Susperia

Infobox musical artist
Name = Susperia


Img_capt = Susperia in 2002. Left to right: Athera, Cyrus, Elvorn, Memnock, Tjodalv
Img_size = 250
Landscape = Yes
Background = group_or_band
Origin = Bærum, Norway
Genre = Melodic black metal Thrash metal
Years_active = 1998–present
Label = Nuclear Blast, Tabu, Candlelight
Associated_acts =
URL = [http://www.susperia.net/ www.susperia.net]
Current_members = Athera
Cyrus
Elvorn
Memnock
Tjodalv
Past_members =

Susperia is a Norwegian melodic black/thrash metal band formed in October, 1998 by Tjodalv and Cyrus.

The band was originally named Seven Sins, but after the continued dislike due to similar named bands, the name was finally changed upon finding another band with the same name. Susperia's name was taken from the title of the horror film "Suspiria", but changed the spelling to avoid copyright issues. Quite ironically, Susperia should not be confused with Suspiria, another band that also took its name from the film, but with the correct spelling.

History

Susperia was started by Tjodalv (Dimmu Borgir, Old Man's Child) and Cyrus (Session: Satyricon, Old Man's Child in October 1998).

After Tjodalv left Dimmu Borgir in the middle of March 1999 he started to concentrate fully on Susperia together with Cyrus, who are old time friends. But before that, sometime in 1998 Tjodalv and Cyrus started to write and work on the music that would eventually be used in Susperia.

It all started to happen at the Wacken Open Air Festival in August 1999 when Athera meet Tjodalv who where both traveling with Mayhem to support their show. Tjodalv had brought some pre-production music, and he told Athera he was looking for some musicians to get the band up and running. Athera had a band on a nonprofessional basis and he told Tjodalv that he was interested in listening to his material.

The music caught Athera's attention and got in contact with Tjodalv and told him he liked the material he had being producing so far and was interested enough to take his music further. Tjodalv and Cyrus, in addition to Athera as a vocalist, also needed a bass player and a second guitarist. Athera suggested his long time friend (Memnock), and another friend, (Elvorn) to play the second guitar. Both of which where playing in Atheras band at this time.

Susperia began rehearsals in September 1999 and later agreed to continue with the project. Their first demo was recorded in December 1999 at Pitfire Studio outside Oslo, the demo was mixed and mastered by L.Argedick. Synth and piano on this recording was done by Mustis (Dimmu Borgir). The demo which contains 5 songs is called "Illusions of Evil".

The demo was sent out to different record companies and gained some positive feedback. They received a few offers from mainly major record labels and decided to go with Nuclear Blast and went on to sign four record deals with them during early 2000.

The band started out with the name Seven Sins where the inspiration for the name came from the original Seven Sins. They later changed their name to Susperia (named after the Italian film Suspiria but to avoid copyright laws they changed the band name to Susperia.

Susperia played their first live gig at John Dee (music scene) in Oslo, They headlined after their country men in Ragnarok and Alsvartr had heated the crowd up. And just a few months later they again entered the stage at the Scream Magazine 10 year party and did an energetic concert that showed the people there that Susperia have a big future in front of them.

Susperia are not a Satanic band but through their lyrics they tend to criticize and question the views and moral of Christianity.

Band members

Current members

*Athera (Pål Mathisen) (Vanaheim) - vocals
*Cyrus (Terje Andersen) - guitars
*Elvorn (Christian Hagen) (Vanaheim) - guitars
*Memnock (Håkon Didriksen) (formerly of Old Man's Child and Vanaheim) - bass guitar
*Tjodalv (Kenneth Åkesson) (formerly of Old Man's Child, Vanaheim and Dimmu Borgir) - drums

Discography

tudio releases

*"Illusions of Evil" - (2000, Demo)
*"Predominance" - (Nuclear Blast, 2000)
*"Vindication" - (Nuclear Blast, 2002)
*"Unlimited" - (Tabu/Candlelight, 2004)
*"Devil May Care" (EP), (Tabu/Candlelight, 2005)
*"Cut From Stone" (Tabu Recordings 2007)

External links

* [http://www.susperia.net/ The Official Susperia Website]
*
* [http://www.bnrmetal.com/groups/susp.htm BNR Metal Pages -- Susperia]
* [http://www.deadfall.org/interviews.php?id=109 Susperia interview (german and english)]