Sear Bliss
Encyclopedia
Sear Bliss is a black metal
band from Szombathely
, Hungary
, formed in 1993 by bassist, vocalist and now also keyboardist András Nagy. Apart from the usual heavy metal instruments
they adopted synthesizer
and wind instruments (like trumpet
and trombone
sometimes flute
) in their songs. Holland's leading metal magazine, Aardschok awarded Sear Bliss debut album Phantoms the title of "CD Of The Month". It was the first (and only) time in the magazine's history that the award went to a black metal album.
Sear Bliss has earned a reputation in the European metal underground with their unique black metal albums released by independent record labels like Mascot Records, Red Stream and recently Candlelight Records
. Sear Bliss shared the stage with bands Marduk
, Tsatthoggua
, Mortiis
, Tormentor
, Skyforger
, Immolation
and Malevolent Creation
.
After four months of studio work, the longest session ever in their career, the latest Sear Bliss album was released on September 24, 2007. Critically acclaimed The Arcane Odyssey was awarded "Album of the Month" by some magazines (i.e. Zero Tolerance
) and was also high ranked by Kerrang, Terrorizer
, Heavy Oder Was and Rock Hard
magazines in Europe. The album was elected for "Album of the Year" on Hungarian Metal Awards in 2007.
death metal
band called Extreme Deformity, Csaba Tóth. The first line-up featured guitarist János Barbarics and drummer Norbert Keibinger from another Hungarian death metal band called Animosity. Tóth left the band soon and Nagy got the bass. Sear Bliss added new members at the same time. At first, vocalist Zoltán Csejtei and guitarist Csaba Csejtei of Extreme Deformity joined them, and soon the line-up was enriched with a synthesizer by Winter and trumpet by Gergely Szűcs creating a unique sound for the band.
Keibinger left Sear Bliss in April 1995 when they were working on their first demo. Since there was only a short time until recording, Balázs Bertalan (Extreme Deformity) helped them out as a session drummer. The first demo named The Pagan Winter
was released in May and the atmospheric black metal music of Sear Bliss got to European extreme metal record labels. And finally, Mascot Records from Netherlands
offered a three-album deal to this Eastern Europe
an band. After that Winter was replaced by trumpeter Szűcs on synthesizer when Winter started to work on his own musical ideas, but after a while he returned to the band. In the meantime other changes had happened. Zoltán Csejtei got the drums, Nagy became vocalist again but also held bass. In August Sear Bliss played their first gig. During 1995 and 1996 they played only four shows (two in each year). This made the band a little mysterious for the fans. Meanwhile, recordings of their debut album started in the beginning of 1996 in LMS Studio, Szombathely, Hungary.
The first Sear Bliss album, Phantoms, hit the streets in August 1996. Holland's leading metal magazine, Aardschok awarded it the title of "CD Of The Month". It was the first (and only) time in the magazine's history that the award went to a black metal album. Moreover, the album gained positive reactions in German and British metal magazines, and interviews with the band were published in Terrorizer and Rock Hard. The song called "Aeons Of Desolation" appeared on the compilation CD of the Dutch progressive rock
magazine IO Pages. Due to the critically acclaimed first album, Mascot decided that The Pagan Winter demo would be released on CD featuring a 12-minute bonus song called "In The Shadow of Another World".
in February–March 1997. After finishing the tour the Csejtei brothers left the band and Winter also got out soon afterwards. Recruited new members were Zoltán Schönberger on drums and Viktor "Max" Scheer on guitar, furthermore keyboards was took over by trumpeter Szűcs. The next album had been recorded at Beaufort Studio, Netherlands, but the band was disappointed with the first version of the mix and it had to be remixed.
The Haunting (1998) became a more atmospheric and varied album in contrast to the fast black metal tracks of the Phantoms album. The Haunting disappointed some old fans, but it appealed to new enquirers. The opportunity to tour for three weeks with the Norwegian melodic black metal band Ancient
and promote the new album in Europe had come to nothing because of the private activities of Sear Bliss members in school and job. However, they celebrate their 5th anniversary with a birthday party in Budapest
.
