Beneath

History

Beneath are an Icelandic death metal band that was formed during the winter of 2007/2008. The members of Beneath have all been active in the Icelandic metal scene for some years and some current and former bands include Sororicide, Changer, Atrum and Diabolus to name a few. The band set out to play fast technical death metal, but the band quickly evolved, incorporating elements from other styles of death metal, as well as other genres such as black metal.

Beneath made their live debut supporting The Black Dahlia Murder in January 2009 and after winning the inaugural Icelandic finals for the Wacken Open Air Metal Battle they became the first Icelandic band to perform at the Wacken Open Air festival in August 2009. More festival appearances followed, amongst others Death Feast Open Air in 2010 and Neurotic Deathfest in 2011.

In February 2010 Beneath released their debut EP entitled 'Hollow Empty Void' on Mordbrann Musikk which landed them a record deal with Unique Leader Records. In 2012 the band released their first full length, 'Enslaved by Fear'. The album was mixed by Daniel Bergstrand at Dug Out studios in Uppsala, Sweden. The album recieved very positive reviews and ended up on a few best-of lists at the end of the year. In 2013, singer and founder Gisli Sigmundsson left the band and was replaced by Benedikt Natanael Bjarnason (Azoic).

In 2013, the band headed to Bialystok, Poland to record their second full length, 'The Barren Throne'. The band worked with legendary deathmetal producers, Wojtek & Sławek Wiesławski, who have previously worked with bands like Decapitated, Vader and Behemoth to name a few. The album contains 11 tracks of technical brutality, clocking in at 53 minutes. It will be released worldwide on April 29th.

(source: Beneath, February 2014)