Antestor () is a Norwegian Christian extreme metal band formed in 1990 in Jessheim. Credited for starting the northern European Christian black metal scene,Bryzak, Michael. Liner notes of The Defeat of Satan album. 2003. Endtime Productions Antestor is the only Christian band to have an album released on Cacophonous Records, which has released records by Dimmu Borgir, Sigh, and Cradle of Filth. The band's only release on Cacophonous, The Return of the Black Death, influenced Christian black metal. It has sold over 10,000 copies.
In the late 1990s, they dubbed their style "sorrow metal" because the early Norwegian black metal scene was affiliated with Satanism. According to HM magazine, the progressive elements on the debut album, Martyrium, were ahead of their time in the Norwegian extreme metal scene.
Antestor has gone through several line-up changes, and currently consists of founding guitarist Lars Stokstad (Vemod), vocalist Ronny Hansen (Vrede), bassist Erik Normann Aanonsen, guitarist Robert Bordevick, and drummer Henning Børven. Original vocalist Kjetil Molnes (Martyr) and drummer Svein Sander (Armoth) left the band around 2000, and the members of Vaakevandring joined Antestor. Jan Axel Blomberg (Hellhammer) played session drums on their 2005 album The Forsaken and the Det tapte liv EP. A fourth studio album, Omen, was released in 2012.
History
Crush Evil era Lars Stokstad, Kjetil Molnes, Øyvind Hope, and Erling Jørgensen formed the band in 1990 as Crush Evil in Jessheim, Norway. Drummer Paul W joined later. The band played a mix of death, doom, and thrash metal. In 1991, they recorded and released their first demo, The Defeat of Satan, which contains three songs and an outro. The band is Christian and have received death threats because of this.
The band caused a debate in the metal underground. During the early 1990s, Bård Faust of Emperor discussed the subject with Euronymous, guitarist/vocalist from black metal band Mayhem, in his zine, Orcustus. 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, "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." The band persevered and even employed Mayhem drummer [Jan Axel Blomberg, better known as Hellhammer, as a session musician on their latest two releases.
Martyrium (1993–1996)
In 1993, bassist Vegard Undal joined the band and Svein Sander became their drummer. During that time, they changed the name Crush Evil to Antestor, which is Latin () for "to call to witness" or "testify". (Translated from Finnish) Despair was their first self-released demo under the name Antestor. The demo starts with an intro and ends with a cover of an old Norwegian hymn, called Jesus, Jesus, Ver Du Hjå Meg ("Jesus, Jesus, Be With Me"). Strawberry Records pressed 600 copies of the recording.
In December 1994, Antestor recorded their first full-length album, Martyrium. Arctic Serenades Records was supposed to release it, but because of unknown reasons, that never happened, and the band tried to get another label to release the album. Morphine Records distributed bootleg copies of the album in 1997. In an interview, 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." The tape circulated in up to fifth generation copies, and their audience grew. Martyrium was the band's last death/doom album.
On June 3, 1994, Antestor appeared on a program called "BootlegTV", where youth could practice and experience recording and video production. Local Oslo bands from played on that program, which was broadcast on TVNorge. During the program, Antestor played five songs from Martyrium. On June 6, 1995, Antestor was featured on Norwegian newspaper Morgenbladets article about the black metal parody controversy of Australian unblack metal group Horde's 1994 album, Hellig Usvart. In the article, vocalist Kjetil Molnes explained whether 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."
The Return of the Black Death (1997–1998)
In 1997, Antestor recorded the promotional CD Kongsblod, which caught the interest of British Cacophonous Records, a label that had helped established groups such as Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir start their career. Cacophonous signed Antestor to a two-album deal. In 1998, Cacophonous released Kongsblod as The Return of the Black Death, and changed the original cover art of a Norwegian painting to artwork by Joe Petagno, an American heavy metal cover art creator.
A secular label releasing material by a Christian band 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." Two years later, in a 2000 interview with Finnish The Christian Underground Zine issue 4, the 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 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 well received by Christian and non-Christian black metal fans and critics. British metal magazines Kerrang! and Terrorizer gave the album 4 points out of 5. The Return of the Black Death is a mix of black and doom metal. The album relies on atmosphere and showcases influences from Norwegian folk music, which led some to label Antestor as Viking metal. Around this time, the band said they felt uncertain whether a Christian band could play black metal, because the movement was still associated with Satanism. Drummer Svein Sander said in the 1998 interview,
The Forsaken (2000–2009)
In 2000, Antestor signed with Endtime Productions, which had helped start the career of Extol. Original vocalist Kjetil Molnes (Martyr) left Antestor. The breakup of Vaakevandring led to several former Vaakevandring members joining Antestor. Ronny Hansen, adopting the moniker Vrede, became Antestor's new vocalist, and Morten Sigmund Mageroy (known in Antestor as Sygmoon) stepped in as keyboardist. Ann-Mari Edvardsen, who has sung in Norwegian gothic metal group The Third and the Mortal, joined the band as a female vocalist. For the first time in their career, Antestor used corpse paint on their live shows.
In 2000, Endtime Productions released Martyrium with cover art by artist Kristian Wåhlin. Antestor toured the United States with Extol that year, playing small venues and 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, The Defeat of Satan. 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 to 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 new songs since The Return of the Black Death in the EP Det tapte liv ("The Lost Life"). Det tapte liv focused less on black metal and more on instrumental songs. It hinted at their 2005 full-length, The Forsaken. The cover arts for both releases were done by Kristian Wåhlin, and the cover for the EP depicts the Borgund Stave Church. Hellhammer played drums on both releases. In an interview with Russian metal site Metal Library on January 7, 2007, Blomberg was asked what his Mayhem colleagues and record company thought 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 asked Hellhammer to play live for them, but Blomberg refused. Hellhammer stated, "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,
Live session drummer Tony Kirkemo joined the band later in 2005. The band rarely played live shows and only at Christian music festivals. Examples of performances the group 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 members still play in Vaakevandring, who played a reunion concert in 2007 with Antestor at the Endtime Festival in March 2007 in Halmstad. Antestor performed with numerous session musicians. The band announced that concert was their last live show for a while.
Omen (2010–present) After a three-year hiatus, the band launched an official Facebook page on January 29, 2010. They announced new members bassist Thor Georg Buer (Grave Declaration), guitarist Robert Bordevik (Grievance, Vardøger), drummer Jo Henning Børven (Grave Declaration, Morgenroede), and keyboardist Nickolas Main Henriksen (Aspera, Desdemon). This line-up played at Nordic Fest 2010 in Oslo. On November 4, 2010, they signed to Bombworks Records to record a new album and an EP. After line-up changes in mid-2011, bassist Erik Normann Aanonsen (Moddi) joined the band while Thor Georg switched to guitar, and they played the Norwegian Seaside Festival with that line-up. The album was recorded and mixed and mastered in Sweden. Guitarist Thor left the band to focus on college, but stated he might return. The fourth album, Omen, was released on November 30, 2012. A Brazilian tour was announced for early 2013. During the Belo Horizonte leg of this tour, the band faced a protest by Black Metal/Anti-Christianity radicals. Since the radicals announced their intentions on the Internet, the local police had assigned one private policeman in addition to the 30 security guards present to help guaranteeing the security of the show. At one point, the officer had to fire some shots towards the sky to control the rioters. A video posted on YouTube shows a group of radicals screaming "Fuck you, Antestor!" outside the venue and the local police escorting the band members.