BIOGRAPHY
Watain are a Swedish black metal band from Uppsala, formed in 1998. The band’s name is taken from an early recording by the American black metal group Von.
To date they have released five full-length albums, as well as three live albums and a number of demos and EPs. Their most recent album The Wild Hunt was released in 2013 on Century Media and sold around 2,700 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The band have become infamous for their Theistic Satanist views and for their live shows which involve pyrotechnics, candles, Satanic rituals, animal carcasses, and blood. At a now-notorious live performance in Brooklyn in 2014 they doused audience members in animal blood, allegedly causing members of the audience to vomit. This was picked up and publicised by TMZ, generating controversy around the incident.
DISCOGRAPHY
Trident Wolf Eclipse / 2018
1. Nuclear Alchemy
2. Sacred Damnation
3. Teufelsreich
4. Furor Diabolicus
5. A Throne Below
6. Ultra (Pandemoniac)
7. Towards the Sanctuary
8. The Fire of Power
WATAIN‘s new studio album Trident Wolf Eclipse was released on January 5th, 2018. The album is available as LP, Standard CD, limited CD Digipak as well as in a limited deluxe box set of 3000 copies.
“After 20 years of carving our own path through and out of the world, Trident Wolf Eclipse feels like a worthy point of arrival indeed. One of power and force, shining a new harsh light upon all that has been, those that perished along the way, the life altering struggle and triumphant ecstasy of Watain. Trident Wolf Eclipse is however not about the past, nor the future, it is about here and now, and we sincerely look forward to show you all what that implies. To all those that are as impatient as we are for that day to come; Thank you for your unending support and see you soon.”
– Watain, October 31, the year of our Lord 2017
The Wild Hunt / 2013
1.Night Vision
2.De Profundis
3. Black Flames March
4. All That May Bleed
5. The Child Must Die
6. They Rode On
7. Sleepless Evil
8. The Wild Hunt
9. Outlaw
10. Ignem Veni Mittere
11. Holocaust Dawn
The Wild Hunt is the fifth studio album by Swedish black metal band Watain. It was released through Century Media on 19 August 2013 in Europe and 20 August 2013 in USA. The cover art was painted “in oil and mixed materials” by Zbigniew M. Bielak, who was also responsible for the artwork of Lawless Darkness. The album sold around 2,700 copies in the United States in its first week of release, and was the best-selling album in their home country of Sweden on the week of its release, making it the band’s highest sales and chart debut to date. Stylistically the album represents a development of Watain’s established black metal sound, incorporating influences from heavy metal, doom metal, and progressive metal. It is also the first Watain album to feature vocalist Erik Danielsson performing clean vocals.
Lawless Darkness / 2010
1. “Death’s Cold Dark”
2. “Malfeitor”
3. “Reaping Death”
4. “Four Thrones”
5. “Wolves Curse”
6. “Lawless Darkness” (instrumental)
7. “Total Funeral” (Lyrics by Pete Helmkamp)
8. “Hymn to Qayin” (Lyrics by Set Teitan)
9. “Kiss of Death”
10. “Waters of Ain”
Lawless Darkness is the fourth studio album by Swedish black metal band Watain, released through Season of Mist, on 7 June 2010. The cover art was made by Zbigniew M. Bielak, who also painted The Wild Hunt cover art. The album sold around 1,000 copies in the United States in the first week of its release, reaching no. 42 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart. The single “Reaping Death” was distributed in their home country of Sweden in the Sweden Rock magazine, and was certified gold in the band’s home country on April 21 by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry for sales in excess of 10,000 copies. The album received very positive reviews from music critics, and in 2011 the band were awarded the Swedish Grammi for ‘Best Hard Rock’ album for Lawless Darkness.
Sworn To The Dark / 2007
1. Legions of the Black Light
2. Satan’s Hunger
3. Withershins
4. Storm of the Antichrist
5. The Light That Burns the Sun
6. Sworn to the Dark
7. Underneath the Cenotaph
8. The Serpent’s Chalice
9. Darkness and Death
10. Dead but Dreaming
11. Stellarvore
Sworn to the Dark is the third studio album by Watain and was released on 19 February 2007 on Season of Mist. The album received very positive reviews from music critics and has been described as the band’s “breakthrough” album.
