as Themgoroth, formerly of the band Scum, as bassist and vocalist, and Joel Andersson, also known as Draugen, shortly thereafter. In January 1994, Dark Funeral recorded their self-titled EP at Unisound Studio with Dan Swanö of Edge of Sanity fame as producer, subsequently being released on 4 May, 1994. That same day, Dark Funeral performed their first gig at Lusa Lottes Pub in Oslo, Norway, alongside bands such as fellow live debutees Gorgoroth, and Marduk, who were also performing their first show abroad. Draugen departed Dark Funeral following the EP's recording, being replaced by Equimanthorn.
In 1995, Dark Funeral signed with No Fashion Records, subsequently composing songs in anticipation for their debut full-length album. Initially, the band recorded several tracks that would appear on The Secrets of the Black Arts at said Unisound Studio with Swanö as producer, but opted to re-record the album with Peter Tägtgren of Hypocrisy fame at The Abyss Studio, composing a further track, "When Angels Forever Die", and incorporating a cover of Von's "Satanic Blood", for their debut album. Concerning the band's decision to re-record their debut album, within a 2009 interview with Rites of the Black Moon Webzine, Blackmoon elaborated that the initial recordings at Unisound Studio suffered from a sonic flatness, partly due to Swanö's exhaustion and to the quality of new recording gear that Swanö had recently acquired.[2] Shortly after recording their album at The Abyss, Dark Funeral played their first festival gig, Under the Black Sun I, in Berlin. A few weeks prior to this gig Emperor Magus Caligula (Magnus 'Masse' Broberg, the original vocalist of Hypocrisy) replaced Themgoroth, becoming a permanent member during the summer of 1995.[3] Concerning the factors underlying Themgoroth's departure, Blackmoon elucidated that Themgoroth was unable to fulfil the quality the band expected within their live performances.[4] On 28 January 1996, The Secrets of the Black Arts was released, with the album thence being licensed to Metal Blade in North America and Mystic Productions in Poland. Equimanthorn was soon replaced by Alzazmon, later renowned for his work with Dissection and Gorgoroth. The line-up of Emperor Magus Caligula, Lord Ahriman, Alzazmon and Blackmoon recorded their versions 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 debut In the Sign…). Blackmoon departed Dark Funeral at the end of 1996, citing conflict with Lord Ahriman as the primary instigator for his decision to depart.[5] Together with Necromass, the band thence embarked on the Satanic War Tour I throughout Europe.
Vobiscum Satanas and Teach Children to Worship Satan
The second leg of the Satanic War Tour followed with Ancient and Bal-Sagoth as support. Dark Funeral played their first show in America at the Expo of the Extreme festival in Chicago. From there, the band embarked on The American Satanic Crusade Tour with Usurper in support. Originally, the tour was supposed to also feature Acheron and Deströyer 666, but both bands cancelled. In September, the band returned to The Abyss Studio to record what would become Vobiscum Satanas.
The Ineffable Kings of Darkness Tour with Enthroned and Liar of Golgotha took place with Dominion joining the band as a session bass player. The band also made their second major festival appearance at the Swedish Hultsfreds festival. After the festival, Typhos was fired and Dominion, who originally was a guitarist, was taken on as the band's second guitarist, and Caligula reverted to doing both vocals and bass.
Before the band headed out on the Bleed for Satan tour with Cannibal Corpse and Infernäl Mäjesty, Alzazmon left, and the band's longtime friend Gaahnfaust, who was also in the band back in 1996 for a short time, was recruited. 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 to the US and the state of California. Afterwards, they also embarked on their longest and most successful European tour, The Satanic Inquisition, together with Dimmu Borgir.
With engineer Tommy Tägtgren, the band recorded the EP Teach Children to Worship Satan at The Abyss Studio B (featuring the new song "An Apprentice of Satan" and cover-versions of 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.
Diabolis Interium and De Profundis Clamavi Ad Te Domine
In January/February, the band again entered The Abyss Studio, enlisting the help of producer Peter Tägtgren and studio technician Lars Szöke, to record their third full-length album, Diabolis Interium. Due to the overwhelming positive response to the new album from both the public and the press, the band was 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, and 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 was released, Dark Funeral once again went on tour. First they toured Europe, supported by Tidfall, Anorexia Nervosa and Ragnarok. 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 longtime friends Cannibal Corpse. With Diabolis Interium, the Swedish radio station Rocket 95.3 FM nominated Dark Funeral in the category “Best Swedish Hard Rock Band”. Other bands nominated at the same time and in the same category were Breach, Entombed, and Arise.
