Graveland

Pagan black metal band formed in 1991 in Wrocław, Poland. Graveland's style has changed from raw black metal on the early albums to a more epic sound which is inspired by Hammerheart-era Bathory. Lyrically, on the early works Rob Darken was inspired by Celtic beliefs, now he's Wotanism-orientated and calls his music "epic pagan metal". Several early releases and interviews with Rob Darken show antisemitic and pro-fascist tendencies. One of the band logo was done by Christophe "Volvox" Szpajdel. This logo appears for the first time on "Carpathian Wolves" and was used up to "Immortal Pride", however it showed an inverted cross instead the thorshammer. This logo was replaced by a lettering in red Fraktur capitals during 1999 and 2003. Since "Dawn of Iron Blades", Graveland uses the shown logo. All rereleases by No Colours Records after 2001 omit all lyrics in the booklets. The song "Spear of Wotan" was included on the compilation The Night and Fog Vol. 3 which was released by Totenkopf Propaganda in 2007. A shorter version of "Legion of Giants" appears on "No Colours Records Compilaton II". German BPjM (Federal Authority for Publications unsafe for the Youth) forbade the sale of 6 Graveland albums in Germany (namely: "Following the Voice of Blood", "Immortal Pride", "In the Glare of Burning Churches", "The Celtic Winter", "Blood of Heroes" and "Dawn of Iron Blades"). In May 2008, German police raided the office of No Colours Records and confiscated about 1500 banned Graveland CDs. After this, the rights to these Graveland's albums on No Colours Records were transferred to Forever Plagued Records. Graveland played their first concert on 2 April 2016 in Milan, Italy. The second concert, and the first in their native country of Poland, took place on 22 April 2016 during Pomerania Fest vol. 1: Pagan Territory. They toured Latin America for the first time in May 2017.