The song ‘Legions of the Black Light’ is dedicated to Dissection’s dead vocalist Jon Nödtveidt.
The album received positive reviews from music critics. Chad Bowar of About.com called it “a sinister and forbidding dose of black metal”. He went on to say, “You’ll hear the droning guitars and frantic blast beats of black metal, but Watain adds a lot of really catchy and melodic riffs and some cool guitar countermelodies.” He concluded his review saying, “This is a really well crafted album that’s menacing, yet melodic.” Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic gave the album 4.5 of 5 stars, saying that the band “achieve a perfect balance between Venom or Darkthrone’s outright savagery and straightforward execution, and Emperor’s spiraling arrangements and progressive orientation”. He went on to say that “you’ll definitely find more extreme, misanthropic, or adventurous black metal albums than Sworn to the Dark out there, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find one more balanced or — and this may sound contradictory for nasty old black metal — enjoyable”. Scott Alisoglu of Blabbermouth.netwrote that “Watain is a band concerned not with experimentation or genre-bending, just the creation of ripping black metal songs that burn a hole in the soul and leave a lasting impact on the psyche. It doesn’t get much better.” The album also made many end-of-year lists, as well. In Terrorizer’s Secret History of Black Metal (issued in September 2009), it made the number 13 position on their list of “Black Metal’s Top 40 Albums”.
The AllMusic stuff named it one of their favourite metal albums of 2007.
Casus Luciferi / 2004
1. Devil’s Blood
2. Black Salvation
3. Opus Dei (The Morbid Angel)
4. Puzzles ov Flesh
5. I Am the Earth
6. The Golden Horns of Darash
7. From the Pulpits of Abomination
8. Casus Luciferi
Casus Luciferi is the second studio album by the black metal band Watain. It was released in 2003 on Drakkar Productions. It was also released on limited edition vinyl by Norma Evangelium Diaboli and, in 2004, on tape by the Romanian label Mirgilus Siculorum. The album was remastered and reissued in October 2008 with a bonus track, a live cover of the song “Watain” by Von that the band is named after.
According to Eduardo Rivadavia, writing for Allmusic, “the career of Sweden’s Watain took a major step forward with the release of 2003’s sophomore album, Casus Luciferi, which crystallized the sound that would elevate the band — in tandem with reliably devastating concert rituals — to the top of the global black metal bone pile.” He stated that, with this album, Watain “exchanged the Norwegian influences of prior efforts with a no less devilish blueprint delineated years earlier by seminal Swedish forefathers like Dissection, Marduk, and Dark Funeral.” Rivadavia concluded his review saying, “one would be foolish to overlook any track on Casus Luciferi, such is the consistent quality maintained throughout this grand musical grimoire, brimming with power, majesty, and glorious ruin in the name of black metal, and paying testament to Watain’s well-deserved ascension following its unveiling.”
Rabid Death's Curse / 2000
1. “The Limb Crucifix”
2. “Rabid Death’s Curse”
3. “On Horns Impaled”
4. “Life Dethroned”
5. “Walls of Life Ruptured”
6. “Agony Fires”
7. “Angelrape”
8.”Mortem Sibi Consciscere”
Rabid Death’s Curse is the first studio album by the black metal band Watain. It was released in 2000 on Drakkar Productions. It is notable as being the first and only album for which the band had two guitarists; from Rabid Death’s Curseonwards, the band would be a trio. The song “Rabid Death’s Curse” contains an audio sample from the film Friday the 13th. The album is considered a classic and was featured on German Rock Hard magazine’s list 250 Black-Metal-Alben, die man kennen sollte (‘250 black metal albums you should know’).
REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS
Is your pencil sharp? Do you like writing? Contact us and maybe you could become a part of Nordic Metal Team.
TOURDATES
Date | Venue | City | Country | Info | Tickets |
---|