Summoning Biography, Discography.

Band "Summoning" :: read Biography, Discography, Members and more...
Official Sites of Metal Bands - Main Page
Main PageAdd BandLinksFeedback
SearchSite Map
Mus. Access
Bands: Rambler's Top100# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Эта страница на русском
Official site • Status: Active
Report any info about band or about errors.
Style: Symphonic Black Metal
Year of birth: 1994
Country: Austria
Views: 6570. Updated: 09 March, 2006 by Project Moderators

Biography of Band

Summoning was formed somewhere in 1993 by Silenius (Michael Gregor), Protector (Richard Lederer) and Trifixion (Alexander Trondl) who met in the sort of pub, where they used to drink. Before his activities in Summoning, Protector was playing drums in a kind of "old fashioned" thrash/death metal band "Marlignom", that nearly got a record deal at Peaceville, but in that time the band broke up. His very first musical experience was a rock band (he was 15 years old then ) and a four year study of drums in the music school. The musical experience of Silenius was a doom metal band "Shadow vale"(at 16 years old) and few years in music school studying piano. Before Summoning, Silenius was making music, together with Pazuzu (Ray Wells) in a band Cromm (They made some demos that sounded like Abruptum, but never released anything else). Trifixion played in Pervertum.

Summoning made 2 demos ("Upon the Viking's stallion" and "Anno Mortiri Domini"), promo tape for Minas Morgul and one or two tape samplers with Pazuzu and Cromm. Nearly all songs from demos were never released after or took place on CDs in a very different version.

The demos sold quite well in a record shop in Vienna, called "Why not". Some times later Silenius got in contact with T.T.(Thomas Tannenberger), who made an interview with Summoning for the local fanzine TAUB (which was the first Summoning interview).They talked a lot and T.T. told that he wanted to form a band of his own, and gave Silenius a tape with some riffs. That was the birth of Abigor. They kept the contact and later Silenius replaced Rune (now singer of Amestigon) and did all vocals for all Abigor releases (except the demos) as a permanent Abigor member. As they recorded the first Abigor album("VerwÝstung") for the young Napalm Records label, Silenius got in contact with Max from Napalm. They handled a deal with Summoning and soon Summoning's debut "Lugburz" was released on Napalm. That time Summoning crew was: Silenius - vocals, keyboards, bass; Protector - keyboards, guitar; Trifixion - drumms; And Pazuzu made some additional vocals and wrote some lyrics (he also was singing in DM way on demos). 1995 was a very creative year for Silenius and Protector, and gave lots of practising experience for them. They were involved in the following bands and projects, and made these releases: Summoning "Lugburz", "Minas Morgul"; Pazuzu "And all was silent"; Grabesmond - demo (There was also P.K. in it); Die Verbannten Kinder Evas "Die Verbannten Kinder Evas" ; Abigor "Nachthymnen"; Ice Ages "Strike the Ground"; Weltenbrand "Das Nachtvolk"; Sanguis et Cinis "Schicksal"

After they recorded "Lugburz", they kicked out Trifixion, who turned out to be a commercial thinking asshole.Guys did not want to get a new drummer and so they continued working with medieval and bombastic keyboard percussion sounds. The result can be heard on "Minas Morgul". So the band then consisted of: Protector - vocals, guitar, keyboards, drum-programming; Silenius - vocals, keyboards, bass.

In that times they also made a song for Napalm recs. compilation "With us or against us". It was just a quick made demo song that sounded like Mysticum and originally was not made to be released. So it got no title.

As "Lugburz", an exercise in raw, Abigor-style black metal, was a "first try", and was totally different from all future material, its follow-up "Minas Morgul" was "the crown" of Summoning creation. It opened new horizons for Summoning and for BM music in general. The album was totally inspired by Tolkien themes(as all their later stuff), and was a magnificent epic/ambient BM. "Minas Morgul" contained much of the material from old demos (of course it was made in a very different way).

The next greatest album "Dol Guldur", came to light at 1996. "Dol Guldur" continued "Minas Morgul" musical and lyrical wise, and surely was the a progression in Summoning creativity. On "Dol Guldur" the music from Protector's dark/EBM project Ice Ages also can be heard ("Over Old Hills" theme is taken from "Trapped and Scared" Ice Ages song).

Besides Summoning, guys also done some work in: Sanguis et Cinis "Schiksal"; Pazuzu "Awaken the dragon"; Abigor "Opus IV". In this year, Silenius also made songs for his dark/ritual project Mirkwood, but unfortunately he didn't release it yet (the songs were lost in the synthesizer sequencer... but still there is a hope that the project will be reactivated).

Some songs remaining from "Dol Guldur" recording session were released in "Nightshade Forests" mini-CD in 1997. There were only one new song - "Habbanan beneath the stars".

