THE KOVENANT Is Working On First New Album In More Than 20 Years

In a recent interview with Germany's Metal Hammer magazine, vocalist/bassist Stian "Nagash" Arnesen and female singer Sarah Jezebel Deva of THE KOVENANT spoke about the band's return to the live stage for select live appearances, including at last fall's Eindhoven Metal Meeting festival and at this year's 70000 Tons Of Metal cruise. THE KOVENANT, which won a Norwegian Grammy equivalent, called Spellemannsprisen, in 1999 in the category of "Best Hard Rock Album" for the "Nexus Polaris" LP, performed that effort in its entirety at both events with a lineup that featured all the original members back in action, including Nagash, Deva, drummer Jan Axel "Hellhammer" Blomberg, keyboardist Steinar Sverd Johnsen and guitarist Jamie "Astennu" Stinson. The band's set included tracks from "Nexus Polaris" and "Animatronic", along with classics from THE KOVENANT's debut album, "In Times Before The Light".

Regarding how THE KOVENANT's reunion came about, Nagash said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "Over the years, we kind of lost contact with each other 'cause we're so busy with other bands. Hellhammer has MAYHEM and some of the other guys [were involved with] other [projects] like ARCTURUS and DIMMU BORGIR. Sarah was involved with other stuff, like THERION and CRADLE OF FILTH and stuff. But over the years, we kind of glided apart a little bit, but it started very randomly that we started just talking together again, and we all just clicked very easily together. So it went very fast when we said, like, 'What if we actually fucking joined together again and started playing?' And everyone said 'yes' without hesitation. So we quickly started thinking, like. 'Fuck, how should we start this?' So we found a really great management — Håkon Grav, he does also EMPEROR and he used to work for Scream magazine, so I know him from there, in Norway. We managed to talk him into bringing us on, and it went just really fast from there. We just met, all of us had some quick rehearsals and it was like we never fucking stopped playing. It was, like, 'Did we play last month?, like this. It was like a natural chemistry between all of us. So it was really fun to play together."

Sarah chimed in: "It did really happen so fast. It's like all making phone calls and [sending] e-mails and reconnecting back to each other, and you're thinking, 'Oh, it's gonna take ages for any of this to come together.' And then suddenly you tell us about Håkon and then suddenly this show appears, this first show, and it's, like, 'Wow, that was really fast.' You didn't have time to think. So if you were thinking about backing out, it was tough, because your flights were booked. It was so, so fast. It's, like, 'Well, Sarah, can you do this? And Sarah, can you do that?' And I'm, like, 'Oh, I've gotta say yes now because I said yes to everybody else.' And it was so incredibly fast before that first show was booked, and then more shows were coming in and more shows, and it's, like, 'Well, this is it. It's happening.' It's like literally a matter of months, it was."

On the topic of how THE KOVENANT's first couple of shows went, Sarah said: "The whole process has been so simple. It didn't feel like hard work at all." Nagash concurred, saying: "Definitely not at all. It was so natural. We have such good chemistry amongst all of us. And everyone is dedicated more than a hundred percent. It's not possible to have more than a hundred percent, but it's, like everyone is super dedicated to it. And we all talked about it to say, like, we're not just going to do a few shows and then disappear again. We're already writing new material. We have plans for the future. There are so many more shows which have been booked already and confirmed, but we haven't announced them yet, 'cause contracts and you're not allowed to [say anything about it]. But I think a lot of people will be very surprised where we're gonna show up. It's a surprise to us too, 'cause our managers, they just contact us and say, like, 'Okay, you're playing in Mexico in the summertime' or 'you're going to the moon' or wherever. It's as much a surprise to us as it will be for everybody else." Sarah added: "And I think the level that we're playing on now is extremely high. I hate to bring the word 'age' into it, but we're older, we know what we want and we've evolved so much." Nagash continued: "I mean, without bragging or anything like this, we were already good musicians back then. 'Cause everyone has their super talents, like, Hellhammer, Astennu, Sarah, Sverd, they're all great musicians. So it can only have gotten better, right?"

Nagash went on to discuss the musical direction of the new THE KOVENANT material, saying: "The new stuff we're working on, it's not going to be another 'Nexus'. It will be similar because it's the same bunch of people, but the new music is a combination of all the albums. But it will be more metal, more extreme. It will be a little bit backwards in time from 'SETI' and 'Animatronic' stuff, but it will still incorporate all the elements but plus new stuff, 'cause we've all developed as people."

Elaborating on where THE KOVENANT is in the songwriting process at the moment, Nagash said: "We already have lots of demos done. So, in the next several months now, we're gonna get together and put together maybe two or three songs, something like this, which we're gonna release early, to get people to know that we are actually back, not to just wait for a new album. And I think it would be unfair to put that much pressure on everyone in the band, 'cause I think a lot of people, when they hear that 'Nexus' lineup is back together that it will be a 'Nexus Polaris Number Two', which it will not be that, but it will be similar, as I said. So I think that by us releasing maybe one, two, three new songs before an actual album comes out, it will help us to be more easy, like it will be easier to create stuff for us, so we don't feel like, 'Okay, people want 'Nexus Two', so we have to do 'Nexus Two'.' But we already have lots of demo stuff prepared. I even have some stuff on my phone, new stuff. Some of the stuff sounds like 'Nexus Polaris', some of the stuff sounds totally new, some of it has hints of 'SETI' and 'Animatronic', the first album, but for sure it will be more extreme, it will be more metal. It will be experimental, but it will be darker and more metal."

THE KOVENANT will also appear at the Karmøygeddon Metal Festival in Kopervik, Norway in early May.

While the band faces challenges with the absence of founding member Psy Coma due to health issues, guitarist Knut Magne Valle from the legendary band ARCTURUS has stepped in to ensure that the magic continues to flow seamlessly.

THE KOVENANT was formed in 1993 under the name COVENANT by two black metal artists known as Nagash (Stian Arnesen) and Blackheart (Amund Svensson),who released the debut album, "In Times Before The Light" (1997). The band signed with the German record company Nuclear Blast in 1998 and recruited four other members to form an actual band: Astennu (of DIMMU BORGIR, CARPE TENEBRUM),Sverd (of ARCTURUS),Sarah Jezebel Deva (of CRADLE OF FILTH and others) and Hellhammer (of MAYHEM and others). With these new recruits, they released their second album, "Nexus Polaris", which was hugely successful and is largely considered their best album to date by fans.

Following a dispute with a Swedish electronic band of the same name, in 1999 COVENANT changed its name to THE KOVENANT. The name change also signaled a musical shift into an industrial metal-influenced sound.

In the beginning THE KOVENANT had a sound much similar to DIMMU BORGIR. Indeed, Nagash has played in the band and is a longtime friend to the lead vocalist Shagrath. On the "Nexus Polaris" album, the band developed a more industrial sound but still with a strong symphonic black metal influence. A re-release of "Nexus Polaris" was made in 2002. The original tracks were left untouched but two versions of "New World Order", a song from their 1999 album "Animatronic", were included as a bonus.