THE BEAST

It was but March 2019 when PURITY THROUGH FIRE released VANANIDR's self-titled debut album. Originally self-released digitally, Vananidr may have been VANANIDR's first public recording, but the band's history stretches back many years - which was immediately evident once the listener was presented with such black metal of an ancient vintage.

VANANIDR's history begins in the mid '90s when Titan (now in IXXI) forms the band Hydra. In 1999, he is accompanied by Anders Eriksson AKA Flame (guitar), Erebus (vocals), and Thunder (drums, now also in IXXI). Over the next five years, they record several demos and an album titled Phaedra. When recordings for the second album are begun, Erebus quits the band, and the following year, Titan also quits. In 2010, Anders picks up the pieces of the unfinished recordings and records the vocals himself, and the album is finally finished under a new band name: Synodus Horrenda. Progress is slow, but in 2017, Anders completes a new album with Thunder on drums and later changes the band name once again to the more suiting VANANIDR.

With Anders then the only remaining member from the Hydra years since Thunder disappeared along the way, VANANIDR wasted no time in releasing the follow-up album, Road North. Whereas the self-titled album was largely somber, shadowy, and evoked a woodland mysticism, the aptly titled Road North explored colder and more unforgiving realms. With momentum building ever hotter/colder, now do VANANIDR return with their third album, Damnation.

Featuring an all-new lineup with Anders again leading the way, VANANIDR's Damnation suitably splits the difference between its two full-length predecessors - the solemn dynamics of Vananidr crossed with the more aggressive aspect of Road North, if you will. And immediately, Damnation bursts forth with that now-signature VANANIDR sound: an undulating snowstorm of white-hot melodicism, the spiraling violence spilling forth even-more-epic visions. And now, those visions retain the band's elder '90s classicism whilst imparting a sleeker, more modern atmosphere - gritty, urban, but wolfish and ever alone. Not for nothing is the detailed cover artwork courtesy of Andkill the way it is...

Grim and resolute, roving the forests and cityscape alike, VANANIDR hereby deliver you Damnation!

VANANIDR lineup 2020
Anders - vocals, guitar, and bass
Ljusebring - drums
Rickard - guitar

release notes
Damnation was written and composed by Anders
All lyrics written by Anders
Recorded in OffBeatStudio, Sweden in 2019
Produced, mixed, and mastered by Anders
Cover artwork by Andkill
Forest photograph by Anders

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/vananidr
www.purity-through-fire.com