Orcrist

As the funeral pyre of the Italian Death Metal band “Eld” burned low, a new force emerged onto the Black Metal scene from its smouldering ashes: ORCRIST.Founded at the end of '1999 by Grav (drums/lyrics) and Bhaal (vocals/guitar/lyrics), the band recorded about thirty rehearsal tapes, among which just two were official: the first one, unnamed, was released in December 2000 and it was followed by a second one, “Over Man’s Doom”, in 2001. In the early months of 2002 the band was joined by Lucyfer at the bass and Ghosta (Fullmoon Promises, Morgen, Ephedra, Z.E.R.O.) as backing singer for Orcrist’s first and second official demo, respectively called “The Third Imperyum” and “Primitive Damnation”. In December 2003 the band released a 7” split with the Norwegian band Isvind on the Italian label Hearse Records and always in 2003 the debut album “Slaget Ved Trollheim” saw the light thanks to the Scottish label Desolate Landscapes. Goblin and Arak of the Norwegian band Isvind contributed to both the 7” split and the debut album. Just as the band was set to contribute to the Ildjarn Tribute album “Gathered Under the Banner of Strength and Honour” with two songs, unfortunately Bhaal had a serious car accident that forced him to temporarily quit the band. He was replaced by Ghosta as guitar player and vocalist and by G.M. (Svalbard, Human Regression) as bass player. The two songs were an intro and “Unknown Harmony”, for which Orcrist wrote both the title and the lyric, since those two Ildjarn songs didn’t have either a name and a lyric before. During the winter 2005/2006 Orcrist released a cd compilation entitled “From the Forgotten Forest” plus a repress of their first demo, “The Third Imperyum”, with a few never released songs as bonus. Both releases were on the Italian label The Oath. During the same period of time Orcrist’s second full length, entitled “Black Blood Raised”, was released on Warlord Records/Hearse Records, while a 7” split with the Norwegian band Beastcraft was pressed by Temple Of Darkness Records. Cristiano Scarponi (Calvary, Tears Of Christ, The K, Cadaveria) played all the guitar and bass parts on “Black Blood Raised”, while on the Orcrist/Beastcraft split Bhaal played the guitar and Mattia Vassallo (Fullmoon Promises, Morgen, Ephedra, Z.E.R.O.) playing all the bass parts. In 2009 Orcrist’s third album, “We Come in War”, saw the light, released by the Dutch label Apollon Records. Grav put together a new line-up consisting of Mane (Defixio, Carnality, Muculords, Baratro, Entity, Aldebaran) at the guitar and bass, Sacrifice (Mourning Soul, Rovina, Dark Secret) as vocalist and Goblin (Icewind, Isvind) as lyricist. 2009 also saw the release of a split tape with the Austrian band Uruk-Hai. At the beginning of 2010 Orcrist finally had a steady line-up consisting of Grav at the drums, Goblin at the guitar and bass and also as vocalist and Mane at the guitar and bass as well. The band released a three song promo tape for the upcoming fourth album, “Fallen”, which saw the light in October 2010 on a limited cd format on the Austrian label Sturmklag, soon followed by the vinyl format at the beginning of 2011, thanks to the English label Aphelion Records. The band decided not to record the album in the usual professional studio, so they opted for three different rehearsal rooms: Orcrist Studio, Isvind Studio and Lifeless Studio. All the lyrics were written by Grav with the exception of the opening track, “Fallen”, written by Goblin, and of “On the Wings of Night", written by Hendrik Möbus of the band Absurd in 1998, unreleased by that time. The outro was recorded by Hugin of Uruk-Hai, who also sang on it. In March 2015, after four and half years of hiatus, Grav decided to give new blood to the project. He contacted Snake (Necroshine, Khephra live session) and Ant (Frentrum, ex-Malanoctem) and with them he decided to start the writing of Orcrist’s fifth album. In a few months the new album was entirely written and so in September Orcrist began the recordings, which ended in November 2015. All drums, guitar and bass parts were recorded in the Orcrist Studio while the vocal parts were recorded in Ant’s Studio in Lanciano (Abruzzo). The drums are completely acoustic and all the guitar, bass and vocals parts were recorded in one take with no alterations. Ant took care of the mastering and mixing of the album. No music compression, only 90’s black metal. “Catacomb” was released as LP/CD and MC in 2016 A compilation cd entitled “To the Harsh Roots” has just been released under the label Kult of Satan Productions owned by Astaroth of the Italian band Kurgaal. We are in 2017 and Orcrist has just finished recording all the part for the forthcoming sixth album “The Return of Armageddon”, also featuring Elymas (Brisen/ ex Dungeon) as session vocalist on the title track. All the mastering was taken care of by Fabio Fraschini (session bass player in Novembre) in his PlayRec studio in Rome. The album will be released in cd format in the fall of 2017 and in LP format during the first months of 2018, under the Swedish Iron Fist Productions of Tomas Nyqvist, founder of the defunct No Fashion Records. The Canadian Vonfrost Records will release the MC format. The new line up with pure hate and the true fucking hostility are Grav on drums and Lord Beleth'Rim (Torgeist, Vermeth, Amaka Hahina, Torture) on vocals! You have to hate Orcrist Ave Sathanas!!!