SULPHUR
Bio:
Sulphur arose from the ashes of black metal act called "Taakeriket" in the late 90's. The band was formed by Øyvind Madsen (guitars), Stanley (guitar and vocals) and Tor Helge (drums). After a few rehearsals Reitan joined on bass. In the early days the music was much more old school oriented with influences like Darkthrone, Satyricon and Dissection.
We never actually released anything official under the name Taakeriket, only a few rehearsal tapes were recorded. The quality of the recordings was so bad that we didn't want to release them. After a year or so Reitan decided to leave the band. Stanley then started playing the bass and Felipe joined on guitar. We played a few shows with this line-up in our hometown, Bergen. After some shows and many rehearsals Stanley decided to leave the band, and Tor Helge went to the army. Then we were forced to take a break which came to last for almost two years.
In the late summer of 1999 we finally got back together and started rehearsing again. With Stanley out of the band, Reitan rejoined. At this point the music started taking a bit of a different direction. We wanted to expand musically and started adding more death metal and progressive elements to the music, still the foundation remained black metal. This combination created a different sound and made the music more aggressive and challenging. All these changes required a new name. We didn't feel Taakeriket fitted our new musical direction. The name Sulphur was thus a result of the changing in musical direction.
At this time we had composed many new songs and it was time to enter the studio for the very first time. In October 2000 we recorded our first official demo tape called "A Relic For The Damned". It was recorded at Manger Folkehøyskole in the course of a cold October weekend. We printed only 150 copies of the demo tape which was sent around to different record labels and magazines. Nothing much happened with this release, we got some good reviews from different magazines, but no interest from any labels.
In 2001 Thomas S. Høyven joined the band as lead singer. Earlier this duty had been handled by Stanley and Felipe. We were booked to the Hole in the Sky festival in Bergen the same year. Nowadays this is one of the biggest metal festivals in Norway. Other bands the same year was 1349, Aeternus and Destruction. Some months later we were asked to be the opening act for Norwegian deathmetallers, Aeternus.
Not much happened after these shows and due to lack of inspiration we decided to take a break which came to last for four years. During these four years Øyvind and Felipe concentrated on writing new song material.
In 2005 new song material was ready to be recorded. The long break had given us lots of new inspiration and new ideas. So we felt ready for another go at Sulphur. This year we played the Hole in the Sky festival for a second time.
During the break Tor Helge and Reitan had left the band so now it was up to Øyvind, Felipe and Thomas to hit the studio for a second time. The result was the demo tape called "Outburst of Desecration". This time things went much better than with the “Relic for the Damned” demo. We ended up recording four new songs, this time in Conclave Media Studios with Bjørnar E. Nilsen as the producer. We had much more time to spend in the studio this time, so naturally the result came out very much better. We printed around 100 promo copies and started sending them around to different record labels around the world. The response was great this time. We got contract offers from different labels. The choice ended up with the well known French label, Osmose Productions, which we are very pleased to be signed on.
Then it was finally time to record our very first full length album. Right before the recording, Felipe decided to leave the band. Then it was only Øyvind and Thomas left in the band. The recording sessions started in march 2006 in Conclave Media studios. Since we had no drummer at the moment, Mads Gulbekkhei (Zeenon, TheAllseeingI) was hired as session drummer for the recording. He did an excellent job, so that choice was obviously correct.
The drum session was done in three days and the rest of the recording was done in tree weeks. After the recordings were done, Eivind Huse (Vulture Industries, ex-Syrach) joined the band as our new guitar player. The album, "Cursed Madness" was released in January 2007. The album received great reviews from different magazines and webzines around the world. After the release two new members was recuted to the band, Erik (ex-Aeternus, ex Gorgoroth) on drums and Vegard Hovland (Carmina Obscura) on bass.
In 2008 Sulphur went back into the studio to record a second album. The album Thorns In Existence was recorded in Conclave Media Studios and produced by Bjørnar E. Nilsen. However, due to musical disagreements, Sulphur and Osmose Productions chose to part. Sulphur signed a new recorddeal with Dark Essence Records, and the album Thorns in Existence will be released 09.11. 2009. The forthcoming album is a violent creation of progressive blackened death metal, and will blow your fuckin’ mind!
Sulphur Website
Sulphur @ MySpace