Origin London, United Kingdom Years active 1989–1997 | Genres Death metal | |
Labels Unisound Records (1995) Members Andrew "Wooj" Wood
Hans Stiles
Kola Krauze
Richard "Arnold" Summers Past members Loz Archer
Matt Goddard
Marcus "Mortgage" Greatwood
Paul Harvey | ||
Dark Heresy was a death metal band based in suburban London, England and mainly active during the years 1993-1996, a period during which the London underground metal scene peaked. They played over fifty concerts across England during this period, often as headliners (including one night headlining the Marquee) as well as supporting bands like Ancient Rites, Cradle of Filth and Dissection. They split up in 1997 following some line-up difficulties.
Contents
Music
Dark Heresy's songs were often long and complex in arrangement due to the ambitions and considerable technical skills of virtuoso guitarist Richard "Arnold" Summers (who wrote all of the band's music), with marked Baroque and jazz influences, tapping, and frequent use of the tritone or the interval of an augmented fourth. Although at the time dismissed by metal magazine Kerrang! as "a widdly Carcass", Terrorizer was more enthusiastic, writing that "Dark Heresy's music is not about mind-numbing brutality and dazzling speed, but is about complex and reflective musical structures supporting complex ideas", and describing the band's 1993 demo Diabolus In Musica as "one of the most inventive works from an occultist band." A decade after Dark Heresy had split up, DragonForce's Herman Li said of them, "they're the ones everybody knows the name of. You know, loads of people have got a copy of [Dark Heresy's 1995 album Abstract Principles Taken to Their Logical Extremes]. They must have beaten a lot of people up."
Lyrics
Written mainly by vocalist Kola Krauze, Dark Heresy's lyrics were as long and complex as its music. Dealing with themes such as religion, antireligion (often with a specifically anti-Christian sentiment), Germanic paganism and the Middle Ages, they were also highly unusual for their time (in the context of death metal) for focusing at least as much on love and eroticism. In 1995, Terrorizer described the band's lyrics, noting that they are "extremely long and gather together many anti-Christian diatribes which are as clever as they are shocking or sardonic ... After hearing this CD, you too may seriously question many aspects about the spiritual self".