By releasing The Haunted album Sear Bliss fulfilled the Mascot contract, so a new label needed to be found. To support the search they recorded a 4-song promo cd in March 1999. But other member changes followed. Previously they parted with guitarist Viktor Scheer, then founding member/guitarist Barbarics and long-time trumpeter/keyboardist Szűcs quit due to personal conflicts within the band. In that time Sear Bliss played live with fill-in musicians, and only founding member Andras Nagy and drummer Schönberger were officially in the band. A new guitarist Andras Horváth P. would join Sear Bliss soon.
Thanks to the warm welcome that Grand Destiny received abroad, Sear Bliss started negotiations concerning a new contract with foreign recording companies again. Eventually Red Stream, the overseas distributor of previous Sear Bliss albums, offered a three-album record deal to the band. Firstly, they released Grand Destiny in the States (one year later than the original release), but the band was already working on new songs. After a spring recording session the fourth Sear Bliss album, Forsaken Symphony, with which the band returned to a rawer and more intense black metal, got released in October 2002. The new album was made available for the first time outside the US and Western Europe
, and reached new audiences in Russia
and the Baltic states
.
The band played on Brutal Assault festival again and did a club tour in Europe accompanied by Skyforger
. Sear Bliss toured in Benelux
as a headliner for the first time in March 2003. They supported Marduk, Immolation
and Malevolent Creation
in Budapest in April. Following the concert season the band started to work on the next album at HSB studio with former Sear Bliss guitarist Viktor "Max" Scheer as producer/engineer.
On February 22, 2004, Sear Bliss celebrated their 10th anniversary in Budapest where former members joined the band on stage for a one-off show. A video was shot of the event and appeared on the Decade of Perdition dvd along with a documentary of the 10 years of Sear Bliss story.
In August the new album, Glory and Perdition was released, featuring Mayhem
and Tormentor
vocalist Attila Csihar
in two songs ("Birth of Eternity" and "Shores of Death"). Sear Bliss shot the first promo video in their career for the song "Two Worlds Collide" from their critically acclaimed fifth full-length.
, the home of bands such as Emperor
and 1349
. Another contract was signed with Dutch Vic Records for releasing remastered editions of the first three Sear Bliss albums (The Pagan Winter, Phantoms, The Haunting) with bonus tracks. Additionally, certain parts of The Haunting album were re-recorded.
Supervised by producer Viktor Scheer the band, for the first time as a Candlelight artist, had been working on the sixth full-length since March 2007. After four months of studio work, the longest session ever in their career, the latest Sear Bliss album was released on September 24, 2007. Critically acclaimed The Arcane Odyssey was awarded "Album of the Month" by some magazines (i.e. Zero Tolerance
) and was also high ranked by Kerrang, Terrorizer
, Heavy Oder Was and Rock Hard
magazines in Europe. The album was elected for "Album of the Year" on Hungarian Metal Awards in 2007.
The main event for the band in 2008 was their 15th birthday show in November in Avalon Club, Budapest, where the original Sear Bliss line-up including Csejtei brothers, Winter and Gergely Szűcs played together again after 11 years. A few weeks before the concert guitarist Péter Kovács had left Sear Bliss and Attila Kovács joined from Hungarian experimental death metal band Watch My Dying.
In 2009 Vic Records has re-released Glory and Perdition and Forsaken Symphony for Europe because the original Red Stream releases were hardly available there. Forsaken Symphony is remastered by Swedish death metal fame Dan Swanö
.
At the end of August Andras Nagy left alone in the band. The other four members had decided that they would form a new band called I Divine. Nagy recruited a new line-up from former Sear Bliss musicians. Guitarists Csaba Csejtei and János Barbarics joined again the band as well as Oliver Zisko on drums. In December they found a trumpeter, Balázs Bruszel.
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
band from Szombathely
Szombathely
Szombathely is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, formed in 1993 by bassist, vocalist and now also keyboardist András Nagy. Apart from the usual heavy metal instruments
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
they adopted synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
and wind instruments (like trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
and trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
sometimes flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
) in their songs. Holland's leading metal magazine, Aardschok awarded Sear Bliss debut album Phantoms the title of "CD Of The Month". It was the first (and only) time in the magazine's history that the award went to a black metal album.
Sear Bliss has earned a reputation in the European metal underground with their unique black metal albums released by independent record labels like Mascot Records, Red Stream and recently Candlelight Records
Candlelight Records
Candlelight Records is an independent record label based in Europe founded by former Extreme Noise Terror bassist Lee Barrett, though it has had a division in the United States since January 2001. Candlelight Records specialises in black metal and death metal, having bands such as Emperor,...
