It all begun in 1993, When Lex Icon (a.k.a Nagash) and Psy Coma (f.k.a Blackheart) started to put together low budget demos, which resulted in the first album "In times before the light" in 1995.The music was atmospheric Black Metal with lots of melodies. They got the reputation of being the most prominent act in the norwegian metal scene. Unfortunately, at the time their record label did not see the greatness in their music . The album was not officially released until early 1997 on a small record company called Mordgrimm (in england). Lex and Psy had greater visions for their music, they now recruited three new members to form a band. Hellhammer (from Mayhem) on drums, Astennu (from Carpe Tenebrum and Dimmu Borgir) on 2nd Guitar and Sverd (from Arcturus) on Keyboards. In addition they also hired Sarah Jezebel Deva (from Therion and Cradle of Filth) on Starsong for the next album, the now classic album "Nexus Polaris" in 1998 (on Nuclear Blast) ,A masterpiece, a brilliant performance in musicianship. The album was filled with progressive dark pulsing atmospheric metal. As Psy described their music; "Progressive Space Metal", he couldn?t be more right. This is the one you should buy. In addition, it?s got the most beautiful cover in the music history, by Andreas Marshall. Nexus Polaris became a hit, sold over 15000 copies only in the first week when it was released in February 1998. They followed up with a two week promotion tour, where they found themselves one of the biggest bands in the extreme metal scene. They also appeared on the Norwegian national TV with their six-episode tour documentary. They where now ready to rule the world. Unfortunately, Sverd had to part from the band, due to some personal problems and musical differences with the other guys in the band, at the time. They hired a keyboard player (a session musician) and followed up their success.


They did some summer festivals and ended the tour in a bombastic way, headlining the Iilosaari Rock Festival in Finland in front of 20000 people. Nagash now left Dimmu Borgir to concentrate on Covenant full time. Now, they started to work on new material for their upcoming album. During their work they found themselves nominated for a Grammy in Norway, for the best hardrock album of the year. They did not only attend the Grammy TV Show, they also won the Grammy, as the first extreme metal band ever. During the work of their next album they where standing infront of a law suite according to the name of the band. There is a swedish electronic/synth band called "Covenant" so they where forged to change the spelling of the name to "Kovenant". With the new "name" and new musical direction, they parted with Astennu, who wanted to concentrate on Dimmu Borgir at that time and fired Sara Jezebel Deva. With all the new things to the band they decided to go all the way. Spelling KOVENANT, a new logo and even changed their own names too, to; Lex Icon (Nagash) Psy Coma (Blackheart) Von Blomberg (Hellhammer) The new album took three month to record, "Prophecies Of Fire" was the working title of the album. Then they finally released the most uniqe album they ever recorded at that time - "ANIMATRONIC" in October 1999. The album is an amazing sounding album, with a very strong sound and full of creativity. Their old sound from the black metal days are still there but mixed with the industrial sounds of today. A new guitarist, Angel, joined the band before the US tour 2000.


During May 2000 they completed their first US tour successfully, and with the new member, they headed for the european market with festivals and a tour in October with huge success. While preparing for the next full length album, Lex and Psy decided to give their first release a second chance. They did a total make-over of the album, with new drum sounds, new synthesizers and programming and lots of new effects. That old classic black metal album meets the new more electronic Kovenant succesfully and was released in 2002. In April 2003 the band released S.E.T.I. (working title "Cybertrash") the long awaited full length album to follow up the success with Animatronic. They continued with the more electronic sound, but the album has a more darker atmosphere than the previous. The fans could expect some surprices and they weren?t dissapointed. This was the Kovenant of the future...and the search for extra terrestrial intelligence had only begun. By the release of S.E.T.I. Von Blomberg left the band due to lack of time, as you might know he is involved with loads of other bands and projects. During the summer The Kovenant recruited two new members; K? drums (of Ram-Zet) and Brat on Keyboards and Live Effects (of Apoptygma Berzerk) The Kovenant also celebrated their 10th Anniversery as a band in 2003!!!.

 

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