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Antestor () is a Norwegian Christian metal extreme metal band formed in 1990 in Jessheim. Credited for starting the northern European Unblack metal,Bryzak, Michael. Liner notes of The Defeat of Satan album. 2003. Endtime Productions 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. The band's only release on Cacophonous, The Return of the Black Death, proved influential for the Christian black metal movement; it has sold over 10,000 copies.
In the late 1990s, they dubbed their musical style as "sorrow metal" rather than black metal because the early Norwegian black metal scene was publicly affiliated with Satanism in Norway. According to HM magazine, the progressive elements on the debut album, Martyrium, were possibly ahead of their time in the Norwegian extreme metal scene.
The group has gone through several line-up changes over the years, and currently Antestor consists of the founding guitarist Lars Stokstad (Vemod), vocalist Ronny Hansen (Vrede), bassist Erik Normann Aanonsen, guitarist Robert Bordevick, and drummer Henning Børven. The original vocalist Kjetil Molnes (Martyr) and drummer Svein Sander (Armoth) left the band around 2000, and the members of a fellow Norwegian black metal group, Vaakevandring, joined Antestor. The reputable Norwegian extreme metal drummer Jan Axel Blomberg (Hellhammer) played session drums for their 2005 album The Forsaken and Det tapte liv EP. A fourth studio album, Omen, was released in 2012.
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. 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?" 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." 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.
In December 1994, Antestor recorded their first full-length album titled Martyrium. Arctic Serenades Records was originally supposed to release that album, but because of unknown reasons that never happened, and the band tried to get another label to release the album. American-based label Morphine Records would subsequently distribute bootleg copies of the album in 1997. 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." However, the tape copies circulated in up to fifth generation copies and their audience grew fast. Martyrium was the last album that emphasized the band's death/doom direction.
On 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 broadcast on the television station TVNorge. During the course of this program, Antestor played five songs from Martyrium. On 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."
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 on 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." 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." 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 proclaim 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." (Translated from Finnish)
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. 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. Unlike previously, around this time the band themselves said they felt uncertain whether a Christian band can play black metal, because the movement was still strongly associated with Satanism. The drummer Svein Sander says in the 1998 interview:
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. 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 left the band during this time, and Antestor would not find a new full-time drummer for several years.
In 2004, Antestor changed their style into a more modern black metal, Translated quote: "Their old dark and slow sorrow metal has changed into more modern, artistic and fast black metal." and released their first set of new songs since The Return of the Black Death in an Extended play 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. In an interview with the Russian metal site Metal Library on January 7, 2007, Blomberg was asked what did his Mayhem colleagues and record company think about his participation in Antestor, and he said: "To be honest, it was a big 'fuck off!' to them all. I will repeat again that I decide what I do and I play not only in black metal groups." The band also asked Hellhammer to play live for them, but Blomberg refused. Hellhammer also went to state: "In my opinion, black metal today is just music. I will tell you that neither I nor other current members of Mayhem never really were against religion or something else. We are primarily interested in music." Ronny Hansen commented on Blomberg's appearance:
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 and 2004 in Linköping, and at the Nordic Fest 2004 in Oslo.
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. Antestor performed the concert with numerous session musicians. In this concert the band announced that this is their last live show for a while.
On April 12, 2015, guitarist Robert Bordevik announced his departure from the band.
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. 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.
"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):
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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, however common to several subdivisions of Black metal, such as DSBM. An example from the text "Betrayed" from the album The Forsaken:
Very few published reviews of the band's albums exist, yet the ones that are available are positive, often good and some 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."
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. It was their way of saying 'screw you Christians.'" 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." In 2010, HM Magazine ranked The Return of the Black Death number 40 on their Top 100 Christian metal albums of all-time list with Beck stating about the album, "Devastatingly dark, TRBD set the standard for Christian black metal." 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:
| Ronny "Vrede" Hansen | Vocals | 2000–present | Grave Declaration, Sylvan Fortress, Vaakevandring, Morgenroede, Temple of Perdition |
| Lars "Vemod" Stokstad | Guitars, Clean Vocals, Keyboards (1990-2000, 2013-present) | 1990–present | Vaakevandring |
| Stig "Erkebisp" Rolfsen | Guitars | 1995–1997, 2004, 2015-present | |
| Erik Normann Aanonsen | Bass, Acoustic Instruments | 2011–present | Haruko, Moddi, Monograf, Inglvild Østgård |
| Jo Henning Børven | Drums, Programming | 2010–present | Morgenroede, Arvinger, Grave Declaration, Vardøger, Spinning Foundation |
Former
| Robert Bordevik | guitars, backing vocals | 2010–2011, 2012–2015 | Vardøger, Grievance |
| Nicholas Main Henriksen | keyboards | 2010–2013 | Aspera, Illusion, Oceans of Time, DesDemon |
| Thor Georg Buer | guitars, bass | 2010-2012 | Grave Declaration |
| Morten Sigmund "Sygmoon" Mageroy | keyboards | 1999–2007 | Vaakevandring, Merylia |
| Vegard "Gard" Undal | bass | 1993–2005 | |
| Svein "Armoth" Sander | drums | 1993–2000 | Mourning Leaves |
| Tom W. Holm Paulsen | drums | 1990–1993 | |
| Øyvind Hope | bass | 1990–1993 | |
| Ole Børud | guitars | 1996–1997 | Extol, Selfmindead, Fleshkiller, Schaliach, Børud Family, Børud-Gjengen |
| Kjetil "Martyr" Molnes | vocals | 1990–1999 | |
| Erling "Pilgrim" Jorgensen | guitars | 1990–1993 | |
| Bjørn Leren | guitars | 1990–1993, 2003–2005 |
Session musicians
Live musicians
Timeline
EPs
Demos
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