Antestor "The Forsaken"

The Forsaken is the third studio album by the Christian black metal band Antestor released in 2005 on Endtime Productions. The album features guest appearances of the established metal musicians Jan Axel Blomberg (Hellhammer) and Ann-Mari Edvardsen.

The Forsaken was recorded in 2004 at Top Room Studios, which has been used by groups such as Tristania, Borknagar, Mayhem, and Extol. The album was produced by Børge Finstad. Several songs from the recording sessions were dropped from the full-length and were published on an EP titled Det Tapte Liv. The lineup on this recording session featured two former members of the dark metal band Vaakevandring, namely vocalist Ronny Hansen and keyboardist Morten Sigmund Mageroy, as well as the female vocalist Ann-Mari Edvardsen of the gothic metal group The 3rd and the Mortal. Lars Stokstad is the only original Antestor member on this album.

The album is known to feature drumming by Jan Axel Blomberg, also known as Hellhammer, one of the best-known drummers in extreme metal. His appearance on the recordings was somewhat disputed in the metal scene. In an interview with the Russian metal site Metal Library on January 7, 2007, Blomberg says:

“ To be honest, it [playing for Antestor] was a big 'fuck off!' to them all [Mayhem colleagues and record company]. I will repeat again that I decide what I do and I play not only in black metal groups. ”

— Jan Axel Blomberg (Hellhammer), Metal Library

The vocalist Ronny Hansen knew Hellhammer personally and asked him to play for the band. The members of Antestor gave Hellhammer the demos for the songs in person, but according to Blomberg, he never met the Antestor members in studio personally because the producer Børge Finstad wanted to work with each musician alone per time to achieve better and more productive results. The band also asked Hellhammer to play live for them, but Blomberg refused. It was not a question about their beliefs, as Hellhammer explains: "In my opinion, black metal today is just music. I will tell you that neither I nor other members of Mayhem never really were against religion or something else. We are primarily interested in music." Antestor vocalist Ronny Hansen commented on Blomberg's appearance:

“ First of all Jan Axel "Hellhammer" is a total professional. He started up together with the secular scene and worse (laughs) but he doesn't care if it's secular or Christian. He knew from the start what Antestor stands for. And maybe if we get the chance, we are more than willing to use him again. Cause his drumming is outstanding. I think that he is the very best drummer in the scene and we are just very lucky to have borrowed his brilliance. ”

— Ronny Hansen (Vrede), Jesus Metal


"Mitt Hjerte" is Norwegian for "My Heart".
"Raade" is Norwegian for "reign", "command", "rule". 

Contains a hidden track at around -50 seconds before "Rites of Death."

The booklet contains:

"Vemod Over Det Tapte Liv
Et Liv Som Aldri Ble Levd

Jeg Vet Lite Av Glede
Men Mye Av Vrede

Vik Fra Meg
Satan"

This translates: 

"Sadness over the lost life
A life that was never lived

I know little of joy
But much of anger

Depart from me
Satan"

Recording information:

Recorded and mixed at Top Room Studios in 2004.

Mastered at Masterhuset AS, Oslo.

Antestor "Det Tapte Liv"

Det Tapte Liv is an EP by the Norwegian unblack metal band Antestor, released in 2004.

The EP contains songs recorded at Antestor's studio sessions in 2004 at Top Room Studios. The band felt that these songs did not fit into the 2005's The Forsaken full-length and were released on this EP. The EP served as a taster for the upcoming album.

Det Tapte Liv includes two actual songs, "Rites of Death" and "Med Hevede Sverd", and three atmospheric piano and keyboard-based instrumental songs. The song structures are progressive and include several tempo changes. Pekka Ryhänen, reviewer of the Finnish metal site Imperiumi.net, gave the EP 9/10 and describes the style as "modern, artistic, and fast dark metal."

At first, Det Tapte Liv was released in a special limited 1000 copies heavy printer box edition. The box had room for the upcoming full-length. Later, the EP was released as a regular jewel case with different cover art done by Kristian Wåhlin.


The album cover of Det Tapte Liv shows a painting of the Borgund stave church. The cover of the EP and the album art for The Forsaken together form a single landscape image.

Cardboard box made to also house the digipak version of the 2005 album "The Forsaken"

Recording information:

Recorded and mixed at Top Room Studios 

Mastered at Masterhuset AS, Oslo

Antestor "Martyrium"

Martyrium is the first recorded and second released studio album by the Norwegian unblack metal band Antestor. It is one of the earliest Christian extreme metal albums released in Norway. Recorded in 1994, Martyrium was not immediately released, though bootleg copies of the album were printed in 1997 by Morphine Records. It then gained a cult following among a small audience until it was officially released in 2000 by Endtime Productions.

