Graveland

Biography

Graveland are a Polish pagan black metal band which was formed in 1991 by Rob Darken (born Robert Fudali). They began as a black metal band before adopting a pagan and Viking metal style. The band's themes are frequently associated with the National Socialist black metal scene. The lyrics and imagery of Graveland are strongly inspired by European mythology, nature, winter and war. Their early work focused on Celtic and Slavic mythology, while their later work focuses on Norse mythology and Wotanism.

Beginning

Darken, who started Graveland as a solo project in 1991, was influenced by bands such as Bathory and Emperor. He recorded the first demos, Necromanteion and Drunemeton, working alone. In 1993, drummer Maciej "Capricornus" Dąbrowski joined the band, which then recorded In the Glare of Burning Churches. In 1994 the two were joined by Grzegorz "Karcharoth" Jurgielewicz (previously of Infernum) and recorded The Celtic Winter, which was released as an EP by the German label No Colours Records. No Colours currently releases the band's new albums.

First albums

A few months later, the band's first album, Carpathian Wolves×Carpathian WolvesDecember 1994 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 8 tracks1Carpathian Wolves (intro)3:372Barbarism Returns5:163In the Northern Carpathians1:044Impaler of Wallachia5:125Witches' Holocaust8:566At the Pagan Samhain Night7:407Unpunished Herd8:148Into the War (outro)7:21 (recorded at the Radio PRO-FM Studio, Opole, 26 Apr – 2 May 1994), was released by Eternal Devils Records. With Carpathian Wolves, the band drew the attention of several bigger metal labels and was eventually signed by the Austrian Lethal Records label, which released Thousand Swords. This album was recorded in December 1994 at Tuba Studio, Wrocław, "in the days of eternal winter & frozen night of full moon, at the gates of a new era". The Lethal Records release showed a progression in Graveland's sound from raw black metal to black metal with folk and Viking metal influence to it. The album is considered to be the band's best release by many fans and a classic in the black metal scene. After reportedly making several racist statements, the band was dropped by Lethal. Darken then founded his own label, Isengard (later Eastclan), and re-released an extended Thousand Swords on cassette. The album's booklet contains statements against Lethal Records and two other bigger metal labels, Osmose and Nuclear Blast. In 1999, the album was re-released, again, by No Colours with another different album cover. In 2001, it was re-released for a second time by No Colours on CD and vinyl. The CD version had the logo in red and the vinyl version had a red logo. The CD and vinyl versions had different covers from each other.

Move towards folk

The band's third album, Following the Voice of Blood×Following the Voice of Blood1997 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 9 tracks1Intro2:592White Hand's Power8:333Thurisaz8:494Following the Voice of Blood9:055Forge of Souls2:316Raise the Swords12:137And the Horn Was Sounding Far Away11:568Fed by the Beasts9:299Outro2:34, was recorded 25 September 1996 – 18 December 1996 and released in 1997 via No Colours. With the 1998 album, Immortal Pride×Immortal Pride1999 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracks1Intro (Day of Fury)3:222Sons of Fire and Steel / Outro (Servants of War)23:393Sacrifice for Honour16:264Outro (To Die in Glory)7:01 (strongly influenced by the movie soundtrack of Conan the Barbarian), the band took on a folk style, while moving more into Viking metal. Its sound became more epic, symphonic and added more keyboards and chorales. The songs also became much longer. (For instance, Immortal Pride consists of four songs: two of them being the intro and outro; and the other ones being 24 and 17 minutes long.)
In 2000, Raiders of Revenge (a split release with the RAC band Honor) and Creed of Iron / Prawo Stali were released. Since Creed, Darken has worked without Capricornus on drums.
In November 2015, it was announced that Rob Darken had assembled a live lineup and Graveland would play its very first live shows in April 2016.
On 22 February 2018, the band released a re-recorded version of ''Dawn of Iron Blades×Dawn of Iron BladesOctober 2004 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 6 tracks1Iron in the Fog9:302Semper Fidelix9:293Immortal Bloodline7:264To the North of Rubicon7:415Crown Heroic My Departure6:096While I Ride With the Valkyries11:21'' with new keyboards, drums, bass and female vocals. The band released the single "Possessed by Steel×Possessed by Steel2023 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Possessed by Steel6:07" on 14 April 2020. Hour of Ragnarok the band's 13th studio album of original material was released on 23 August 2021 through Inferna Profundus Records.

Ideology

Darken sees himself as a Heathen and Christianity as the worst enemy of white Europeans. He exalts the latter's return to their ancestors' heritage, and has spoken out against "race mixing". On the Graveland EP Raise Your Sword!×Raise Your Sword!2001 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 3 tracks1Till the Final Death9:512Temple of My Hatred10:153W objecia smierci9:18, he declares Heathendom to be the religion of white Europeans.
Darken has been accused of being a neo-Nazi. In response to these accusations he has stated: "I do not see any point in referring to NS because I do not see any point in referring to any ideologies that lost. It is against logic and eternal law of evolution. I think that white men should search for new ideas that would be well adapted for the current reality and the problems of [the] contemporary world." and "If you are White proud of being White and proud of your forefathers faith, if you politically incorrect, if you dare to criticize the politicians and it you point at the existence of a strong powerful Jewish lobby supporting Israel – you are called Nazi and anti-Semite. And the special institution start to persecute you. I am called 'Nazi" but no one has any proof of my nazi background. They just repeat once heard someone else words having no proof of it." And "In Poland many people refer to Slavonic heritage as many refer to German. And I think that those who refer to Slavonic culture are the majority but they do not make big show of it. For me there is no difference between pagan beliefs of Vikings and Slavs. The names are different but the core is the same. Different stories but the same Gods with the same attributes. The ideologist of the Third Reich were responsible for the division between German Aryan world and Slavonic world. They distorted the historical facts in order to separate from Eastern world. Communist did the same but they of course favouritized [sic] Slavs." Yet, in a 2006 interview with Decibel, he stated that "Graveland is regarded as a NSBM band because of my political convictions, [which] most people would call extreme right-wing National Socialist convictions," and "people I played with were Satanists and they were not interested in paganism. Due to these differences, we finally started to walk separate ways and Graveland became [a] one-man band again. I understood that I could not support Satanism [because it] was a part of Judeo-Christian religion. In the Third Reich, Satanists would end [up] in gas chambers."

Band members

Current members

Robert "Rob Darken" Fudali – guitars, vocals, synthesizers (1991–present)
M. Ahrin – drums (2020–present)
Skyth – bass (2020–present)
Former members

Maciej "Capricornus" Dąbrowski – drums (1993–1999)
Grzegorz "Karcharoth" Jurgielewicz – bass (1993–1995)
Bartosz "Bor" Boruszewski – guitars (2015–2019)
Zbigniew "Zbych" Ropicki – guitars (2015–2016)
Piotr "Mścisław" Bajus – bass, guitars (2015–2018)
Mirosław "Miro" Rosiński – drums (2015–2016)
Maciej "Draugir" Twarowski – guitars (2016–2019)
Krzysztof "Sigrunar" Saran – drums (2016–2019)
Live members

Arkadiusz "Aro" Jęczmionka – drums (2016–2020)
Timeline