. Sear Bliss shared the stage with bands Marduk
Marduk (band)
Marduk is a black metal band from Norrköping, Sweden. The band formed in 1990 and released their first record in 1991. Their name is derived from the Babylonian god Marduk, patron deity of Babylon.-Musical style:...
, Tsatthoggua
Tsatthoggua
Tsatthoggua is a German hyperspeed black metal band from Germany formed in 1989. The band used to be called Dissection...
, Mortiis
Mortiis
Mortiis is a band from Notodden, Norway fronted by Håvard Ellefsen, who is also known as the namesake of the band. The name is a misspelling of the word 'mortis', which is the pronunciation used by the band. However, Mortiis started as the solo project of Ellefsen as a means to convey a story...
, Tormentor
Tormentor
Tormentor is a black metal band formed in 1986 in Budapest, Hungary. Tormentor was one of the first black metal bands using synthesisers to create a more atmospheric sound. They recorded their first album, Anno Domini, in 1988, but were unable to release it until the end of communism. The album...
, Skyforger
Skyforger
Skyforger is a heavy metal band from Latvia which was formed in 1995 out of the remains of doom metal band Grindmaster Dead. Most of their songs are about pagan gods and warfare; they also play traditional Latvian folk songs and metal covers. Although Skyforger is known for their folk metal, their...
, Immolation
Immolation (band)
-History:The band formed in May 1986 by Andrew Sakowicz and Dave Wilkinson under the name Rigor Mortis . The name was changed to Immolation in April 1988, after the Warriors of Doom demo which was recorded as Rigor Mortis and Demo I which was recorded as Immolation...
and Malevolent Creation
Malevolent Creation
Malevolent Creation is a death metal band originally hailing from Buffalo, New York. Moving to Florida in 1987, they became a part of the emergent local death metal scene, landing a deal with Roadrunner Records...
.
After four months of studio work, the longest session ever in their career, the latest Sear Bliss album was released on September 24, 2007. Critically acclaimed The Arcane Odyssey was awarded "Album of the Month" by some magazines (i.e. Zero Tolerance
Zero Tolerance Magazine
Zero Tolerance Magazine is an extreme music magazine published by Obdurate Ltd. in the United Kingdom. Published bi-monthly, it can be found on newsstands in the UK, Europe and North America - and is available on newsstands in Australia and specialist retailers in New Zealand and Taiwan...
) and was also high ranked by Kerrang, Terrorizer
Terrorizer Magazine
Terrorizer is an extreme music magazine published by Dark Arts Ltd. in the United Kingdom. It is released every four weeks with thirteen issues a year and features a 'Fear Candy' covermount CD, a twice yearly 'Fear Candy Unsigned' CD, and a double-sided poster.-1993:Terrorizer published its first...
, Heavy Oder Was and Rock Hard
Rock Hard (magazine)
Rock Hard is a heavy metal magazine originally released in Germany. It was founded in 1983 by Holger Stratmann and is dedicated to all styles of rock and heavy metal. The magazine has independent offspring with the same name in France, Greece, Italy and Spain....
magazines in Europe. The album was elected for "Album of the Year" on Hungarian Metal Awards in 2007.
Beginnings (1993-1996)
Sear Bliss was formed in the autumn of 1993 by the then 15-year-old András Nagy and the former bass guitarist of a HungarianHungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
band called Extreme Deformity, Csaba Tóth. The first line-up featured guitarist János Barbarics and drummer Norbert Keibinger from another Hungarian death metal band called Animosity. Tóth left the band soon and Nagy got the bass. Sear Bliss added new members at the same time. At first, vocalist Zoltán Csejtei and guitarist Csaba Csejtei of Extreme Deformity joined them, and soon the line-up was enriched with a synthesizer by Winter and trumpet by Gergely Szűcs creating a unique sound for the band.
