Begrepet «tegneserieband» har nettopp blitt redefinert! SONS OF BALAUR har sitt utspring i universet til den grafiske romanen Realm of the Damned, og er et fiktivt norsk band bestående av demonbesatte kirkebrennere, djeveldyrkere og straffedømte fra Øksfjord lengst nord i landet! Om bandet selv  ikke eksisterer i vår verden, er musikken likefullt både reell og beintøff, og det kommende ekte debutalbumet (bandet har i tegneserien sluppet en rekke utgivelser, fra 1993-debuten To Summon Him, som kun ble sluppet på kassett) er en strålende sak med klare referanser til klassisk Bathory, Celtic Frost og Venom, i tillegg til både andre og tredje generasjon med black metal-band!

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SONS OF BALAUR are a trve kvlt black metal band based in Oslo, Norway. Formed in March, 1992, the band was part of the original first wave of Norwegian black metal – a notorious inner circle of underground artists who took music to extremes it had never previously reached. Started in secret, for obvious reasons, the band features some of Norwegian black metal’s most dedicated and shadowy personalities: Tomas (vocals, guitar), Markus (bass), Kristoffer (guitar), and Lars (drums). All members hail from the small town of Øksfjord in the very far north of Norway, inside the Arctic Circle, have known each other since their troubled childhood, and are followers of the dark arts. Their songs are as much invocations of the black forces of the underworld as they are music. Their recordings have been kept closely guarded within a tight-knit community of like-minded servants of the night, and remained unreleased in any official form until now. Their new album is an invocation of the dark vampiric overlord of chaos and death: Balaur.

Lead singer Tomas (all surnames are withheld due to legal reasons) is one of black metal’s most infamous, yet secretive, personalities. Having burned down two churches (a centuries-old wooden stave church in Øksfjord, Norway, and a fortified church listed as a heritage site in Transylvania, Romania) Tomas has been imprisoned for arson, and has also been arrested twice on murder charges – though, in both cases, he was released as a result of insufficient evidence. A fateful chance meeting at the legendary Helvete record shop in Oslo brought the old friends back together, where this group ignored the rest of those who frequented Helvete – a gathering place and centre of nefarious activity for all those involved in black metal’s inner circle in its early days.

They formed SONS OF BALAUR and began rehearsing in earnest. Several demos were recorded – but none were ever officially released to a wider audience. These early years yielded such legendary recordings as: ‘To Summon Him’ (1993, unreleased, cassette only); ‘The Dark Lord Shall Rise’ (1995, unreleased, cassette only), ‘Bloodfrenzy’ (1996, ultra-rare 7″ single) and ‘The Equanimity Of Chaos’ (1999, unreleased, cassette only). The band has, until now, only played to secretive gatherings of the followers of the cult of Balaur, a vampire whose legends permeate the darkest recesses of Romanian folklore and sorcery. No one knows the real name of this legendary Carpathian predator. Known as ‘Balaur’ (the Dragon) for his demonic ability to breathe fire, he existed for a relatively short period in 15th/16th century Europe, feared among mortals and vampires alike. His origin is a mystery lost in time, though his bloodline was clearly mixed with ‘something else’ – a scion of House Petrova, Balaur remained a wild animal scything across the battlefields of Europe completely out of control, even fighting alongside the ‘Great Impaler’ Vlad Tepes. He did as he pleased, upsetting the Petrovas’ schemes, until it fell to his blood-sister, Athena, to make the decision to murder him for the good of the family.

Following Balaur’s death at the hands of his sister, his loyal retainers retrieved a fragment of his body, which they revered as an unholy relic, dedicating themselves to finding a way of resurrecting him. This cult has endured for centuries, but has become a forgotten footnote in the occult history books – remembered only by the most dedicated acolytes. The band’s live shows are rumoured to have included occult rituals, mass orgies, extreme violence, and even human sacrifice – with the ultimate offering being made in an attempt to summon the undead. More of a Satanic ceremony than a live black metal performance, these «gigs» have been highly secretive, in an attempt to avoid attention from the vampire hunting organisation (themselves extremely enigmatic) known as «The Congregation».

The band dropped out of public sight in the year 2000. Rumours have persistently spread that they disappeared after travelling in the murky Transylvanian region of Romania – that they had been murdered, sacrificed at one of their own shows by competing followers of the vampire Balaur. The truth about what had become of SONS OF BALAUR, where they had disappeared to, or even if they still survived, remained a mystery… until now!

After an absence of fifteen years, during which no one outside of the most extreme Satanic circles has known anything that could be substantiated about their activities, the SONS OF BALAUR have returned from their self-imposed exile in the netherworld to release their debut full length album ‘Tenebris Deos’.

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