Heaven's Gate (album)
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Keldian is a Norwegian
power metal Power metal is a subgenre of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional heavy metal with speed metal, often within a symphonic context. Generally, power metal is characterized by a faster, lighter, and more uplifting sound, in co ...
band, originating from
Aurland Aurland () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in the Counties of Norway, county of Vestland, Norway. It is located on the south side of the Sognefjorden in the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Sogn. The administrativ ...
in the
Sogn og Fjordane Sogn og Fjordane (; literally "Parish and the Fjords") was a Counties of Norway, county in western Norway, from 1 January 1919 to 31 December 2019, after it was merged to become part of Vestland county. Bordering previous counties Møre og Romsda ...
county, that made their debut in 2007 with the album '' Heaven's Gate''. Their music is a blend of classic 1980s era
melodic rock Rock is a genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its ...
and more modern
power Power may refer to: Common meanings * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power, a type of energy * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events Math ...
and
symphonic metal Symphonic metal is a cross-genre 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 guitars ...
influences. Keldian is a studio project, with band members Christer Andresen and Arild Aardalen composing, producing and performing the music with the aid of hired session musicians.


Biography


Pre-Keldian 1988-2004

Andresen and Aardalen both grew up in the small town of
Aurland Aurland () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in the Counties of Norway, county of Vestland, Norway. It is located on the south side of the Sognefjorden in the Districts of Norway, traditional district of Sogn. The administrativ ...
, situated by the innermost arm of the
Sognefjord The Sognefjord or Sognefjorden (, ), nicknamed the King of the Fjords (), is the list of Norwegian fjords, longest and deepest fjord in Norway. Located in Vestland county in Western Norway, it stretches inland from the ocean to the small village ...
in
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. Andresen started playing guitar at the age of 8 and spent many of his early years in the hard rock band Madam Curie. Later on he joined forces with keyboardist Aardalen for the first time in the electronica-inspired stage project Protos Nemesis. Madam Curie and Protos Nemesis then fused into the short-lived Alien Love Gardeners, a classic rock band that released an EP titled ''Cuts Shape The Man'' in 2000. When the band broke up Andresen and Aardalen re-worked this EP as a studio exercise. They called the project Keld and renamed the EP ''Salvation For The Guilty'', and this soon formed the basis for Keldian. Both the ''Salvation For The Guilty'' EP and earlier works by Protos Nemesis can be accessed through the "Hidden History" section on the official Keldian website.


''Heaven's Gate'' and ''Journey of Souls'' 2005-2012

Andresen and Aardalen both figured in a 2005 cover band project named Top Guns, which covered rock and pop classics from the 1980s in concert. It seems that this project, in addition to the ''Salvation For The Guilty'' EP, was the impetus to create Keldian the same year. Andresen and Aardalen recorded original demos in the summer of 2005 and the following winter. These pre-production demos were then taken into production and embellished into their debut album '' Heaven's Gate''. The album was produced and engineered by Aardalen, who had by then become a professional sound engineer. '' Heaven's Gate'' was released through American labe
Perris Records
in early 2007. The album had worldwide distribution, including a unique Japanese edition that featured a bonus track, and enjoyed brisk sales despite being the debut record of an unknown band. Fan favourites on the album include the metal anthem "Sundancer" and the dark ballad "Redshift". The band's name is derived from the
Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
word «kelde», which means outspring, source or well in English. The band would be inspired by science-fiction, spirituality and philosophy for their lyrics, and the band's name was chosen to reflect that the roots of the soul are intimately linked to human kind's ultimate destiny among the stars. Keldian would loosely mean "someone who comes from the source". In May 2008, Keldian released their second album '' Journey of Souls'', also throug
Perris Records
which received favourable reviews in many parts of the world. The band were praised for their original approach to the heavy metal genre, and also hailed as some of the genre's best lyricists, the latter exemplified by the war epic "Memento Mori". In a September 2008 radio interview with the Norwegian Broadcasting Company, Aardalen hinted that the third Keldian album was in the planning stages. The writing and production of this album would be significantly prolonged, as Keldian split from their record label and built their own studio to have maximum flexibility and control over their operations and finances.
,"
The rights to the first two Keldian albums have reverted to the band, allowing them to distribute their music and merchandise directly to fans through their official website and Facebook profile. Their own label is listed as Galactic Butterfly Music, and all their music is available in their own Keldian album store.


