Hades

Hades

Again Shall Be / Alone Walkyng

Nuclear War Now

***A reissue of the band's first album from 1994 along with their debut demo from 1993. Countless words have been written about the black metal scene that flourished in Norway during the early 1990s, usually focused on the same few bands—Mayhem, Immortal, Darkthrone, etc.—that have come to be synonymous with the phrase “Norwegian Black Metal.” If those bands formed the nucleus of the scene, HADES was in tight orbit around them. After playing in AMPUTATION and IMMORTAL, guitarist JORN INGE TUNSBERG (who was also playing in OLD FUNERAL at the time) united with drummer REMI ANDERSEN to conjure a new entity known as Hades. Bored with bands more focused on speed than songwriting, the two took a multi-dimensional approach, slowing down the pace and emphasizing atmosphere and composition. Together with bassist and vocalist JANTO GARMANSLUND and second guitarist ANDREAS NAGELSETT, they recorded the three-song Alone Walkyng demo in 1993. Rather than settle for crude production, Hades recorded the demo at the legendary Grieghallen Studio, which Tunsberg knew from having previously recorded there with Amputation, and where many prominent Norwegian bands recorded their early material. Among those who ended up with a copy of the Alone Walkyng demo was JON JAMSHID, who had recently founded Full Moon Productions, one of the first black metal labels in the United States. Via handwritten letter, Jamshid expressed his desire to put out Hades’ debut as one of the first releases on the label. The band agreed, and, in 1994, following Nagelsett’s dismissal, they recruited...

Hades

The Dawn of the Dying Sun

Nuclear War Now

***A reissue of HADES' second album from 1997 with two bonus tracks. In 1992, on Christmas Eve, Hades guitarist and founding member, JORN TUNSBERG, along with COUNT GRISHNACKH, set fire to the Åsane Church in Bergen. The police investigation lasted about a year and it took another year for Norwegian authorities to convict Tunsberg. He began serving his two-year sentence in March of 1995, just a few months after the release of Hades’ debut album …Again Shall Be. Though his time in prison stalled the band’s progress, Tunsberg and his bandmates remained committed to the work they’d begun with Hades. Tunsberg’s prison sentence meant the band could not tour; however, while incarcerated, Tunsberg and bassist/vocalist JANTO GARMANSLUND continued writing. Due to the comparatively relaxed nature of the Norwegian penal system, Tunsberg was able to rehearse with the band—both in the prison and at their rehearsal space—and was even allowed to play a show in Bergen in May of 1996. A couple months later, the band returned to Grieghallen Studio to record their monumental second album, The Dawn of the Dying Sun, featuring the core lineup of Tunsberg, Garmansland, drummer REMI ANDERSEN, and second guitarist STIG HAGENES. Released in December 1997 on Full Moon Productions, The Dawn of the Dying Sun represented the full bloom of Hades’ sound. Featuring vigorous riffs ensconced among cascading windswept melodies, The Dawn of the Dying Sun is compositionally darker and more aggressive than the band’s debut album. The densely layered production and complex songwriting give...