Blackened Horde: How did the band get started?
Tim & Anders: Well, Anders asked Dennis if he wanted to start a metal band. We are longtime friends, so we both knew that this was possible. Fortunately, Dennis and Henrik had the same idea, so Dennis suggested that we could unite as one band. We met at Dennis’ rehearsal space, and knew instantly that this was a very good idea. We made some demo songs, and started to look for a bass player and a vocalist. There were a lot of contributors, but none that we felt matched the sound or chemistry we were after. One day Troels (bass) showed up. He was already a good friend of Dennis and Henrik, so they already knew that the chemistry was right. Shortly after we rehearsed, and agreed that Troels definitely was the man for the job. Not knowing Tim, we contacted him to see if he wanted to give it a shot. We already knew what Tim was capable of, listening to his other band. We took contact, Tim gave it a shot, and we were completely blown away by his aggressive vocals and his professional attitude. Tim was the man for Endarken.
Blackened Horde: What kind of music do you play?
Tim & Anders: We play fast, energetic and fierce thrash/death metal, but in general we try to avoid narrow descriptions and labels for our music. If it feels right, and sounds good, it IS right, no matter the expression.
Blackened Horde: How has the fan response been?
Tim & Anders: It has been nothing less than amazing and awesome! A lot of people from near and far have already caught on to our music and praise it a lot. We feel very privileged to get such a warm response as a new band within a genre (thrash metal) that has been around for some decades.
Blackened Horde: Where did the band name come from?
Tim & Anders: Dennis, Henrik and Anders came up with various ideas. Henrik suggested Endarken, and we agreed that this would fit our style of music very well.
Blackened Horde: Introduce the band members and what they do in the band.
Tim & Anders: We are a handful (5 finger hand) of experienced musicians. Dennis Buhl (ex-Hatesphere) is beating the crap out of the drums, Anders Høeg and Henrik Rangstrup (ex-Chaoswave) are shredding the guitars, Troels Lehmann (ex-Billy Boy in Poison) is grooving on the bass, and Tim S. Nederveen (The Vision Ablaze) is ripping the vocals. The lineup was complete in March 2020.
Blackened Horde: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Tim & Anders: This is our debut album, but as experienced musicians we have released albums on prior as well as ongoing projects.
Blackened Horde: Tell me about some of the songs on the latest CD?
Tim & Anders: Well, overall, from an instrumental point of view, the songs in general represents what we love about metal: energy, fast pace, heavy parts and melodic phrases. Some songs are having a more groovy vibe, while others are straight to the point, aggressive and thrashy. To mention a few, the first song on the album, “Prophets of apathy”, is a fast paced, in your face track that just rips your head off. “Insomnia” has a lot of those aforementioned essentials: groove, fast pace, melody, topped off with a spoonful harmonic leads. The title song “The Plague of Truth” shows a rhythmically different side of Endarken, and the song “Seraphim” is very inspired by more old school, up tempo thrash stuff, with classic elements like the beloved church-bell intro, lots of power chords and the all-time metal favorite mode, the harmonic minor mode.
The songs lyrics revolve around existential topics, and the state of the world we live in. It portraits some of the obvious flaws in our globalized civilization and economic structures, and also dives into some of the feelings that come along with living in it as an empathetic human being.
That being said, the lyrics are often very open to interpretation, as the lyrics flow free and are generated from within the inspiration and potential each track, combined with feelings and topics at heart. The songs can hopefully awake and convey different emotions and interpretations depending on who is listening.
Blackened Horde: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Tim & Anders: On this album Henrik and Anders have written roughly half of the songs each, together with Dennis. The songs were actually completed and recorded some time ago. Troels and Tim joined the band at a later stage (at this point the instrumental parts were pretty much done), and quickly adapted and adopted the energy and mood in the music. Lyrics and vocals were written and recorded by Tim in just 3 months, which proves the point of a match made in… hell!
Blackened Horde: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Tim & Anders: The lyrics are dark poetry flowing from every dark corner of Tim’s mind.
Blackened Horde: Do you have any side projects?
