Red Planet

Biography

Valhall is a Norwegian stoner/doom metal band. In the summer of 1987, Kenneth and Ronny Sorkness met Gylve Fenriz Nagell for the very first time. Gylve had just moved into the neighborhood where the Sorkness brothers had their summerhouse. This young "lad" had the same taste in music as these two "metal-heads", and soon found out that they were tuned to the same frequency. Gylve had enough music equipment to start a band and he also had plans to start that band for a long time. Soon after, Valh...

Valhall is a Norwegian stoner/doom metal band.

In the summer of 1987, Kenneth and Ronny Sorkness met Gylve Fenriz Nagell for the very first time. Gylve had just moved into the neighborhood where the Sorkness brothers had their summerhouse. This young "lad" had the same taste in music as these two "metal-heads", and soon found out that they were tuned to the same frequency. Gylve had enough music equipment to start a band and he also had plans to start that band for a long time. Soon after, Valhall was born and Kenth Robin Olsen, a classmate of Kenneth, joined in. The following years were characterized by hard work, rehearsing and recording. In 1988 their first demo saw the light and was titled "Castle of Death". The music style was a kind of thrash metal with a black metal sound. Shortly after their first release, they recruited Lars Brede Jensen on guitar - who was also a childhood friend. Valhall continued to rehearse in Gylve’s basement and in 1989 released a new demo entitled "Amalgamation”. The style was a kind of hardcore/funcore. But one day in 1989 Gylve left Valhall to concentrate on his commitment with Darkthrone. A later demo was released in 1991 - "Pagan Token" - on which Gylve stepped in as a session drummer.

The years from 1989 to 1993 were a period with many changes of band members. Thomas Berglie(Khold) joined in 1989. Erik Lancelot (Ulver) replaced Thomas in the spring of 1992. Erik left the band, and K. J. Lervåg(Paradigma) became the new drummer. Even Kenth Robin and Lars Brede left. But in the spring of 1993 Gylve called and asked if he could join Valhall again and things restarted. The summer of ’93 was used to rehearse new songs and to audition for lead guitarists. Geir Kolden was recruited on rhythm guitar and after a short while, Frode Malm was recruited on lead guitar. One good thing came out of this period: Valhall got their own style inspired by doom metal bands like Saint Vitus, Candlemass, Trouble, Sleep, and others.

In November, 1993 Valhall went into the studio for the first time to contribute on a sampler called "The Reincarnation of the Sun". In 1995, Valhall’s first album, “Moonstoned,” was released on the legendary Metallion’s label, Head Not Found. After this album Frode was given the boot and Robin returned. A couple of years followed with playing live and spreading the name. Frank Wanberg joined the band on synth/organ and the CD, "Heading for Mars," was released in 1997. Then that Summer, Geir left the band and Frank was Valhall’s new man on lead guitar.

In the year 2000, Valhall recorded “Red Planet” and has waited for the right opportunity to release this album. Their time is now. Philip H. Anselmo enjoys Valhall’s music and decided to release the album on his recently established recording company “Housecore Records”. “We are excited about this and looking forward to this with great pleasure,” said the spokesman of Valhall, Ronny. He also said, “Housecore is a company close to Valhall's heart.” Like they say: The main goals with Housecore Records are obvious: This is music for the real complete true fan of the underground. The basics of H.C.R. are the releasing of real music, first and foremost. Our main goal is to put more of the power and money into the hands of the artists creating the music, while being on an independent label, sans all the bullshit.”-Housecore Records.

http://www.myspace.com/valhall1
http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=3532 Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.