Keep of Kalessin

Infobox musical artist
Name = Keep of Kalessin


Img_capt = (Keep of Kalessin Live at Mr. Small in Pittsburgh, PA.)
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Genre = Melodic Black metal
Black metal
Thrash metal
Years_active = 1993 – present
Label = Tabu Recordings Candlelight Records (US) Nuclear Blast
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Current_members = Obsidian C. Thebon Wizziac Vyl
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Keep of Kalessin is a black metal band from Trondheim, Norway formed in 1993. They recently wrapped up a tour with Behemoth and Dimmu Borgir. Their new album Kolossus was released on June 6, 2008.

They take their name from Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series of books, where Kalessin is the name of the arch-dragon who is the bearer of the Earthsea world.

Keep of Kalessin was nominated for a Spellemannprisen in the metal category in 2008.

Discography

Demo

* "Skygger av Sorg" (1996)

tudio releases

* "Through Times of War" (1997)
* "Agnen: A Journey Through the Dark" (1999)
** "Reclaim" "(EP)" (2003)
* "Armada" (2006)
* "Kolossus (2008)

tyle

Other than most black metal bands Keep of Kalessin is in its harshness melodical and technical oriented. A reference track is for example Escape the Union from the 2008 album Kolossus. Percussion-wise the song combines almost constant 1/16 bass-drumming with variations on the snare at around 180 bpm in 3/4 measure. Besides that an important role also plays the forward-forced main lead in the center of the piece. With no repetition and strictly melodical (in its plain character) it spins through the full scale of an electric guitar. Through transponing effects between single notes even microtonality is reached. This kind of structure at that speed is very rare, even in classical music. The band refers itself to thrash metal, however, the latest output is the opposite of that genre, taking on a much more epic nature.

Band members

Current members

*"Obsidian C. (Arnt Ove Gronbech)" - Guitars, Synth
*"Thebon (Torbjörn Schei)" - vocals
*"Wizziac" - (Robin Isaksen)Bass
*"Vyl (Vegar Larsen)" - drums

Former members

*"Attila Csihar" - Vocals - (Reclaim EP)
*"Frost (Kjetil Haraldstad)" - Drums - (Reclaim EP)
*"Ghâsh" - Vocals - (1996-1999)
*"Warach (Øyvind A.Winther)" - Bass - (1996-1999)
*"Cernunnus (Tor-Helge Skei)" - Live guitars
*"Kesh" - Session Bass

Related artists

*1349 - Frost's band
*Aptorian Demon - Ghâsh's band
*Antares Predator - Warach's band
*Gehenna
*Gorgoroth
*Mayhem - Attila's band
*Satyricon - Frost's band
*Tormentor

External links

* [http://www.kalessin.no Keep of Kalessin Official Homepage]
* [http://www.myspace.com/keepofkalessin Official Myspace]