Seventh Angel are an English Christian metal band that formed in 1987 in Halesowen, West Midlands. The band was known for its combination of

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'' ...

and thrash metal. The band initially released two albums, '' The Torment'' (1990) and ''

Lament for the Weary ''Lament for the Weary'' is Christian thrash metal band Seventh Angel's second studio album, released in 1992 on Music for Nations. The album saw the band incorporating doom metal elements to thrash. The album garnered generous reviews from Briti ...

'' (1992), before disbanding; these records achieved mainstream distribution through the Music for Nations label, making Seventh Angel label mates with such groups as

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

Slayer Slayer was an American thrash metal band from Huntington Park, California. The band was formed in 1981 by guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, drummer Dave Lombardo and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya. Slayer's fast and aggressive musical style ...

and

Megadeth Megadeth is an American thrash metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1983 by vocalist/guitarist Dave Mustaine. Known for their technically complex guitar work and musicianship, Megadeth is one of the "big four" of American thrash metal along wit ...

. '' The Daily Telegraph'' called Seventh Angel "one of the leading Christian thrash metal bands in Great Britain." The band headlined the Metal Meltdown festival in 1990, played concerts in Germany and the Netherlands, and they were featured on both Channel 4 and BBC TV for several live performances of their Greenbelt Festival concerts. Guitarist/vocalist

Ian Arkley Ian Arkley is a British heavy metal guitarist and singer. His current band is the UK gothic doom metal outfit My Silent Wake. Biography Arkley first gained attention as a member (and leader) of Christian thrash metal band Seventh Angel. Sign ...

later formed the doom metal bands

Ashen Mortality Ashen Mortality were a British doom metal band formed in 1993 by Ian Arkley (Seventh Angel) and Melanie Bolton. They and Paramaecium are among the best known Christian doom metal bands, though they were always wary of being typecast as such. T ...

and My Silent Wake. In May 2008, the group announced their reforming. The current line-up consists of the original members Ian Arkley (guitars, vocals), Simon Bibby (guitar), Andrew "Tank" Thompson (drums) and Mark Broomhead (bass). The band released their third album, ''

The Dust of Years ''The Dust of Years'' is the third studio album by the British Christian metal band Seventh Angel, released on 24 June 2009 on Bombworks Records. A comeback album, ''The Dust of Years'' is the band's first studio album since 1992's '' Lament for ...

'', in 2009.

History

Demo era (1987–1989)

Seventh Angel was formed in 1987 by

and Andrew (Andi) Blount with Scott Rawson joining very soon afterwards. In August 1988, the first drummer Andrew Blount was replaced by Andy Hopkins who played with the band until December. Stuart Benton was trialled as the vocalist for a brief period in 1988. In early 1989, Mark Ruff joined the band as their drummer. Seventh Angel's self-titled demo, sometimes referred to as the "Red" demo, was produced in 1989 with Ian playing lead guitar, bass (as Neil A Kray) as well as vocals. A few days later, Simon Bibby joined as the bassist and the band began to play local concerts around the West Midlands. The band played its first concert in May 1989 in Netherton, West Midlands. In August 1989, Seventh Angel performed their fifth concert at the Greenbelt Festival, supporting American rock band One Bad Pig. Afterwards, Mark Ruff left and Seventh Angel toured the United Kingdom, including Ireland, with the American Christian metal band Whitecross. Colin Brookes played drums during the tour. Andrew "Tank" Thompson replaced Colin on drums. Seventh Angel's second demo, ''The Rehearsal Demo'', was recorded whilst Scott Rawson had a short break away from the band.