''Outbound'' 2013-2015

On February 22, 2013, the band announced in a fan Q&A on their website that the third Keldian album would be titled '' Outbound''. On February 26, 2013, Keldian launched a funding campaign on
Indiegogo Indiegogo is an American crowdfunding website founded in 2008 by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California. The site is one of the first sites to offer crowd funding. Indiegogo allows peo ...
, asking for contributions to the production of ''Outbound'', which was set with a tentative September 2013 release in the case of a successful campaign. On March 4, with the campaign going well, Keldian revealed the cover artwork for ''Outbound''. On March 6, 2013, the band's funding for the album was completed. On August 27, 2013, the band revealed the ''Outbound'' track listing and running order in the blog on their website. They also confirmed that the album was entering the final mixing stages. ''Outbound'' was released on October 31, 2013.


Darkness and Light (2015–2022)

During early 2015 Keldian announced that they had started production on recording their fourth album. It was also confirmed that Jørn Holen would reprise his role of recording drums. On August 14, 2016, the band announced their next album, 'Darkness and Light' on their website, which was planned for release in 2017. They released their first single from the album called "Blood Red Dawn" on October 5, 2017

On October 27, 'Darkness and Light' was released digitally on all streaming services. The band comments on the name of the album "...Some of the lyrics had taken a darker emotional turn, and the yin and yang of the words led to the obvious album title: Darkness And Light."


The Bloodwater Rebellion (since 2022)

In June 2022 Keldian released their fifth album "The Bloodwater Rebellion" which is focussing around themes of environmental exploitation and fighting back against it.


Studio collaborators and the possibility of live shows

Keldian's most frequent collaborator is drummer Jørn Steingrim Holen, who is best known for his work in the black metal outfits
Windir Windir ("Warrior" in English) was a black metal band from Sogndal, Norway. The band was formed in 1994 by vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Terje "Valfar" Bakken, and released its debut album, '' Sóknardalr'', in 1997. Windir combined blac ...
and
Vreid Vreid is a Norwegian black metal band formed in 2004 after the breakup of Windir following the death of lead singer and founder Valfar. The remaining members along with new guitarist Ese formed Vreid. The band's name is an archaic Norwegian word ...
. He has performed on all of Keldian's albums. '' Journey of Souls'' featured several more session musicians, most prominently drummer Per Hillestad, who is known for his many years of studio and live work with Norwegian and international artists such as
a-ha A-ha (often stylised as ''a''-h''a''; ) is a Norwegian synth-pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. Founded by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (guitars and vocals), Magne Furuholmen (keyboards, guitars and vocals), and Morten Harket (lead vocals), the band ros ...
. There has been no Keldian live shows thus far, seemingly a consequence of the band's inception as a studio project. Andresen and Aardalen have stated in several interviews that their priority is to create a handful of albums before possibly turning their attention to touring.See Interview section a
Keldian.com
for several tidbits in various media.
Aardalen has also commented that Keldian live shows are very unlikely, since the whole premise of Keldian "has always just been about me and Chris writing music together." The only confirmed live material featuring Andresen and Aardalen consists of recordings made of their previous band Alien Love Gardeners, but these are extremely difficult to come by. Andresen has said that these recordings might be made available through the Keldian website at some point.


Band members and associated musicians

Keldian: * Christer Andresen - Lead vocals, Guitars, Bass * Arild Aardalen - Synthesizers, Vocals Featuring, among others: * Jørn Holen (Vreid, Windir) - Drums * H-man (LA Guns, The Black Crowes) - Drums * Per Hillestad (Lava, a-ha) - Drums * Maja Svisdahl - Vocals * Anette Fodnes - Vocals * Gunhild Mathea Olaussen - Violin


Discography

* ''Heaven's Gate'' (2007) * '' Journey of Souls'' (2008) * '' Outbound'' (2013) * '' Darkness and Light'' (2017) * ''The Bloodwater Rebellion'' (2022)


References

{{Reflist


External links


Keldian's official website
Norwegian symphonic metal musical groups Norwegian power metal musical groups Musical groups established in 2005 2005 establishments in Norway Musical groups from Sogn og Fjordane People from Aurland