Hortus Animae is a progressiveblack metal band from Northern and Central Italy. They formed in 1997 in the town of Rimini, Italy. After the release of their self-produced debut "The Melting Idols", they began an active live streak with bands like Lacuna Coil, Ancient, and Napalm Death. Upon opening for the Norwegian black metal band Ancient in Padova, Italy, the band developed a friendship with the drummer Grom, who soon after joined the band out of admiration for their work and made it his primary side-project. At this point, the band began the recording process of their second album and first official release, "Waltzing Mephisto", which had been years in the writing. The album was recorded at the Italian metal studio "Fear". Following the recording, the band signed a deal with Greek label Black Lotus Records in October 2002 and subsequently with Sleaszy Rider Records (EMI) for their 3rd album "The Blow Of Furious Winds" in May 2005.
Immediately following their 1998 demo cassette 'An Abode For Spirit And Flesh', they quickly developed a wide and strong following in the underground and gained attention from the specialized press with few reviews hitting lower than the 'excellent' mark. [citation needed]
Lineup 2005
The band has since achieved cult status within the extreme metal underground, partly due to their secretive live appearances, but mainly due to their unique and eclectic blend of styles & cover songs. Their music drew from 1970s progressive rock, gothic, classical and ambient sound, all blended with their original form of death/black metal. They incorporated instruments such as piano, viola, violin, mandolin, synth, and very diverse vocal styles into their music, something which was new to the scene at that time. Drummer Grom's following due to his other projects (Doomsword, Ancient) is most likely another reason the band gained such success.
The official debut album "Waltzing Mephisto" contains a cover of the black metal anthem "Freezing Moon" by Mayhem blended with Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells (The Exorcist)" and Italian 1970s prog band Il Balletto di Bronzo's "Terzo Incontro", highlighting the band's inspiration with 1970s dark progressive rock music. Their following epic album "The Blow Of Furious Winds" contained yet another 1970s prog rock cover. A diverse and original mold of Queen's "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" and "Nevermore".
In between the 2 albums, the band appeared with another cover song on the release "The Lotus Eaters: Tribute to Dead Can Dance". Hortus Animae recorded their metalized epic interpretation of "Windfall" & "Summoning Of The Muse" featuring a joint effort with gothic singer Liv Kristine on lead vocals.
Hortus Animae has been proclaimed 'best emerging band' and 'best Italian album of the year' in the polls of the top Italian magazine Metal Maniac in 2005.
The group disbanded on 18 January 2006. They posted this message on their homepage of their website:
"Due to different motivations, the band decided to split-up or, at least, to stay on hold for some time. There are technical and personal reasons involved (the music business, hardships... life itself) which led us to take this decision. We faced many difficulties in the music industry, but we wish to thank and hail all the fans and people who bought our albums, visited our websites, came to our shows, wrote to us, believed in what we did or just listened to our music. We also want to thank the worldwide metal press for their support. We may return in the future, but for now we just don't know."
Years after their split they released a 10th-anniversary commemorative box set called 'Funeral Nation: 10 years of Hortus Animae' through Sleaszy Rider Records (EMI distribution). The boxset contained various gadgets (T-shirt, mug, pin, etc.) as well as their first 2 official albums Waltzing Mephisto in an unreleased demo version& The Blow Of Furious Winds, and a 'Making of...' DVD.
After 4 years of the box set release and sell-out, increasing requests and popularity in the underground demanded a further re-release of the band's discography. Hortus Animae teamed up with Thrash Corner Records (USA) to release their definitive collection in 2012, aptly called 'Funeral Nation MMXII' their definitive collection. Released worldwide in a double CD edition with new artwork, this collection featured the very first self-produced album The Melting Idols, which had not been included in the previous box set.
On 25 January 2013, the band officially stated that the time was ripe for their comeback, and they were hard at work with their new album, entitled Secular Music. It was recorded at Domination Studio (RSM) under the guiding light of the renowned producer and sound engineer Simone Mularoni (DGM, empYrios), which now is also the band's session bass player. It was released in 2014 by Flicknife Records (U.K.).
In OCT 2023, the band re-released a commemorative 20th anniversary edition of their cult debut album "Waltzing Mephisto" as a '20th Anniversary' 2-CD boxset including previously unreleased bonus material and live performances, as well as a cover version of “You’re Dead” from American singer-songwriter Norma Tanega, now famous for being the theme of the TV series What We Do in the Shadows. The band also previously released a lyric video for the album track “Enter”. The box-set contains totally revisited new artwork and has been released by Symbol of Domination/BlackHeavens Music.
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