Keibinger left Sear Bliss in April 1995 when they were working on their first demo. Since there was only a short time until recording, Balázs Bertalan (Extreme Deformity) helped them out as a session drummer. The first demo named The Pagan Winter
The Pagan Winter
The Pagan Winter is the first studio recording by Hungarian symphonic black metal band Sear Bliss. In that time founder/bass guitarist András Nagy was only 17 years old...
was released in May and the atmospheric black metal music of Sear Bliss got to European extreme metal record labels. And finally, Mascot Records from Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
offered a three-album deal to this Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an band. After that Winter was replaced by trumpeter Szűcs on synthesizer when Winter started to work on his own musical ideas, but after a while he returned to the band. In the meantime other changes had happened. Zoltán Csejtei got the drums, Nagy became vocalist again but also held bass. In August Sear Bliss played their first gig. During 1995 and 1996 they played only four shows (two in each year). This made the band a little mysterious for the fans. Meanwhile, recordings of their debut album started in the beginning of 1996 in LMS Studio, Szombathely, Hungary.
The first Sear Bliss album, Phantoms, hit the streets in August 1996. Holland's leading metal magazine, Aardschok awarded it the title of "CD Of The Month". It was the first (and only) time in the magazine's history that the award went to a black metal album. Moreover, the album gained positive reactions in German and British metal magazines, and interviews with the band were published in Terrorizer and Rock Hard. The song called "Aeons Of Desolation" appeared on the compilation CD of the Dutch progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
magazine IO Pages. Due to the critically acclaimed first album, Mascot decided that The Pagan Winter demo would be released on CD featuring a 12-minute bonus song called "In The Shadow of Another World".
Changes (1997-1999)
Sear Bliss played their first European tour supporting MardukMarduk (band)
Marduk is a black metal band from Norrköping, Sweden. The band formed in 1990 and released their first record in 1991. Their name is derived from the Babylonian god Marduk, patron deity of Babylon.-Musical style:...
in February–March 1997. After finishing the tour the Csejtei brothers left the band and Winter also got out soon afterwards. Recruited new members were Zoltán Schönberger on drums and Viktor "Max" Scheer on guitar, furthermore keyboards was took over by trumpeter Szűcs. The next album had been recorded at Beaufort Studio, Netherlands, but the band was disappointed with the first version of the mix and it had to be remixed.
The Haunting (1998) became a more atmospheric and varied album in contrast to the fast black metal tracks of the Phantoms album. The Haunting disappointed some old fans, but it appealed to new enquirers. The opportunity to tour for three weeks with the Norwegian melodic black metal band Ancient
Ancient (band)
Ancient is a Norwegian black metal band from Eidsvåg, Nesset, formed in 1992. The band has released six full-length albums released by Metal Blade Records and a variety of mini-albums, EPs and special releases. Ancient used to have the classic raw black metal sound, similar to Darkthrone's works...
and promote the new album in Europe had come to nothing because of the private activities of Sear Bliss members in school and job. However, they celebrate their 5th anniversary with a birthday party in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
.
By releasing The Haunted album Sear Bliss fulfilled the Mascot contract, so a new label needed to be found. To support the search they recorded a 4-song promo cd in March 1999. But other member changes followed. Previously they parted with guitarist Viktor Scheer, then founding member/guitarist Barbarics and long-time trumpeter/keyboardist Szűcs quit due to personal conflicts within the band. In that time Sear Bliss played live with fill-in musicians, and only founding member Andras Nagy and drummer Schönberger were officially in the band. A new guitarist Andras Horváth P. would join Sear Bliss soon.
New era (2000-2005)
In the beginning of the year 2000 Sear Bliss recorded two brand new songs in their hometown Szombathely, but the studio work of the third full-length album started only at the end of the year. Of course, featuring new members like István Neubrandt on guitar and Zoltán Pál on trombone. The album Grand Destiny (2001) was released by a new Hungarian metal label called Nephilim. Before the release, Horvath P. had left the band and former Sear Bliss guitarist Csaba Csejtei got back. Later Olivér Ziskó from Cavum became the new keyboardist.Thanks to the warm welcome that Grand Destiny received abroad, Sear Bliss started negotiations concerning a new contract with foreign recording companies again. Eventually Red Stream, the overseas distributor of previous Sear Bliss albums, offered a three-album record deal to the band. Firstly, they released Grand Destiny in the States (one year later than the original release), but the band was already working on new songs. After a spring recording session the fourth Sear Bliss album, Forsaken Symphony, with which the band returned to a rawer and more intense black metal, got released in October 2002. The new album was made available for the first time outside the US and Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
, and reached new audiences in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
.
The band played on Brutal Assault festival again and did a club tour in Europe accompanied by Skyforger
Skyforger
Skyforger is a heavy metal band from Latvia which was formed in 1995 out of the remains of doom metal band Grindmaster Dead. Most of their songs are about pagan gods and warfare; they also play traditional Latvian folk songs and metal covers. Although Skyforger is known for their folk metal, their...
