Sear Bliss "The Haunting"

Sear Bliss is a Hungarian atmospheric black metal band from Szombathely, formed in 1993 by bassist, vocalist and now also keyboardist András Nagy. Apart from the usual heavy metal instruments they adopted synthesizer and wind instruments (like trumpet and trombone sometimes flute) in their songs. The Netherlands' leading metal magazine, Aardschok awarded Sear Bliss debut album Phantoms the title of "CD Of The Month". It was the first (and only) time in the magazine's history that the award went to a black metal album.

Sear Bliss has earned a reputation in the European metal underground with their unique black metal albums released by independent record labels like Mascot Records, Red Stream and recently Candlelight Records. Sear Bliss shared the stage with bands Marduk, Tsatthoggua, Mortiis, Tormentor, Skyforger, Immolation and Malevolent Creation.

After four months of studio work, the longest session ever in their career, the sixth Sear Bliss album was released on September 24, 2007. Critically acclaimed The Arcane Odyssey was awarded "Album of the Month" by some magazines (i.e. Zero Tolerance) and was also high ranked by Kerrang, Terrorizer, Heavy Oder Was and Rock Hard magazines in Europe. The album was elected for "Album of the Year" on the Hungarian Metal Awards in 2007.

Sear Bliss played their first European tour supporting Marduk in February–March 1997. After finishing the tour the Csejtei brothers left the band and Winter also got out soon afterwards. Recruited new members were Zoltán Schönberger on drums and Viktor "Max" Scheer on guitar, furthermore keyboards were taken over by trumpeter Szűcs. The next album had been recorded at Beaufort Studio, Netherlands, but the band was disappointed with the first version of the mix and it had to be remixed.

The Haunting (1998) became a more atmospheric and varied album in contrast to the fast black metal tracks of the Phantoms album. The Haunting disappointed some old fans, but it appealed to new enquirers. The opportunity to tour for three weeks with the Norwegian melodic black metal band Ancient and promote the new album in Europe had come to nothing because of the private activities of Sear Bliss members in school and job. However, they celebrate their 5th anniversary with a birthday party in Budapest.

By releasing The Haunting album Sear Bliss fulfilled the Mascot contract, so a new label needed to be found. To support the search they recorded a 4-song promo CD in March 1999. But other member changes followed. Previously they parted with guitarist Viktor Scheer, then founding member/guitarist Barbarics and long-time trumpeter/keyboardist Szűcs quit due to personal conflicts within the band. In that time Sear Bliss played live with fill-in musicians, and only founding member Andras Nagy and drummer Schönberger were officially in the band. A new guitarist Andras Horváth P. would join Sear Bliss soon.

Tracklist:

1. Tunnels of Vision – 8:12
2. Hell Within – 5:59
3. Land of Silence – 4:34
4. Unholy Dance – 8:30
5. Soulless – 4:38
6. The Haunting – 8:03
7. Left in the Dark – 6:01

Recording information:

Recorded and mixed at Beaufort studio, Bovenkarspel, Netherlands, August 1997.