In October 2002, the band embarked on their first tour in the Far East, which included shows in Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore. The band was the first Western extreme metal band to play Taiwan and Singapore. On 29 November 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 release Diabolis Interium for North America. Official termination of contract papers had already been delivered to Necropolis Records, putting an official end to Dark Funeral's tenure with said record label. This was a result of Necropolis' alleged breach of contract with the band and label.
After the Asian tour, guitarist Dominion felt it was in the best interests of both the band and himself to resign his position, due to commitment to studies. Dominion officially resigned upon the band's completion of their Asian tour. He would later explore other musical options. After this the band begin auditioning guitarists to replace the departed Dominion. A new guitarist was found in the form of Chaq Mol, who had 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 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.
Dark Funeral officially announced their split from MNW/No Fashion Records, after the band did not receive royalties for their back-catalogue. A series of legal battles began, where Ahriman and Caligula sought the rights to Dark Funeral's back-catalogue.[6] Shortly after, the band signed a license deal with Regain Records for their live album De Profundis Clamavi Ad Te Domine, which was licensed to several other countries. On 31 May 2005, the album was released in the US through Candlelight Records.
In January 2004, the band partnered with Goatwhore and Zyklon in Japan on the Extreme the Dojo Volume 9. Shortly after, the band continued to tour with a spate of Mexican dates. The band made appearances at festivals including Spain's Piorno Rock (with Sepultura, Saxon, Destruction, Lacuna Coil, among others), Finland's Tuska Open Air Metal Festival, and X-Mass Festivals across Europe. The band appeared as the headlining act at Germany's Party San, Swedish Nordic Rage, and LA's Gathering of the Bestial Legions Festival. The band also played in Italy together with Defleshed for a short burst of dates. In December 2004, Dark Funeral resumed touring by first playing Israel, and then hitting Russia and Ukraine for the Black Winter Days Tour, together with openers Horned NecroCannibals and Icewind Blast.
Attera Totus Sanctus, and Attera Orbis Terrarum Part I and II
On 20 January 2005, they signed a new record deal with Regain Records. The band concentrated on writing material for a new full-length album, yet made time to perform at the Metal Mind Festival in Poland, before joining the No Mercy Tour with Six Feet Under, Nile and Dying Fetus, among others.
On 18 August, Dark Funeral's next album, Attera Totus Sanctus, was completed. It entered the Swedish top 40 at number 35.[7] The new album became Album of The Month at Metallian.com. In November, Dark Funeral began working with Dragon Production, a division of A.S.S. Concert & Promotion GmbH. Dragon Production were entrusted with handling the band's tour bookings for Europe.
Dark Funeral performing at BB Kings, New York City, on 10 January 2007
In 2006, Dark Funeral performed on a tour in South America. On 8 October 2006, at a concert in Lima, Peru, they were forced to perform without their vocalist and bassist, Caligula, due to illness. Many angry fans started a riot and vandalized the properties near the venue.[8] 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.[9]
In early 2007, Dark Funeral toured North America with Enslaved. In April 2007, the band had planned an Eastern European tour to Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic states. It was around this time that Matte Modin had allegedly concocted false stories in order to avoid playing with the band. He first alleged that he had an infection in his arm, and could not participate on the Eastern European tour. However, it emerged that he had chosen to tour with the punk band Raised Fist instead. After returning from the Metalferry show in Sweden in between, Matte announced to the rest of the band that he could not go to the Baltic states, as it was his son's birthday. Dark Funeral soon realised Matte Modin's motives. Consequently, the upcoming tour was cancelled, and Matte Modin was ejected from the band. In June 2007, the band announced Nils Fjellström, alias Dominator (also in Aeon and Sanctification, among others), as their new drummer. The band had a special appearance playing live on the pornographic film Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath, to which they also contributed their song "King Antichrist" off Attera Totus Sanctus.[10]
On 24 October 2008, it was announced that the Supreme Court of Sweden had ruled in favour of Dark Funeral in the dispute with MNW/No Fashion Records.[6]
Angelus Exuro pro Eternus
After several shows promoting the album, Dark Funeral released their fifth studio album in 2009, Angelus Exuro pro Eternus. They also shot a controversial music video for "My Funeral".
