Ewigkeit (band)
| Ewigkeit | |
|---|---|
| Genres | Industrial metal, black metal, progressive metal, gothic metal, avant-garde metal, electronic music, experimental |
| Years active | 1994–2007, 2013–present |
| Labels | Earache Records, Metal Age Productions, Eldethorn, Death to Music Productions |
| Members | James Fogarty |
Ewigkeit is the experimental extreme music project, formed in 1995 by James Fogarty (aka Mr. Fog). On 28 March 2007, Fogarty announced the end of the project on Blabbermouth, the Death To Music website and also on Myspace.[1]
Band history
The purpose of this one-man project was to try and forge a unique musical sound. After the release of the first album, Battle Furies on a short-lived Neat Records subsidiary called Eldethorn, Fogarty gave his entire music collection away to an Oxfam charity shop so that he would be free of influences creating his next work. Starscape was received well by the extreme music press, but label problems delayed the release of Land of Fog, which was eventually released on Metal Age Productions. Fogarty himself regarded this as the first Ewigkeit album, and it gained him enough attention to get his project signed to Earache Records, on which Radio Ixtlan was released in 2004.
Released in 2005, Conspiritus (mixed by John Fryer) was a conceptual album examining conspiracy theories. Also in 2005, a music video was made in collaboration with film-maker Anthony Gates for the track "Its Not Reality".[2] In 2006, Ewigkeit made a live video recording entitled Ewigkeit - Live From A Bunker, which displayed the project in a live setting acting as a free "online" gig - the 25 minute set (filmed in a Nuclear Bunker in the vicinity of Brighton, England) was uploaded to Google video.[3] Also recorded was a free download MP3 EP, Return to the Land of Fog.[4]
In December 2006, Fogerty burned all his recording contracts.[5] All previous Ewigkeit material was then made available at www.deathtomusic.com. In January 2007, Death to Music Productions gave away a remastered and superior version of Battle Furies. In March 2007, Starscape was available free, with the intention that all material will be fully released online.
In March 2007, James abandoned the Ewigkeit project. Fogerty stated ".. (metal) is mostly out-of-date, out-of-touch with its origins and (worst of all) conservative in the extreme..."
An online link to Fogerty's new project, The Bombs of Enduring Freedom, was created with the debut self-titled album released in December 2007, and an EP Kalashikovs and Car Bombs, followed in 2008.
Etymology
Ewigkeit was the name given to this music project when Fogerty found the word in the English Concise Oxford Dictionary. A little known "imported" word, hardly used in the English language at all, Ewigkeit means 'eternity' in German. He has been known in interviews to say that in retrospect, it was the worst name he could have chosen.
Discography
- Dwellers On The Threshold (demo), 1996 (Self-released)
- Battle Furies, 1997 (Eldethorn)
- Starscape, 1999 (Eldethorn)
- Land Of Fog, 2003 (Metal Age Productions)
- Radio Ixtlan, 2004 (Earache)
- Conspiritus, 2005 (Earache)
- Back to Beyond, 2013 (Death to Music Productions)
Ewigkeit has appeared on various compilation albums, notably:
- Metal Hammer covermount Earache Sampler CD (2004)
- Black Light Magazine CD sampler
- No Holy Additives vol. 2,3 & 4
- Metal Age Productions sampler CD
- Britannia Infernus
- Metal: A Headbangers Companion