GODSMACK

Godsmack is an American heavy metal band from Boston, Massachusetts formed in 1996. The band comprises founder, frontman and songwriter Sully Erna, guitarist Tony Romala, bassist Robbie Merrill and drummer Shannon Larkin. Since its formation, Godsmack has released four studio albums, one EP, three DVDs, and one greatest hits collection.

Godsmack has sold nearly 10 million albums in the United States. The band has had two number one albums (''Faceless'' and ''IV" (Godsmack album) on the Billboard 200. They have had fourteen top ten modern rock singles, making the only band to ever do so, as well as four modern rock number one singles, a debut album selling over five million copies in two years and have also been nominated for three Grammy Awards.

In February 1995, Sully Erna decided to start a new band as the lead singer after playing the drums for more than 23 years, including over two years in the now defunct band Strip Mind. Later that year, Erna called his friend Robbie Merrill, asking if he wanted to start writing music, and Merrill agreed. His new band The Scam formed with Erna on vocals, Merrill on bass, local guitarist and friend Lee Richards on guitar, and Tommy Stewart on drums. The Scam quickly changed its name to Godsmack, after recording one demo. The newly formed band started playing small bars in their hometowns of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Salem, New Hampshire. Godsmack started out as an Alice in Chains cover band, but moved on quickly to write its own music. Locally popular songs such as "Keep Away " and "Whatever" brought them quickly to the top of the hit charts in the Boston/New England area.

The band's name, according to Merrill in the ''Smack This!'' DVD, was stolen from the Alice in Chains' song "God Smack". However, Erna stated in a 1999 interview that "I was making fun of somebody who had a cold sore on his lip and the next day I had one myself and somebody said, 'It's a godsmack.' The name stuck. We were aware of the Alice in Chains song but didn't really think much about it. It's a cool song and the name had meaning for us".

In 1996, Tony Rombola and Joe D'arco joined Godsmack as the guitarist and drummer, after Richards left after finding out he had a six year old child and Stewart left due to personal differences. In the same year the band entered the studio for the first time, recording its first CD titled ''All Wound Up (album)'', with Erna playing drums and the rest of the band playing their respective instruments.

For the next two years, the band played throughout the Boston area. Eventually Godsmack's CD landed in the hands of "Rocko", a DJ for Boston radio station WAAF (FM). The radio station put "Keep Away (song)" into heavy rotation and the song rose to the number one spot at the station very quickly. Newbury Comics, a New England record store chain, agreed to sell the CD on consignment. Shortly after the success of "Keep Away", Godsmack went back into the studio and recorded a single titled "Whatever (Godsmack song)", which became the new local favorite on WAAF (FM).

In an interview Erna stated, "we had been selling maybe 50 copies a month at the time WAAF picked up the album. All of a sudden we started moving over a thousand records a week. It was insane. Even crazier, I was doing all this from my bedroom. After years of grinding away, things finally started taking off".

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NOW, DIABOLICAL (SATYRICON)

Now, Diabolical is an album by the Norwegian black metal band Satyricon (band). On the vinyl version, as well as on the Scarecrow Records limited edition CD of the album there is a bonus track "Storm (Of The Destroyer)". It features the singles "K.I.N.G." and "The Pentagram Burns".

SATYRICON

Satyricon is a Norwegian black metal band, formerly known as Eczema. The band credits their first album, ''Dark Medieval Times'', with starting a black metal subgenre dubbed "medieval metal". The album showed off the fascination Satyricon had with the Middle Ages, along with raw black metal blastbeats produced by Kjetil Haraldstad, mixed with acoustic guitar and flute. On the next album, ''The Shadowthrone'', this medieval spirit was continued.



Regarding one of their latest albums, ''Volcano (Satyricon album)'', frontman Sigurd Wongraven stated in a press release/biography on their homepage that "the music is rock based but more extreme; it is black metal pushing the boundaries that began with bands like Venom (band) and Bathory (band), reinventing ourselves based on a foundation of rock oriented black metal is our philosophy." It resulted in a total of 4 Awards for ''Volcano'' being, the Norwegian Grammy for "Best Metal Album", an Alarm award for "Fuel For Hatred" in the category for "Song of the Year", as well as The Alarm Award for "Metal Album of the Year" and The Oslo awards for "Best Overall Album".



Satyricon participated in the Darkthrone tribute "Darkthrone Holy Darkthrone", released by Moonfog Productions in 1998, covering the song "Kathaarian Life Code". Also in 1998, Satyricon participated in the Bathory tribute "In Conspiracy With Satan", released by Hellspawn/No Fashion Records, covering the song "Born For Burning".



In 2006, the band released a new studio album, ''Now, Diabolical''. The album has generated a great degree of controversy in the black metal underground, due to its straightforward, "radio-friendly" take on the genre. The album is selling extraordinarily well, however, even outside of black metal circles.

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GAAHL (GORGOROTH)

Kristian Eivind "Gaahl" Espedal (born August 7, 1975 in Espedal, Fjaler, Norway) is a black metal vocalist, and is the frontman of Norwegian band Gorgoroth.

