Dark Funeral was formed by Ahriman and Blackmoon in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1993. The two were joined by Draugen (drums) and Themgoroth (vocals and bass) before the group began rehearsing and writing material. In the January of 1994, Dark Funeral entered Uni-Sound Studio, owned by Dan Swanö, to record their first EP, titled Dark Funeral. After the recording sessions were complete, Draugen parted ways with the band and was replaced by Equimanthorn. On May 4th of that year, the EP was released and Dark Funeral played their first live show in a pub in Norway. Also in 1994, the band signed a record contract with No Fashion Records. At this point, Dark Funeral started writing material for their first full-length album. In 1995, Dark Funeral again entered Uni-Sound Studio to record The Secrets Of The Black Arts. Due to a bad experience and poor results, the band decided to scrap the material recorded there, and they soon re-recorded the album at Abyss Studio with engineer Peter Tägtgren (of Hypocrisy). After the album was recorded, Themgoroth left the band and Caligula joined to fill his position. Ahriman has expressed his view that the ancient Scandinavian churches under attack by Norwegian black metallers should not be burned down, as they once were pagan gathering places. He has said, however, that “The new churches are okay to blow up; they aren’t a part of history.” In 2000, Dark Funeral reissued their original eponymous EP with a different title (In The Sign…) and different cover art. This re-release featured two extra tracks – both of them covers of Bathory songs. |
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