Originally Torodd Fuglesteg, head of the infamous Arctic Serenades label, sent Antestor to studio to record Martyrium. At the time having problems with signing the band Groms for Arctic Serenades' roster, Fuglesteg said: "I was also in touch with Antestor at that time and I sent them into studio to do their Martyrium album. This album was later released through another label. I regarded, and still regard, Antestor as much darker than Groms, which was a happy-smiles band." Martyrium was recorded at Norsk Lydskole in December 1994, remixed in February 1995, and was produced by Jon Ove Andersen and Antestor. Some problems occurred and in 1997, another label called Morphine Records ended up releasing only 50 bootleg copies of the album. However, tape copies circulated in up to fifth generation copies and their audience grew fast. Michael Bryzak writes in the liner notes of The Defeat of Satan / Despair compilation album (2003) that, although the first album was not officially released until 2000, "Martyrium was rightfully considered a cult classic."


In 1999, Antestor began collaborating with the Swedish label Endtime Productions, and the label released Martyrium the following year. The cover art was changed to a painting by Kristian Wåhlin.

Recording information:

Recorded at Norsk Lydskole.

Mastered at The Mastering Room.

Antestor "The Return Of The Black Death"

The Return of the Black Death is the second recorded and first released studio album by the Norwegian unblack metal band Antestor, released on September 14, 1998. It is the band's only release on the British Cacophonous Records label. This album's working title was Kongsblod. Antestor recorded another album, Martyrium, prior to The Return of the Black Death, in 1994, and while bootleg versions of the recording circulated, this album did not see official release until 2000.

In February 1997, Antestor recorded a promo-CD titled Kongsblod at Studio 5, Oslo. The recording and mixing process took approximately 90 hours. At the time their line up consisted of guitarist/keyboardist Lars Stokstad (Vemod), vocalist/lyricist Kjetil Molnes (Martyr), bass player Vegard Undal and drummer Svein Sander (Armoth). The band sent Kongsblod to record labels in hopes of getting finances to record and mix at a better quality studio. The cover of the demo contains a famous Norwegian painting of skiing Vikings (Birkebeinerne, by Knud Bergslien). One of the biggest exclusively black metal focused British labels, Cacophonous Records, became interested in the band, and a record deal was signed with Antestor. However, Cacophonous simply released Kongsblod after changing the cover to a painting by the American fantasy artist Joe Petagno, and the name was changed to The Return of the Black Death. The album was released on September 14, 1998.

Afterwards, the incident has caused some debates because it is rare that a Christian black metal band gets signed to a secular label. Previously only Horde's release of Hellig Usvart in 1994 on Nuclear Blast is a similar known case. In December 1998, the drummer Armoth said in an interview with the Art for the Ears webzine that they sent the CD and a short biography for Cacophonous Records and that Cacophonous Records just wanted to sign Antestor because of the music, which was exactly what the band wanted to do. Some time 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." 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."

Later, some strong rumors in the metal scene claimed, that Antestor was immediately dropped after Cacophonous found out their conviction. In an interview Antestor stated that their record deal with Cacophonous was still valid in 2000. They also noted that the record label did not keep contact with the band, and later Antestor began working with Endtime Productions. In the 1998 interview, Svein Sander said that Cacophonous told Antestor that the label had gone bankrupt. Ronny Hansen, who joined Antestor as a vocalist in 2000, questioned the "bankrupt" claim in another interview:

“ The story with Cacophonous is that they really hate the Christian scene. They want to destroy it. Antestor has not earned a single dime from their album due to the so called 'bankrupt' of Cacophonous. I don't know what Cacophonous is up to, and how they are going to get away with it... The thing about Cacophonous is that Antestor did not tell them that they are Christians. When they saw the lyrics, they realized it and edited out most of the Christianity in them. The lyrics of almost all songs of The Return Of The Black Death is edited and chopped off. I think that Cacophonous did not know until Antestor had a contract. ”

— Ronny Hansen on the Cacophonous controversy in Art for the Ears webzine, 2000.

All songs by Antestor. Music composed by Lars Stokstad. Lyrics written by Kjetil Molnes.

The album was originally titled "Kongsblod."

Recording information:


Recorded in Studio 5 in Oslo during Spring 1997.