Channel 4, ''The Daily Telegraph'' and ''The Torment'' (1990)

On 25 January 1990, Seventh Angel appeared on Channel 4's ''Not on Sunday'' programme which featured a performance of "Divine Takeover" and a band interview with Brian Redhead. Later that year, '' The Daily Telegraph'' described Seventh Angel as "one of Britain's leading Christian thrash metal bands." The demos received positive reviews in various magazines. On 14 February, Ian Arkley and Simon Bibby were involved in a car crash in which Bibby broke his arm and Ian damaged several of his teeth. However, the band was able to play their confirmed concerts. Simon took over on vocal duties and Scott played bass for the gig following the accident. Between 12 and 14 March 1990, the third demo titled ''Heed the Warning'' was recorded and mixed at White Rabbit Studios in Bridgnorth with Paul Hodson. Afterwards, the band recorded their debut album entitled '' The Torment'' at Mad Hat Studios in Wolverhampton by the same producer; the album was released that year. The British fantasy artist

Rodney Matthews Rodney Matthews (born 6 July 1945) is a British illustrator and conceptual designer of fantasy and science-fiction. Career Trained at the West of England College of Art, Matthews worked in advertising for Plastic Dog Graphics before turni ...

painted the cover painting for the album. Over the next few months, Seventh Angel played at local venues around Dudley and Stourbridge, including five performances at The Rock Tavern in Brierley Hill. The band headlined Metal meltdown in November, which was Simon Bibby's last concert as he left the band in February. The band also contributed to the ''Just Be Sure It's Pure'' split EP in 1990 with American Christian metal bands Bride, Seraiah and Xalt, German Christian metal band Creed, and Jeff Scheetz.

BBCTV and ''Lament for the Weary'' (1991–1992)

In February, Seventh Angel appeared on BBC TV four times with footage recorded at their Greenbelt festival concert; "Forbidden Desires" was the featured song. Simon Jones joined in to play bass and Seventh Angel performed concerts around

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

and Stourbridge during the spring. The band played festivals including Harry and Crossfire. Seventh Angel toured the UK with Toranaga from 21 March to 7 April, playing eleven concerts. Seventh Angel's second album, ''

'', was recorded in ICC studios, Eastbourne, with Roy Rowland from 4 to 16 July 1991; it was released in 1992. The album saw the band combine

elements with progressive thrash metal. The album received positive reviews. The band contributed to a second split EP, ''White Metal Warriors – Last Ship Home'' in 1991 with the bands Detritus, Lazarus, Maverick and

Stairway Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...

. Seventh Angel performed on the mainstage of the Greenbelt festival on 23 August, sharing the stage with the American progressive metal group Galactic Cowboys. In October 1991, after a concert in Croydon, Scott left the band, as did Simon Jones after the Greenbelt festival concert. The band continued with only Tank and Ian Arkley as permanent members.

Foreign concerts and disbandment (1992–1993)

On 7 December 1991, the band played a concert at Christmas Rock Night in Ennepetal, Germany. Jon Willis played bass on this occasion. Also filling in for bass during the next few months were Earl Morris of Detritus and Nic White. Over the next few months, the band played at festivals and concerts around the UK, the Netherlands and Germany. On 30 May, Seventh Angel played in Utrecht, Netherlands. Mark Broomhead of the fellow thrash metal band Detritus played bass at the time for Seventh Angel, and the band played a concert at Greenbelt festival on 28 August, sharing stage with the reputive Swedish progressive doom metal group

Veni Domine Veni Domine was a Christian progressive doom metal band founded in Sollentuna, Sweden in 1987. The band split up on 20 September 2014. Veni Domine combined down-tempo melodic heavy metal, symphonic metal and doom metal with occasional touches ...

. Seventh Angel toured the Netherlands from 9 September to 12 October and from 12 November until 12 December. Mark Broomhead became a permanent member of the band. Despite work towards a new album for the now three piece group, 12 December 1992 saw Seventh Angel's last gig in Utrecht, Netherlands. The band split up the following year. Ian Arkley went on to form the doom metal bands

in 1993 and My Silent Wake in 2005, the former of which disbanded in 2005, and was also the guitarist in the Australian Christian doom metal band

Paramaecium Paramaecium (sometimes typeset as Paramæcium) was an Australian death/doom metal band formed in 1991. There is use of instrumentation like flutes, cellos and violins on some albums. Paramaecium is one of the few doom metal bands that focus o ...

in 1999; Tank formed the rap metal group Freekspert and later SukMunki; Mark joined with other former Seventh Angel bassist Simon Bibby on the

epic doom 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'' ...

project Amaranth and later the experimental rock band Fire Fly.

