Midnattsol are a

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

folk metal Folk metal is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles (for exampl ...

band from Germany. The band was founded in 2002 by Norwegian vocalist Carmen Elise Espenæs and German guitarist Christian Hector. The band's name is a modified spelling of the Norwegian word ''midnattssol'', which means '

midnight sun The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle, when the Sun remains visible at the local midnight. When the midnight sun is seen in the Arctic, t ...

History

Founding and ''Where Twilight Dwells'' (2002–2007)

Lead singer Carmen Elise Espenæs (born on September 30, 1983, in

Stavanger Stavanger (, , American English, US usually , ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the a ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

) had some kind of musical training in her native hometown, and began singing in some local non-professional bands, with whom she began writing her first songs at the same time. In 2002, at the age of 19, Espenæs moved to

Ludwigsburg Ludwigsburg (; Swabian: ''Ludisburg'') is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about north of Stuttgart city centre, near the river Neckar. It is the largest and primary city of the Ludwigsburg district with about 88,000 inhabitants. It is ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and sought to develop a musical project. She stayed with her older sister

Liv Kristine Liv Kristine Espenæs (born 14 February 1976) is a Norwegian singer who has performed and composed songs mostly for various subgenres of heavy metal music. She started her career in the music industry as a vocalist for the gothic metal band Thea ...

who, at the time, was in

Theatre of Tragedy Theatre of Tragedy was a Norwegian band from Stavanger, active between 1993 and 2010. They are best known for their earlier albums, which influenced the gothic metal genre. History Formation (1993) Theatre of Tragedy was founded on 2 October 19 ...

(a metal band). While Kristine was married to

Alexander Krull Alexander Krull (born 31 July 1970) is a German musician who is the lead vocalist for metal band Atrocity, as well as backing vocalist in the band Leaves' Eyes. Biography Krull was born in Ludwigsburg, where he formed Atrocity in 1985. He has ...

, Espenæs collaborated frequently with their later band

Leaves' Eyes Leaves' Eyes is a symphonic metal band from Germany and Norway. They were formed in 2003 by Liv Kristine, formerly the lead singer of Theatre of Tragedy, and the entire line-up of Atrocity. To date, the band has released eight studio albums, a s ...

. Simultaneously, Espenæs met guitarist Christian Hector and together founded Midnattsol. They intended to start working on a new project once they found like-minded musicians to join their band. The other members of the first Midnattsol lineup were three of Hector's former bandmates in Penetralia, a gothic/black metal band from

Mosbach Mosbach (; South Franconian: ''Mossbach'') is a town in the north of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the seat of the Neckar-Odenwald district and has a population of approximately 25,000 distributed in six boroughs: Mosbach Town, Lohrbach, N ...

, disbanded in 2001: drummer Chris Merzinsky, keyboardist Daniel Fischer and guitarist

Daniel Droste Daniel Droste (born 2 April 1980 in Mosbach) is a German musician. He was a member of Midnattsol between 2003 and 2010, and founded Ahab in 2006. Career Droste was the guitarist of the gothic/folk metal band Midnattsol and is the vocalist, ...

(who replaced Christian Fütterer in 2003), while the bassist Birgit Öllbrunner (ex- Commander) was added slightly later. With this formation, the band recorded a demo financed by themselves in 2003 (self-titled ''Midnattsol'', containing two original songs) and got a record contract with

Napalm Records Napalm Records is an Austrian independent record label focused on heavy metal and hard rock. Originally, Napalm focused on black metal bands, such as Abigor and Summoning, and folk metal bands, such as Falkenbach and Vintersorg. The label later ...

in 2004, with which they released all their albums to date. Espenæs wrote most of the band's lyrics, and contributed to the musical composition. Their first full-length album, ''

Where Twilight Dwells ''Where Twilight Dwells'' is the debut full-length studio album by the German Symphonic metal, symphonic/folk metal band Midnattsol. It was released on 31 January 2005 through Napalm Records. Background ''Where Twilight Dwells'' is a continuati ...