Gaahl was born in the village of Espedal, Fjaler, Norway in 1975. It was revealed in Peter Beste's documentary ''True Norwegian Black Metal'' that his family has lived in and owned the same tiny village in western Norway for centuries. At present, only he and his family live in the village despite all being at least 15 minutes from each other. He has a reputation as an enigmatic character, for example, he was schooled in the same place from the age of 4 to 18 and was one of two students in the school building, the other comitting suicide after leaving. Gaahl has been involved with black metal since 1992, and has been in bands such as Gaahlskagg (with Gorgoroth live guitarist Skagg), Trelldom, and Sigfader (with Skagg and Kvitrafn). Gaahl joined Gorgoroth in 1998, and was first heard on their Nuclear Blast album ''Destroyer''; however, he only sang on the title track.

Gaahl was sentenced to one year in prison for assault in 2001, and was forced to pay the victim 158,000 NOK (26,963 US$).

In 2006, Gaahl spent another 9 months (of a 14 month sentence) in prison for brutally assaulting a man and allegedly threatening to drink his blood in 2002. The victim received a total of 190,000 NOK (32,424 US$). Gaahl was released in December 2006.

He was briefly interviewed for the 2005 documentary ''Metal: A Headbanger's Journey''. He gives commentary on the events in Norway in the early 90s as well as some of his views on Satanism and Christianity.

In April 2007 Gaahl appeared in a 5 part series entitled ''True Norwegian Black Metal''. The series was produced by famous black metal photographer Peter Beste. The series debuted on vbs.tv the broadcast network of Vice Magazine. Gaahl once more gives his views on Christianity, his paintings, and shows the film crew around his house and woods.

In October 2007, Gaahl and Infernus, the only original member of Gorgoroth, had an undisclosed argument over the future of the band. Using a MySpace bulletin, they announced their dissolution. On October 22, Gaahl and King ov Hell claimed on their official website that Infernus had departed from the band, with Gaahl and King to continue touring and releasing material under the name 'Gorgoroth', but as a founding member and the chief ideologist of Gorgoroth prior to this dissolution, Infernus announced he would be filing suit against his former contemporaries for use of the name. Shortly afterwards, Infernus launched a new official website for his party.

On December 13, 2007, Regain Records issued an official statement declaring Infernus as the legitimate owner of the name, and threatened suit against third parties using the name.

On December 19, 2007 however, it was announced that authorities in the Norwegian Patent Office determined legally that Gaahl and King ov Hell "retain the rightful ownership and use of the name and logo, now and in the future."

Gaahl is popularly known as a Satanist, although he in fact regards Satan as culturally and spiritually irrelevant, and only uses Satanism to promote his staunch anti-Christianity on the basis that 'we live in a Christian world and we have to speak their language', also using it for its confrontational value to counter Christian imposition. In actuality, he is a practitioner of old Norse Shamanism, and is opposed to imposition of one's own religious beliefs on others. Ostensibly, Gaahl's spiritual beliefs further cemented Gorgoroth's lyrical suppression. Gaahl is also a vegetarian.

ROTTING CHRIST

Rotting Christ is an Athens, Greece-based black metal band formed in 1987. They are notable as being one of the first bands of the genre within this region, as well as a premier act within the European underground metal scene.

The permanent line-up consists of brothers Sakis Tolis (born June 29, 1972, Athens, vocals and guitar) and Themis Tolis (born March 28, 1974, Athens, drums). Andreas Lagios (born November 11, 1972, Athens) has been the bassist since 1997, taking the stead of Jim Patsouris. Nightfall's (band) George Bokos joined as a guitarist in 2005, replacing Kostas Vassilakopoulos.

Three keyboardists had previously been a part of the band; George Tolias, George Zaharopoulos and a session known only as Panayiotis (on ''A Dead Poem'').

In their two decades of existence, the band started as raw black metal, but utilized what has been described as a "dark metal" direction on later releases, almost doing away with the black metal title, but not compromising their extreme metal sound.

During their rehearsal era in the late 1980s, the band began as grindcore and released various splits and demos with other bands from the Athens area. The group would later alter their sound with influence from proto-black metal bands like Celtic Frost and Venom (band), and in the process become one of the genre's instigators. Their 5 song demo, ''Satanas Tedeum'', would show a grindcore/black metal crossover, followed by their career-breaking EP, ''Passage to Arcturo'', in 1991.


One of band's first major appearances was on the 1993 "''Fuck Christ Tour''" consisting of Immortal (band) and Blasphemy (band). During this concert, some audience members had engaged in cutting and self mutilation that resulted in hospitalization. Before signing to Unisound, Mayhem (band) Øystein Aarseth had expressed interest in distributing the band through his "Deathlike Silence" label, but due to Aarseth's murder the same year, nothing materialized. The band would sign to Century Media in 1996 and remain on their roster for 10 years before joining Season of Mist.

Rotting Christ have played in many continents outside their native Greece, including both Americas, Greater Europe, Russia, the United Kingdom and the Middle East. Several heavy metal festivals around the world have hosted the band, including the 2003 ''Wacken Open Air'' in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Past tourmates have included My Dying Bride, Tristania, Tiamat, Vintersorg, Finntroll, Old Man's Child, Malevolent Creation, Anorexia Nervosa, Vader, Krisiun, Deicide, Behemoth and Nile.