Biography
Black metal band from Ankara, Turkey.
Being one of the oldest Black Metal bands in Turkey, The Sarcophagus was formed in the cold winter of 1996 by Nahemoth (drums) and Heimdall (vocals). After the joining of Thyrouth (ex-Sephiroth/guitars), musical genre became outstanding and band has concentrated on hastening works through this way. At the beginning of 1998, first demo “Pagan Storm” which was composed of an intro and four songs was released. This brilliant sample of classical black metal sound enriched with symphonic keyboards gained a huge success not only in Turkey but also abroad too and distributed by lots of distros/record companies like Moribund Records (USA), Folter Records(Germany), Pussy God Records(Czech Republic) to all over the world. Despite its average sound quality, “Pagan Storm” was qualified as milestone of underground Turkish black metal scene.
Being one the unique bands which bawl black metal existence in Turkey, after Heimdall’s depart, The Sarcophagus has taken part in various gigs and organizations with different line-ups till 1999 especially in Ankara and Izmir. In 2000, drummer Nahemoth also undertook the vocals and entered Zoo recording studios with Thyrouth and Hanephi (ex-Imhotep/bass) to record “Infernal Hordes Of The Ancient Times” demo. Composed of 7 songs including “Servants of darkness” and “Black candle’s dim light” of “Pagan Storm” demo which were re-arranged/re-recorded, this promo was able to be released in 2003 because of some reasons not related with the band. It was a limited edition and has been released with mail order system and supports of some distros to home and abroad. This promo highlighted the success of debut demo “Pagan Storm” and introduced the band to lots of black metal fans which resulted in The Sarcophagus’ being famous around region and all over the world as well. The sound quality of “Infernal Hordes Of The Ancient Times” was comparatively better than “Pagan Storm” and besides its extreme, cruel and dark style, not very often used keyboards which were aimed to create a dark atmosphere with symphonic taste, formed Anatolian theme and shaped the band’s music style to be called as “Anatolian black metal art”. Not only with these releases of band, lots of interviews and demo reviews in local and foreign music press, band’s songs has been one of most downloaded songs via different web sites on internet. After all, band decided to rename “Sarcophagus” name with “The Sarcophagus” due to some other bands with the same name.
After the last release, The Sarcophagus stayed inactive for a long time and there has not been any musical change regarding the band. Nahemoth played in Ankara originated Death/Black band Raven Woods not only in lots of gigs but also in “In Silent Agony” debut EP as vocalist. After departing from the band, Hanephi moved to Canada and formed a black metal band called Anatolian Wisdom which relased some records and played in lots of gigs there. On the other hand Thyrouth who has already moved to Germany, has studied on its solo project for a long time till his sudden return to Turkey. This long term silence has been perceived as band members would no longer continue their career and The Sarcophagus has already departed. Till another cold winter in 2007…
After long hardworking period, Nahemoth came out with 10 songs of new The Sarcophagus album. During those days, The Sarcophagus was a solo project of Nahemoth who plays guitars, but after the return of Thyrouth and his contribution to song writing process, band reformed its integrity again. Unfortunately Nahemoth gave a pause to recording phase in order to complete his military service which resulted in another but short term silence for the band. But after his return in a few months band accelerated again. A small time ago, an experienced musician, Ozan from Raven Woods (Frostmourne/bass) attended the band and completed the bass partitions of the album. From the beginning of the story, the band has been facing up with vocalist problem for a long time. But a small time ago Thyrouth met with famous Norwegian Black Metal band Shining’s Swedish vocalist Niklas Kvarforth by chance. Then Niklas KVARFORTH participated as session vocalist in the new The Sarcophagus album called “Towards The Eternal Chaos”.
There are 10 tracks including an intro in the debut album of the band called “Towards The Eternal Chaos” which was recorded in “Midasin Kulakliklari” studios. In this new album a more extreme and technical kind of classical black metal was performed professionally and specifically by the band with the highest quality production compared to previous works of The Sarcophagus. The most outstanding points are; minimized use of keyboards and specific vocal sound of Niklas Kvarforth which formed an integrity to the sound as well in 2 tracks “The Sarcophagus” and “Misanthropic”. The band has signed with famous Osmose Productions and the debut album Towards the Eternal Chaos has been released under this label in November 2009.
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