The official Immanis biography begins with the band Xaztur back in 1992. In the year of their
lord 1992 Xaztur was still at the stage of being a 'Doom Metal' band with five members. With a few rehearsals under our
belts in this style, pressure from Azazel Christ Defiler, later to become Grand Lord Immanis,
the band changed it's image to become a raw Black Metal outfit. With four members, Azazel,
Necrentus, Black Mask and the fourth unnamed member, Xaztur did our first Photoshoot, in a graveyard.
This happened in the early stages of 1993, and unless I hear any different we believe we were the first
British Black Metal band who wore the obligitary Corpse Paint. Quite soon after this event,
Xaztur were rid of the
fourth member, and quickly recorded a very raw rehearsal tape, which had two tracks, an
unamed track and an early
version of Frozen Winter, with an introductionary passage which was later dropped from the song. This recording was never released, although a few copies of it were sent to to a few people as a taster of things to come.
The next
movement in the Xaztur camp was the recording and releasing of a three track rehearsal tape.
The Tracks were (in order) Frozen Winter Your Lord is Dead
Fuck Me Jesus (Not a Marduk cover!) These three tracks were further enhanced on some
tapes by the addition of an extra track
'Darkness Arises'. All the lyrics were written by Azazel and the music for the songs Frozen
Winter and Darkness Arises
were both written by Azazel. Necrentus wrote the music for Your Lord is Dead and Fuck Me
Jesus.
This rehearsal was released late in 1993, with photos of the band. The band were aproached by the label Candlelight, who asked for a tape, but never replied. Other releases around this time included a
rehearsal recording which was sent to one of the members of the band Witch Clan. This was a recording of a full rehearsal with no editing. With the interest that Xaztur was gathering, from several fanzines and the underground in general, it was decided that the
band should release a
demo tape. Black Mask changed his name to Sibbanac and we began recording the demo
in
the heat of mid-August 1994. Using four track recording equipment 'aquired' by Necrentus from a local school,
the demo was completed under great
discomfort. The demo was packaged and entitled 'Pagan Rites' in 1994 but was never released, it contained the three songs we favoured the most plus one from the Rehearsal Tape.
Frozen Winter Your Lord is Dead Darkness Arises Fuck Me Jesus (Rehearsal Version) Read some of the Lyrics here.
Shortly after the demo was recorded, Xaztur lost Aazzel but not without conflict and bloodshed. He felt that it was time to move on and had a
new project in mind. After this loss, Xaztur only remained together for a few months. Immanis
was born. In 1994 Azazel Christ Defiler decided to change his name to Grand Lord Immanis and to create the band Immanis on the back of the success
of Xaztur's original rehearsal tape. Quickly putting together a promotional tape of his own. The tracks were: Intro The Tears of the Trees The Moons Black Power Outro The main track 'The Tears of the Trees' was recorded by Grand Lord Immanis and
a helper, who shall remain unnamed. The drums on this track were provided by a drum machine and the track was recorded on a
four track recorder. The second song was a purely synthesised track, reminiscent of today's recordings of Burzum.
But of course this was a lot longer before Burzum released purely synth music.
Also the lyrics had changed from being purely blasphemous anti-Christian attacks to
structured Pagan Hymns more in touch with the past and nature. This Tape did fairly well within the Black Metal underground,
mainly through trading with other bands and a few sales. One track from the Promo tape was played on a Greek underground radio station.
Grand Lord Immanis decided to create a new tape, and quickly put together a few recordings only at
rehearsal level. The titles of the tracks were: Intro: Sumeria The Moon of Sin The Blackened Kingdom of a God The Wolves of the Forest Outro: Tiamat These were truely awful recordings, with only one having anything more than
one instrument in the mix. This rehearsal tape was the last thing Grand Lord Immanis recorded for a while in the Black Metal genre.
Only about 30-40 of these tapes left his home. Immanis was now split up and he left the
scene for a while. In this period Grand Lord Immanis worked on another project,
Spacetractor 25, a 'Space Rock' project, which included 20+minute songs and
psychadelic music. Again this is something which has occured by prominant members
of the Black Metal scene. Namely Fenriz and his Neptune Towers projects. No
accusations can be levelled at Immanis about 'selling out', without saying the same of
Fenriz.
In 1997 Grand Lord Immanis was asked by a fellow musician to join his band 'Demogorgon', which Grand Lord Immanis did for one rehearsal.
During this time however, Grand Lord Immanis recorded a single track for the band which was never used. It was titled
'Immanis II, The Emperor Strikes Back'. This was the final recording that Grand Lord Immanis did, in any musical genre.
To see the covers for all the Xaztur and Immanis recordings, click here
Immanis is currently deciding on creating more music in the Black Metal Style, but time will tell whether anything comes from the band. Long live Immanis!