''Heed the Warning'', comeback and ''The Dust of Years'' (2005–present)

In 2005, a compilation album titled ''Heed the Warning: Live & Demo Recordings'' was released by

Bombworks Records Bombworks Records is a record label from McKinney, Texas, that formed in January 2004. The label would sign several bands, including Seventh Angel, A Hill to Die Upon, Grave Declaration and Crimson Thorn. The label started careers for bands suc ...

, containing Seventh Angel's demo of the same name as well as live recordings of songs from the band's studio albums. On 23 May 2008, Seventh Angel announced they were reforming. They also announced the release of a new album. The band had written half the song material for their new album, according to the press release. The re-issue of ''Lament for the Weary'' includes a newly recorded bonus track titled "The Turning Tide". The song features similar thrash/doom style the band is known for, albeit with death growl vocals as opposed to the previous thrash shouting. In late 2008, the band performed concerts in Brainstorm festival, Netherlands and Nordic Fest, Norway. In March 2009, Blabbermouth.net reported that the band would enter studio The Priory in Birmingham with Greg Chandler of Esoteric to record their new album. The cover art was provided by Matt Vickerstaff of Darkwave Art. It was also announced that the band had signed with Bombworks Records to release the album. As reported via their Myspace, during 19–23 March the band recorded the album, entitled ''

'', which was released on 24 June 2009. Seventh Angel's official Facebook page was launched in 2012. The band's second compilation album, the ''Demo Collection'', was released in 2017 and contains material from their three demos. In 2018, remasters of both ''The Torment'' and ''Lament for the Weary'' were released. On 20 May 2019, the band posted on Facebook, "We have not split SA as we see no need; we probably never will. We hope to record again one day but there are no immediate plans."

Members

;Current *

– guitars, vocals (1987–1991, 1991–1993, 2008–present) (My Silent Wake, ex-

, ex-

) *Simon Bibby – guitars (1987–1993, 2008–present) (My Silent Wake) *Andrew "Tank" Thompson – drums (1989, 1989–1993, 2008–present) (ex-My Silent Wake) *Mark Broomhead – bass (1992–1993, 2008–present) (

Detritus In biology, detritus () is dead particulate organic material, as distinguished from dissolved organic material. Detritus typically includes the bodies or fragments of bodies of dead organisms, and fecal material. Detritus typically hosts commun ...

) ;Former *Scott A. Rawson – guitar, bass (1987–1989, 1990–1991) *Andrew "Andi" Blount – drums (1987–1988) (prior to the first recordings or live performances) *Andy Hopkins – drums (1988) (prior to the first recordings or live performances) *Stuart Benton – vocals (1988) (prior to the first recordings or live performances) *Mark Ruff – drums (1989) *Colin Brookes – drums (1989) *Simon Jones – bass (1991) *Earl Morris – bass (ex-Detritus) (1991) *Nic White – bass (1991) *Jon Willis – bass (1991, 1992)

Discography

Studio albums * '' The Torment'' (1990) * ''

'' (1992) * ''

'' (2009) Compilation albums * ''Heed the Warning: Live & Demo Recordings'' (2005) * ''Demo Collection'' (2017) Extended plays * ''Just Be Sure It's Pure'' (1990, split with Bride, Creed, Jeff Scheetz, Seraiah, Xalt) * ''White Metal Warriors – Last Ship Home'' (1991, split with

, Lazarus, Maverick,

) Demo albums * ''Seventh Angel'' (1989) * ''The Rehearsal Demo'' (1989) * ''Heed the Warning'' (1990)

References

External links

*
Seventh Angel bio
{{Authority control Christian extreme metal groups English heavy metal musical groups English thrash metal musical groups English doom metal musical groups Musical groups established in 1987 Musical groups disestablished in 1992 Musical groups reestablished in 2008