The latter half of 2010 saw the band consisting of only Ahriman and Chaq Mol on guitars, following the departure of Emperor Magus Caligula in July 2010, and B-Force and Dominator in the coming months. Caligula's was arguably the most significant: after being in Dark Funeral for fifteen years as vocalist and lyricist, he had spent the longest time in the band, aside from Ahriman. It was announced Caligula was to be married and that he sought to settle down in his new life. B-Force left the band of his own volition. Ahriman used this time to work on new material, in the absence of a full line-up for live performances and studio recording.
On 30 June 2011, Dark Funeral announced that Nachtgarm of Negator is the new vocalist.[11] A week prior it had also been announced that Dominator returned to the band.[12] On 27 July 2011, Zornheym was revealed to be the band's new bassist, completing the lineup.[13]
In late 2012, Dark Funeral parted ways with Nachtgarm, who returned to Negator. Zornheym exited the band in 2014.
Where Shadows Forever Reign
On 16 December 2014, Dark Funeral released a new track and music video entitled "Nail Them to the Cross". The video revealed a new vocalist, Heljarmadr (Gra, Domgård, Cursed 13) and bassist Natt (Angrepp, Withershin) to the group's ranks, although by the time the band started recording in February 2016 for their sixth album Where Shadows Forever Reign, which was released on 3 June by Century Media, Natt was no longer in the group, having Lord Ahriman record the bass for the album. In 2016, Gustaf Hielm, who played session bass on Attera Totus Sanctus, enrolled again as a session bass player, this time for concerts. In November 2017, it was announced that drummer Dominator has left the band and was replaced by Jalomaah.
We Are the Apocalypse
In May 2021, the band reported they were entering the studio to record their seventh studio album.[14] The band completed recording the album in September 2021.[15] In a Facebook post from November 2021, the band stated their seventh studio album will be entitled We Are the Apocalypse and is scheduled to be released on 18 March 2022.
Gorgoroth is a Norwegian black metal band based in Bergen. It was formed in 1992 by guitarist Infernus, who is the sole original member remaining, and has released nine studio albums. Gorgoroth are a Satanic band and have drawn controversy due to some of their concerts, which have featured impaled sheep heads and mock crucifixions. The band is named after the dead plateau of darkness in the land of Mordor from J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings.
Dissection was a Swedish extreme metal band from Strömstad, formed in 1989 by guitarist, vocalist and main songwriter Jon Nödtveidt and bassist Peter Palmdahl. Despite a number of lineup changes, Dissection released The Somberlain in 1993 and Storm of the Light's Bane in 1995, before splitting up in 1997 due to Nödtveidt's imprisonment for complicity in the murder of Josef Meddour.
Marduk is a Swedish black metal band formed in Norrköping in 1990. The band released their debut full-length album, Dark Endless, in 1992 on No Fashion Records. Their name is derived from the Ancient Babylonian deity, Marduk.
Jon Andreas Nödtveidt was a Swedish musician best known as the founder, vocalist and lead guitarist of the Swedish black metal band Dissection. With the band, he released the seminal and influential extreme metal albums The Somberlain (1993) and Storm of the Light's Bane (1995). In addition to Dissection, Nödtveidt performed with several other projects, including Ophthalamia, The Black, De Infernali and Nifelheim, and also worked as a journalist for Metal Zone, where he covered the growing black metal scene.
Witchery is a Swedish blackened thrash/speed metal band formed by former members of Satanic Slaughter in 1997. The current lineup consists of guitarists Patrik Jensen and Rickard "Rille" Rimfält, bassist Sharlee D'Angelo, vocalist Angus Norder, and drummer Chris Barkensjö.
Mikael Jan Svanberg, better known as Lord Ahriman, is a Swedish musician and composer best known as the primary guitarist, songwriter and sole founding member of black metal band Dark Funeral. He is also the rhythm guitarist in the band Wolfen Society. His name is derived from Ahriman, the evil equivalent of the deity Angra Mainyu in Zoroastrianism.
Dark Funeral is the debut EP by Swedish black metal band Dark Funeral, released in 1994.
