TAAKE / KAMPFAR / HELLERUIN

Approaching 25 years of existence and having grown to become one of extreme music’s premier live outfits, while releasing albums that would dominate year-end lists and even bagging a Norwegian “Spellemann” Grammy award for their ‘Profan’ album, Kampfar looked ready to go and dominate for years to come. But behind the music, disguised during the intense live shows, underneath it all, was a clarity that the road’s end was nigh.

Founded back in 1994 by Dolk, who recruited Thomas to take care of strings and keys while the former focused on drums and vocals, the band was an underground gem for years. A band whose first records are spoken of with reverence to this day, perhaps helped by the low profile they kept at the time. It was ten years before the first live show was performed, at this point bassist Jon and drummer Ask Ty had joined the ranks and this line-up released another three albums before Thomas departed the band, 2011’s ‘Mare’ the last release with his stamp so solidly placed on it.