'', was released on January 31, 2005, and was produced by Alexander Krull. This work contains nine previously unreleased tracks, and includes the two songs re-recorded and renamed that appear in their 2003

demo Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to: Music and film *Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release * ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes * ''Demo'' (Deafhea ...

, as well as the same ghostly

cover artwork Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper (Tabloid journalism, tabloid), comic book, video game (box art), Album, ...

by illustrator Ingo Römling. The sound is essentially

symphonic metal Symphonic metal is a cross-generic style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitar ...

with influences from

and

power metal Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in contra ...

. The band prefers to call their style "Nordic folk metal" because of the folk elements in their music and occasional Norwegian lyrics. Their lyrics are largely based on Norwegian folk tales. On December 9, 2005, ZYX Music released the split video on DVD ''Feuertanz Festival 2005'', with Midnattdol as the first act of six German bands that performed live on that show.

''Nordlys'' (2008–2010)

Their next album, ''

Nordlys ''Nordlys'' is a Norwegian newspaper published in Tromsø, covering the region of Troms, and the largest newspaper in Northern Norway. History and profile ''Nordlys'' was founded in 1902 by Alfred Eriksen, who also was its first editor-in-chie ...

'', was released on March 28, 2008. After three years of the release of their well-received debut album, Midnattsol decided change direction and to compose an album with dark atmospheres in a melodic and heavy sound, influenced more closely by traditional

gothic metal Gothic metal (or goth metal) is a fusion genre combining the aggression of heavy metal with the dark atmospheres of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy met ...

. In contrast, ''Nordlys'' is little inspired by Nordic

and it is less introspective that its predecessor. Particularly noteworthy is the experimentation in the

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

vocals of their lead singer Carmen Ellise Espenæs, as well as the extensive dedication in the guitar solos of

and Christian Hector. However, Hector (a founding member), left the group shortly after the release of the album in order to concentrate on his other band

Ahab Ahab (; akk, 𒀀𒄩𒀊𒁍 ''Aḫâbbu'' 'a-ḫa-ab-bu'' grc-koi, Ἀχαάβ ''Achaáb''; la, Achab) was the seventh king of Kingdom of Israel (Samaria), Israel, the son and successor of King Omri and the husband of Jezebel of Sidon, ...

, a German

funeral doom metal Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...

band founded in 2004 by Hector and Droste. Hector was briefly replaced by Fabian Pospiech in the three live performances that made Midnattsol in Europe to promote the album. The band won the "Best Hope" award at the

Metal Female Voices Fest Metal Female Voices Fest was a heavy metal music festival dedicated to female vocalists, held annually in the Oktoberhallen in Wieze, Belgium from 2003 to 2016. It was organized by the ''Metal Organisation'', which later changed into "2 Wild 4 age ...

2009 due to the majority of votes by the fans. In spring 2010 they announced their return to the studio to record their third album, with updates for fans via studio reports on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

posted on their official

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

''The Metamorphosis Melody'' (2011–2017)

The third album '' The Metamorphosis Melody'' was released on April 22, 2011. It was recorded with Alex Kautz as the new Midnattsol guitarist, who joined the band shortly after the release of their previous album ''Nordlys'' in 2008, replacing to Fabian Pospiech. Later, guitarist and composer

left the band after the recording sessions for the album that finished in 2010 to focus solely on his own band

. To replace him, joined Matthias Schuler as official member for the respective European promotional tour, made between April and October 2011. ''The Metamorphosis Melody'' goes back to its symphonic Nordic sound and includes some themes inspired by Norwegian folk tales, with soothing vocals coming from the voice of Carmen Elise Espenæs, but less operatic. After a year and a half of inactivity, in April 2013 Midnattsol was invited for second time since 2010 to the

Ragnarök Festival Ragnarök Festival is a pagan metal festival held annually in Germany since 2004 founded by Ivo Raab. It started out as a small, one-night festival with only regional bands in the town hall of Hollfeld. In 2005 it was decided to go for a festiva ...