The Secrets of the Black Arts is the debut studio album by Swedish black metal band Dark Funeral, released in January 1996, by No Fashion Records. It was re-released on 31 July 2007, with a bonus disc consisting of the album original recording. The Secrets of the Black Arts is the only album to feature guitarist Blackmoon, vocalist/bassist Themgoroth and drummer Equimanthorn.
Roger Tiegs, better known by his stage name Infernus, is a Norwegian black metal musician and Satanist. He is the sole founding member and chief ideologist of the black metal band Gorgoroth, formed in 1992, in addition to being the founder and head of Forces of Satan Records. While mainly a guitarist, Infernus has also participated as bassist, drummer and vocalist on several recordings released both by Gorgoroth and other bands.
Tom Cato Visnes, better known as King ov Hell or simply King, is a Norwegian musician. He is best known as the former bassist of black metal band Gorgoroth, and as a member of Audrey Horne, Sahg, I, Ov Hell, God Seed, Abbath, Jotunspor and Temple of the Black Moon.
Diabolis Interium is the third studio album by Swedish black metal band Dark Funeral, released on 24 September 2001. It was recorded and mixed between 21 January and 2 March at The Abyss Studio and was the band's last album to be released through No Fashion Records. Diabolis Interium is the first album to feature drummer Matte Modin and the only album to feature guitarist Dominion and also marked the end of vocalist Emperor Magus Caligula's role as a bassist for Dark Funeral, both studio and live. The Regain Records 2007 re-release contains a second disc consisting of the EP Teach Children to Worship Satan.
Attera Totus Sanctus is the fourth studio album by Swedish black metal band Dark Funeral. It was released on 24 October 2005 in Europe through Regain Records, and on 29 November 2005 in the United States through Candlelight Records USA. The title was chosen to convey the band's vehement anti–right-hand path stance. Attera Totus Sanctus is the first album to feature guitarist Chaq Mol and the last album to feature drummer Matte Modin and also features session bassist Gustaf Hielm.
Vobiscum Satanas is the second studio album by Swedish black metal band Dark Funeral. Vobiscum Satanas is the first album to feature longtime vocalist and lyricist Emperor Magus Caligula, and the only one to feature guitarist Typhos and drummer Alzazmon. Only guitarist Lord Ahriman returns for this album from the lineup that appeared on the previous album.
Nonexist is a Swedish melodic death/thrash metal group formed by former Arch Enemy vocalist, Johan Liiva. Liiva, guitarist/bassist Johan Reinholdz and drummer Matte Modin. They began playing together as Nonexist in 2000. In May 2002, they released their debut album, Deus Deceptor, on New Hawen Records in Europe and Century Media in North America. The group attempted to put together a touring lineup in 2002, but this never occurred, in part due to the group members' commitment to other projects. In 2003 Liiva and Modin split from the group, leaving Reinholdz the primary member. In 2004 Liiva confirmed the group's demise.
De Profundis Clamavi Ad Te Domine is the first live album by Swedish black metal band Dark Funeral. It was recorded during the South American tour in September 2003, and was released by Regain Records on 18 April 2004.
Infernal was an influential Swedish black metal band based in Stockholm.
Emperor Magus Caligula is a Swedish extreme metal musician best known as the former vocalist, bassist and lyricist of Swedish black metal band Dark Funeral, performing for the band between 1995 and 2010. He has also been the vocalist of death metal bands Demonoid, replacing Christofer Johnsson, and Sanctification. He was the original vocalist for Hypocrisy and has featured in other extreme metal bands including Dominion-Caligula and God Among Insects. He has also performed backing vocals for the Swedish black metal band Sportlov.
David Vincent Parland was a Swedish metal guitarist, best known for his work in the bands Dark Funeral, Necrophobic and Infernal, all of which he was one of the founding members.
Angelus Exuro pro Eternus is the fifth studio album by Swedish black metal band Dark Funeral. The album was officially released on 18 November 2009 via Regain Records. It was recorded at The Abyss Studio in Grangärde, Sweden, with engineer and producer Peter Tägtgren, who also produced Dark Funeral's earlier studio albums. The record was then mastered by Jonas Kjellgren at the Black Lodge Studios. Angelus Exuro pro Eternus is the last album to feature vocalist Emperor Magus Caligula, the only album to feature bassist B-Force and the first to feature Dominator on drums.
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