Malignant Eternal

Industrially grounded black metal outfit Malignant Eternal hail from the heavy metal hotbed of Bergen, Norway, from whence they first emerged in 1991 as the brainchild of vocalist T. Reaper (real name Torgrim Øyre) and keyboardist/programmer/drummer Brynjulv Guddal. The pair were aided by bassist Even Ormestad when recording their self-produced and released debut album, Tårnet, in 1995, and for its Napalm Records-released follow-up, Far Beneath the Sun, two years later, he was replaced by Tome Stien, who also handled guitar duties while a fourth member, Roy Ole Førland, was added on keyboards. Although anything but a commercial success, this second effort drew many positive reviews and helped establish a healthy underground cult for Malignant Eternal, which wasted little time cobbling together a 1998 EP entitled 20th Century Beast (introducing second guitarist Arve Isdal) before recording a third full-length, Alarm, in 1999 (featuring a full-time bass player in Kenneth Korsvold). But despite meeting with additional acclaim while pushing the band's still electronically fueled extreme metal ever forward into gothic and straight-up rock & roll styles, the album proved to be Malignant Eternal's last. As the new millennium approached, T. Reaper had already flirted with other black metal bands, collaborating with <a href="spotify:artist:1Dt7cfRzxM8qPVa82jX9y5">Gorgoroth</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1WivcWZchSUgoMru4LP3h9">Obtained Enslavement</a>, but guitarist Isdal's defection to the mighty <a href="spotify:artist:2HmtB6wVRRi3z0JwZHtkiD">Enslaved</a> may have delivered the coup de grâce that leveled the band, which briefly changed its name to M-Eternal, played a few shows, then ground to a halt. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, Rovi