, held in

Lichtenfels, Bavaria Lichtenfels is a town in the Upper Franconian region of Bavaria, Germany, the administrative seat of Lichtenfels district. It is chiefly known as the German "Basket City". Geography It is situated on the upper course of the river Main, about so ...

. In June 2013 it was announced that Espenæs, with

The Sins of Thy Beloved The Sins of Thy Beloved was a death-doom/ gothic metal band from Bryne, Norway, founded in 1996. Biography The band was formed in November 1996 by Glenn Morten Nordbø, Arild Christensen, and Stig Johansen. The band was initially called ''Pu ...

members Anders Thue and Stig Johansen, formed the band called Savn. That band released a self-titled album in 2014. Meanwhile, Midnattsol was on a long break between 2013 and 2017.

''The Aftermath'' (2017–present)

In March 2017, guitarist Stephan Adolph joined as a new member. Adolph had already worked with Midnattsol on their debut album ''Where Twilight Dwells''. Previously, bassist Birgit Öllbrunner, drummer Chris Merzinsky and guitarist Matthias Schuler left the band for personal reasons before the recording sessions for the new album began at the end of 2017. On December 14, 2017, it was announced that

had become the official second vocalist for Midnattsol, she was originally announced to be a guest on their new album but after some discussions, the band added her as a permanent member. Their fourth studio album, '' The Aftermath'', was released on May 25, 2018. Lyrically, in comparison to all its distant predecessors, ''The Aftermath'' has much more

Nordic folk Nordic folk music includes a number of traditions of Nordic countries, especially Scandinavian. The Nordic countries are Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. The many regions of the Nordic countries share certain traditions, many of w ...

influences, including gothic metal songs with a somber social content. Meanwhile, Chris Merzinsky and Birgit Öllbrunner also play in the

thrash Thrash may refer to: *Thrashing (computer science), where increasing resources are used to do a decreasing amount of work *Thrash (surname) *Thrash, mascot of the Atlanta Thrashers *''Thrash Rally'', a top-down perspective rally racing video game ...

groove metal Groove metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that began in the early 1990s. The genre achieved success in the 1990s and continued having success in the 2000s. Inspired by thrash metal and traditional heavy metal, groove metal features raspy ...

band R:I:P, among other German groups.

Members

Current line-up

* Carmen Elise Espenæs – vocals (2002–present) * Daniel Fischer – keyboards (2002–present) * Alex Kautz – guitars (2009–present) * Stephan Adolph – guitars, bass (2017–present) *

– vocals (2017–present)

Former members

* Christian Fütterer – guitars (2002) * Christian Hector – guitars (2002–2008) * Fabian "Fabz" Pospiech – guitars (2008–2009) *

– guitars (2003–2010) * Birgit Öllbrunner – bass (2002–2017) * Chris Merzinsky – drums (2002–2017) * Matthias Schuler – guitars (2011–2017) Timeline

Discography

;Demo albums * ''Midnattsol'' (2003) ;Studio albums * ''

'' (2005) * ''

'' (2008) * '' The Metamorphosis Melody'' (2011) * '' The Aftermath'' (2018)

Videography

; Live DVDs *''En natt i Wieze'' (included as bonus DVD in ''The Metamorphosis Melody'' limited edition, 2011) ;Music videos *"Kong Valemons kamp" (2011) *"Herr Mannelig" (2018) *"The Purple Sky" (2018)

References

External links

Official websiteMidnattsol at Metal Archives
{{Authority control Musical groups established in 2002 2002 establishments in Norway 2002 establishments in Germany Norwegian folk metal musical groups Norwegian symphonic metal musical groups German symphonic metal musical groups Musical groups from Norway with local place of origin missing Musical groups from Germany with local place of origin missing Napalm Records artists