Tim & Anders: Yes we do, other medias have actually described us as a “super group” combined by members of other great bands. Dennis Buhl has played in Hatesphere, The Kandidate and Evil Masquerade in the past, just to name a few. Anders Høeg has played a part in early Immortal (DK), in different rock-projects and as a session musician in various constellations (a.o. at drum clinics) in the past. At the moment doing guitars for a project named Hades Landscape. Henrik Rangstrup has previously played in Chaoswave and Sinphonia, and is currently doing live-guitars in Mother of All. Troels Lehmann just released an album with Billy Boy in Poison, before choosing to step out of BBIP and focus on Endarken. Tim S. Nederveen currently doing vocals (and songwriting) in The Vision Ablaze, who will release an album during 2022.
Blackened Horde: Who are some of your musical influences?
Tim & Anders: We could mention a million bands, but our biggest influence is really just music in general. We’ve tried to maintain a healthy curiosity towards both new and older music through the years, and that as a whole, has definitely influenced us. Older inspirations in the genre of metal worth mentioning could be stuff like Death Angel, Testament, Invocator or Death. Newer inspirations would be Whitechapel, Firespawn and Bleed from Within.
Blackened Horde: What is the band like when you play live?
Tim & Anders: We are energetic and give it all we’ve got. As we speak, we have, as a band, just done our debut concert at a completely packed venue at Copenhagen Metal Fest ’21. It was a blast!! The crowd was fantastic, making mosh pits, circle pits, went crowd surfing, even doing a “wall of death”! It was so much fun, and we can’t wait to get on the road for our next show. We are experienced musicians all of us, so going on stage, showing presence wasn’t hard for us. It makes the whole thing a lot more fun, if you are able to interact with the audience, and we do just that when playing live. We played the hell of of the venue, a big hole emerged post concert, sucked all light and matter into the Endarken universe.
Blackened Horde: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Tim & Anders: Not in this new constellation – but across the line up we have experiences in other countries.
Blackened Horde: How big of a crowd do you normally get?
Tim & Anders: Well, we just did our first show as a band, at a completely packed venue. As a new band you can’t expect people to just show up, not knowing a lot about you. But they did! We were able to book the closing spot on one of the stages at CMF ’21, and they weren’t able to squeeze in one more victim! We where completely overwhelmed by the support we got by the crowd!!
Blackened Horde: How is the crowd response when you play?
Tim & Anders: At this concert the response was nothing more than fantastic! We couldn’t expect more! As mentioned earlier, the crowd went completely insane, doing all the fun stuff that relates to a metal concert! Post concert we got a lot of compliments about our stage presence, the song writing, our sound, and a lot more. And regarding our debut album, “The Plague of Truth”, the feedback has been overall positive. So we couldn’t expect more, as a new band-constellation, doing our debut show, just a week after releasing our debut album! We are so grateful for this!
Blackened Horde: What do you think about the underground scene?
Tim & Anders: It’s awesome – it’s the cocking pot for all good there is to come. We love it!
Blackened Horde: What are some of your new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Tim & Anders: Ulcerate, Cytotoxin, Avslut, Wake, Conjurer are all bands that floats in our ears at the moment.
Blackened Horde: Since the Covid Pandemic, has that hurt the band in making music at all?
Tim & Anders: No, actually the pandemic made it possible for us to complete the lineup, leaving room and time (soooo much time) at hand, which really sped up the entire process. We actually live in 3 different cities, spread all over the state of Denmark, so a lot of the songwriting is done by sending ideas to each other, and when ready, gather at Dennis’ rehearsal space to join forces.
Blackened Horde: What advice would you as a musician give to a fellow musician just starting out?
Tim & Anders: Give it all you got. Be proud of what you do. Be authentic, you cannot do great music without authenticity. Don’t play music because you want to become famous. Play and practice because it’s the most fantastic thing to do in life.
Practice, and also practice, and yeah… practice some more. If you suck, try harder, everybody used to suck at music when starting at it. Ah yeah, and also… practice some more!
Blackened Horde: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Tim & Anders: We are on it already.
Blackened Horde: What does the future hold for the band??
Tim & Anders: Hopefully a lot of great shows, a lot of joyful musical moments, a lot of fun and inspiration… and definitely also a lot of bad cheap supermarket pastry (we currently binge on “Snøfler” when rehearsing).
Thanks for great questions, hope you enjoy the answers.
Cheers from Anders & Tim (and the rest of Endarken).
Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/endarken666
https://www.instagram.com/endarken666/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3Li1x0OY22j9QPusQAkaVz?si=B8xG5uxXTw236ZkWwY81DA&dl_branch=1&nd=1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvGARsl7owmXAC_kNFeF57w