After this album, Summoning stopped their activity, till 1999.They also stopped their work in almost all other bands.
some words about related bands and projects...
As far as Protector stopped his work on Grabesmond, after releasing a demo (there were only 30 copies of it), P.K.(Peter Kubik) from Abigor and Lucia Mariam Faroutan (his wife) continued with it. Protector left Sanguis et Cinis (because of hostility between him and Evangel(mastermind of this band)), where he played guitar and made some keyboard lines; and Weltenbrand where he was a guest singer. Silenius made songs for the next Pazuzu album, but they were not included in it, and continued his work in Abigor, ('97 release "Apocalypse" and '98 "Supreme Immortal Art"). Protector released an album "Come Heavy Sleep" ('97) with his project "Die Verbannten Kinder Eva's", and also made a bass lines for dark-trip wave band "Whispers in the shadow", with their "Laudanum"('97) release.

After a long silence, Summoning exploded with new album "Stronghold" in May 1999, forcing everybody to open their eyes and clean their ears. Album was recorded in "Nachtschatten studio" which is the home-studio of Protector, and was engineered and mixed by members of band themselves.
"Stronghold" surely showed some new ways in Summoning musical experience. On the new album, guest-singer Tania, who has also replaced Julia in Die Verbannten Kinder Evas, appeared in a song "Where hope and daylight dies", which was surely a new step for Summoning.Silenius left Abigor (Vocalist from Heidenreich replaced him) due to the lack of interest and style change, and started to work on the new industrial project Kreuzweg Ost (which is near to be released on Napalm) together with Martin Schrienk from Pungent Stench. Protector left "Whispers in the Shadows", after a new album "November", and recorded a new album "In Darkness let me dwell" with Die Verbannten Kinder Eva's (it was released at 22 of Nov).
In the year 2001 the follow up “Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame” was released. This release was a kind of combination between the old and new style of Summoning. That means that the keyboard lines had been more epic and polyphonic again while the more complex and melodic guitar-style was more close to Stronghold. This time the band used more spoken-word samples to bring a more dramaturgic style to the songs and for the first time the band works with clear vocal choires on the finishing song of the album called “Farwell”. The lyrical concept again was totally based on Tolkiens middle earth concept, but for the first time it was combined with some lyrics from another great fantasy author namely “Michael “Moorcock”.

After a long silence Summoning released a kind of collectors item for die-hard fans only namely the mini CD lost Tales. This CD contained two songs which officially have been composed and recorded back to the years 1996 and 1997. The first song originally was composed for the Mirkwood project while the second song was a missing Dol Guldur session song. Both songs have been used in its original versions; that means no guitars or vocals have been added, just a lot of spoken word samples to make a kind of soundtrack atmosphere.

Members of Summoning

Current Members:
Richard Lederer (Protector). In Band at: 1993 - . Role: Vocals, guitars, keyboards
Side projects: Die Verbannten Kinder Evas , Grabesmond , Ice Ages , Marlignom , Pazuzu , Sanguis et Cinis , Weltenbrand , Whispers In The Shadow
Michael Gregor (Silenius). In Band at: 1993 - . Role: Vocals, bass, keyboards
Side projects: Abigor , Amestigon , Cromm , Die Verbannten Kinder Evas , Kreuzweg Ost , Pazuzu , Shadow Vale , St. Lucifer
Past Members:
Alexander Trondl (Trifixion). Period: 1993 - 1995. Role: Drums
Side projects: Pazuzu , Pervertum , Trifixion
Raymond Wells (Pazuzu) (Guest). Role: Vocals
Side projects: Golden Dawn , Pazuzu , Raventhrone
Tania Borsky (Guest). Role: Vocals
Side projects: Die Verbannten Kinder Evas

Discography

Demo: Upon the Viking's Stallion (1993) Tracklist.
Comment: This is the first musical appearance of Summoning.
Demo: The Urilia Text (1994) Tracklist.
Comment: This is a split demo together with "Pazuzu" and in an awfull quality which makes it hardly possible to hear any details. The demo only contains 2 Summoning songs.
Demo: Anno Mortiri Domini (1994) Tracklist.
Promo: Lugburz (1994)
CD: Minas Morgul (1995) Studio: beowulf. Tracklist.
Lineup: Protector, Silenius
Comment: For the band and for most of the fans this album was the secret debut album. Within this release everything what the Summoning-sound is meant to be found its origin, and so this release brought the band to a larger audience. This album contains both songs of the promo tape namely "Lugburz", "Dor Daedeloth" and "Dagor Bragollach" (on the promo tape this song was followed up by guitars which we droped on the album). Most of the lyrics also have been lost.

