Last weekend was the annual Brainstorm Festival, the sixth edition. The Dutch extreme metal band Slechtvalk was part of yesterday’s line-up. Next year the band celebrates its 15th anniversary, and there are plans to release a new album. To give the Dutch fans a little taste on what’s to come, they played 5 new songs: ‘Where Wandering Shadows and Mists Collide’ , ‘We Are’, ‘Nemesis’, ‘To Rise or Fall’, ‘Homebound’. Fan-filmed footage can be seen below.
Slechtvalk started out as a one-man symphonic blackmetal project by Shamgar and released its debut album “Falconry” in the year 2000. After the good reception by the metalcommunity a full band was formed and released its 2nd album “The War that Plagues the Lands”, as well as a split CD “Of Chaos and Warfare” with the Indonesian Kekal in 2002. “The War that Plagues the Lands” reached #2 at the Lowlands Top 50 Metal Charts, the best-known Dutch metal-chart.
Shortly after, the band made its first live performances, incorporating many war and fantasy themes making the bands liveshows a visual spectacle, which eventually led to the live-DVD “Upon the Fields of Battle”, which was released in 2005, together with the third album ‘At the Dawn of War’, which contained alot of elements from folk metal.
In the subsequent years, the band toured and played with several reknowned acts [like Månegarm, Skyforger, Suidakra, Endstille, Eluveitie, Holy Moses and more], while working on new material for their fourth full-length album.
2009 saw the release of the anniversary CD “An Era of Bloodshed”, celebrating the bands 10-year anniversary and contained hand-picked songs from the older sold-out albums and some previously unreleased demo-songs. During the following winter the band traveled to Sweden to record their fourth Full-length album with some of the best the metal-industry has to offer: Johan Örnborg at Studio Mega and Jens Bogren at Fascination Street, both known for their work on Opeth, Amon Amarth, Swallow the Sun and more.
With the fury of blackmetal, the thunder of deathmetal and proudness of vikingmetal, the long expected “A Forlorn Throne” album was released in the summer of 2010 through the German record label Whirlwind Records, and once and for all proved Slechtvalk’s dominance as one of the best Dutch Blackmetalacts, receiving excellent reviews throughout Europe. To read our album review, click here.
Upcoming Shows:
Saturday, 16 November 2013, LangenBOARg Metalnight, Langenburg, Germany [with Finsterforst, Delirium and Cryptic]
Saturday, 15 March 2014, RAM ROCK, Almelo, the Netherlands [with Leaves Eyes, Cirrha Niva, Martyr, Atrocity and others]
Current Line-up:
Shamgar – guitars/vocals
Dagor – bass
Seraph – guitars
Grimbold – drums
Premnath – keys
Weblinks: Myspace / Facebook / Twitter / PledgeMusic / Merchandise
Setlist, November 2nd 2013:
Where wandering shadows and mists collide [New]
We Are [New]
Vengeance Is Mine
Nemesis [New]
To Rise or Fall [New]
Homebound [New]
Towards The Dawn
Related Articles:
Slechtvalk – A Forlorn Throne [Album Review]
‘Slechtvalk’ To Play ‘Blast Of Eternity’ With New Bassplayer [Oct. 2011]
‘Premnath Gonesh’ – ‘A Journey Through The Depths Of The Soul’ [Pre-Orders Available Now] [Nov. 2011]
Premnath Gonesh – A Journey Through the Depths of the Soul [Album Review]
‘Slechtvalk’ Teamed Up With ‘PledgeMusic’, Sign Up & Get A New Free Track [August 2012]