THE KOVENANT returned to the live stage on December 14, 2024 at the Eindhoven Metal Meeting festival in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The band, which won a Norwegian Grammy equivalent, called Spellemannsprisen, in 1999 in the category of “Best Hard Rock Album” for the “Nexus Polaris” LP, performed that effort in its entirety at Eindhoven Metal Meeting with a lineup that featured all the original members back in action, including vocalist and bass guitarist Nagash, drummer Hellhammer, keyboardist Sverd, guitarist Astennu and female vocalist Sarah Jezebel Deva.
Professionally filmed video of the “Chariots Of Thunder” performance from the Eindhoven Metal Meeting concert can be seen below.
THE KOVENANT also performed on the 70000 Tons Of Metal cruise in late January and early February, and will appear at the Karmøygeddon Metal Festival in Kopervik, Norway in early May. The band’s set included tracks from “Nexus Polaris” and “Animatronic”, along with classics from THE KOVENANT‘s debut album, “In Times Before The Light”.
While the band faces challenges with the absence of founding member Psy Coma due to health issues, Knut Magne Valle from the legendary band ARCTURUS has stepped in to ensure that the magic continues to flow seamlessly.
THE KOVENANT was formed in 1993 under the name COVENANT by two black metal artists known as Nagash (Stian Arnesen) and Blackheart (Amund Svensson),who released the debut album, “In Times Before The Light” (1997). The band signed with the German record company Nuclear Blast in 1998 and recruited four other members to form an actual band: Astennu (of DIMMU BORGIR, CARPE TENEBRUM),Sverd (of ARCTURUS),Sarah Jezebel Deva (of CRADLE OF FILTH and others) and Hellhammer (of MAYHEM and others). With these new recruits, they released their second album, “Nexus Polaris”, which was hugely successful and is largely considered their best album to date by fans.
Following a dispute with a Swedish electronic band of the same name, in 1999 COVENANT changed its name to THE KOVENANT. The name change also signaled a musical shift into an industrial metal-influenced sound.
In the beginning THE KOVENANT had a sound much similar to DIMMU BORGIR. Indeed, Nagash has played in the band and is a longtime friend to the lead vocalist Shagrath. On the “Nexus Polaris” album, the band developed a more industrial sound but still with a strong symphonic black metal influence. A re-release of “Nexus Polaris” was made in 2002. The original tracks were left untouched but two versions of “New World Order”, a song from their 1999 album “Animatronic”, were included as a bonus.
Source: blabbermouth.net