This album is still one of the most important releases of the band so far.
CD: Lugburz (1995) Studio: Beowulf. Tracklist.
Lineup: Protector, Silenius, Trifixion Of The Horned King
Comment: This album contains most of the demo-songs, but highly rearranged. Most of the basic riffs have been composed on bass-guitar, while protector added the other melody-lines on guitar. On this album keyboards have been used just a accompaniment, and not as the main instrument as on follow up releases. An interesstin fact is that the basic riff of "Where winters forever cry" was composed by Trifixion. This song was one of the highlights of this CD. But all in all Trifixions drum playing was not satifying and his more and more outcomming ego-trips forced the band to kick him out, so that Summoning was then free to develop his very own style. In contrary to the follow up releases, this album was not produced at "Hörnix Studio", but in a our session room by a guy whos name doesn't play any role. In this case "Summoning" had to remix the album at "Hörnix Studio".

Most of the lyrics have been done by Pazuzu; he also did the spoken vocals on "Dragons of Time" and "Through the Valley of the frozen Kingdom". Most of them have been lost a long time ago.
Promo: Minas Morgul (1995)
Comment: As far as the band knows one promo tape has been done to Minas Morgul. This tape just was made for napalm records only to give them information how the style of the band has changed. The tape contained different versions of �Lugburz� (within this song the vocals still had some echoes which have been dropped later), �Morthond� and �Dagor Bragollach� (within this song still guitars have been added to the music) and maybe some more songs
CD: Dor Guildur (1996) Tracklist.
Lineup: Protector, Silenius
Comment: This record is untill now the best selling album of the band. Along with this release for the very first and last time promo posters of the cover have been made which are now very desired fan-articles for the die-hard collecters. The last song "Over Old Hills" is completely based on a song on the first "Ice Ages" CD (the dark, electronic project of Protector).

"Minas Morul" and "Dol Guldur" have been recorded at "Hörnix Studio" in which also "Abigor", "Die Verbannten Kinder Evas" have produced their first outputs.

For the first time some lyrics have been done by P.K. of Abigor.
CD: Nightshade Forest (1997) Tracklist.
Lineup: Protector, Silenius
Comment: This release (for the first time) was mixed in a studio somewhere in Swiss. The production braught some good aspects in cause of the reverb, and hard drum-sound, but unluckily "Summonig" made some bad mistakes with the guitar-sound. In this release for the first time sound samples have been used (in this case battle-sounds from the movie "Braveheart" in the song "Flesh and Blood"). As the songs are the missing songs of the "Dol Guldur" session both CDs are connected, and should be seen as one CD.
CD: Stronghold (1999) Studio: Nachtschatten. Tracklist.
Lineup: Protector, Silenius
Comment: For most fans this CD was the beginning of a new Eara of "Summoning". That means that most of the old fans didn't like everything new that came up of the band from this point on, but in contrary this release brought many new fans to the band who in contrary didn't like the older releases that much. This CD was released in a time when the black metal movement slowliy has faded and many fans,bands and followers moved to other musical territories. In contrary "Summoning" tried to hold their musical and lyrical concept, but nevertheless some renewals have been made. First of all the band stopped recording in "Hörnix Studio" and used their own home-studio instead. Second this release was much more guitar orientated with more compact keyboard-melodies. So "Stronghold" maybe could be seen as the most "commercial" album of the band. For the first time female vocals have been used (done by "Tania B" from "Die Verbannten Kinder Evas"). On this release "Summoning" followed to experiment with spoken word samples; in this case from the movie "Bravehear" again and "Legend".

What many people didn't recognize is that the intro melodie is the same one as the outro, but pitched down a few notes and manipulated a bit.
CD: Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Name (2001) Studio: Nachtschattenstudio. Tracklist.
Lineup: Protector, Silenius
Comment: This release followed the conceptial line of "Stronghold", but also should be seen as a link to the "older Summoning". The new guitarstyle was kept, whereas the stronger keyboardparts of the older releases where braught back. In this release "Summoning" used a lot of word samples from different Tolkien broadcasts which from now on is a permanent aspect of the "Summoning" sound. For the first time "Summoning" used clear vocals on the last song.

Since "Stronghold" Summoning also used lyrcis from other authors than Tolkien.
CD: Lost Tales (2003) Tracklist.
Comment: This mini-album just contains two songs old songs from the times of Dol Guldur. One song was composed for Summoning (Saruman), the other one (Arcenstone) was meant to be for the dark wave project of Silenius called "Mirkwood". The songs are not in high quality and just taken from the original tape were they have been recorded. A collectors item only.

Originally the band had two other cover layouts, which they wanted to use, but didn't get the permission by the painter's distributer.


Increase your sexual perfomance with Male Extra! Read Male Extra review on AAFS.

Рейтинг.ru Rambler's Top100 © Metal Land, 2003-2016
Design & programming: Morgul