. Sear Bliss toured in Benelux
Benelux
The Benelux is an economic union in Western Europe comprising three neighbouring countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. These countries are located in northwestern Europe between France and Germany...
as a headliner for the first time in March 2003. They supported Marduk, Immolation
Immolation (band)
-History:The band formed in May 1986 by Andrew Sakowicz and Dave Wilkinson under the name Rigor Mortis . The name was changed to Immolation in April 1988, after the Warriors of Doom demo which was recorded as Rigor Mortis and Demo I which was recorded as Immolation...
and Malevolent Creation
Malevolent Creation
Malevolent Creation is a death metal band originally hailing from Buffalo, New York. Moving to Florida in 1987, they became a part of the emergent local death metal scene, landing a deal with Roadrunner Records...
in Budapest in April. Following the concert season the band started to work on the next album at HSB studio with former Sear Bliss guitarist Viktor "Max" Scheer as producer/engineer.
On February 22, 2004, Sear Bliss celebrated their 10th anniversary in Budapest where former members joined the band on stage for a one-off show. A video was shot of the event and appeared on the Decade of Perdition dvd along with a documentary of the 10 years of Sear Bliss story.
In August the new album, Glory and Perdition was released, featuring Mayhem
Mayhem (band)
Mayhem is a Norwegian black metal band formed in 1984 in Oslo, Norway and regarded as one of the pioneers of the influential Norwegian black metal scene...
and Tormentor
Tormentor
Tormentor is a black metal band formed in 1986 in Budapest, Hungary. Tormentor was one of the first black metal bands using synthesisers to create a more atmospheric sound. They recorded their first album, Anno Domini, in 1988, but were unable to release it until the end of communism. The album...
vocalist Attila Csihar
Attila Csihar
Attila Csihar , also sometimes known as Void, is a Hungarian black metal vocalist, best known for his vocal work on the album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas by Mayhem. Author Ian Christe describes his vocals as "operatic."-Biography:...
in two songs ("Birth of Eternity" and "Shores of Death"). Sear Bliss shot the first promo video in their career for the song "Two Worlds Collide" from their critically acclaimed fifth full-length.
Recent years (2006-present)
Despite the success of the latest album, Csejtei left the band again and was replaced by Péter Kovács. However, the greatest news of the year 2006 was that Sear Bliss signed to Candlelight RecordsCandlelight Records
Candlelight Records is an independent record label based in Europe founded by former Extreme Noise Terror bassist Lee Barrett, though it has had a division in the United States since January 2001. Candlelight Records specialises in black metal and death metal, having bands such as Emperor,...
, the home of bands such as Emperor
Emperor (band)
Emperor was a Norwegian black metal band formed in 1991. They dissolved in 2001, but reunited in 2006 and again in 2007 for a few festival dates and brief US tours. The group was founded by Samoth and Ihsahn .-Biography:...
and 1349
1349 (band)
1349 is a Norwegian black metal band from Oslo, Norway, formed in 1997. Their name comes from the year the Black Death reached Norway.- History :1349 formed in 1997 and comprises several former members of the band Alvheim...
. Another contract was signed with Dutch Vic Records for releasing remastered editions of the first three Sear Bliss albums (The Pagan Winter, Phantoms, The Haunting) with bonus tracks. Additionally, certain parts of The Haunting album were re-recorded.
Supervised by producer Viktor Scheer the band, for the first time as a Candlelight artist, had been working on the sixth full-length since March 2007. After four months of studio work, the longest session ever in their career, the latest Sear Bliss album was released on September 24, 2007. Critically acclaimed The Arcane Odyssey was awarded "Album of the Month" by some magazines (i.e. Zero Tolerance
Zero Tolerance Magazine
Zero Tolerance Magazine is an extreme music magazine published by Obdurate Ltd. in the United Kingdom. Published bi-monthly, it can be found on newsstands in the UK, Europe and North America - and is available on newsstands in Australia and specialist retailers in New Zealand and Taiwan...
) and was also high ranked by Kerrang, Terrorizer
Terrorizer Magazine
Terrorizer is an extreme music magazine published by Dark Arts Ltd. in the United Kingdom. It is released every four weeks with thirteen issues a year and features a 'Fear Candy' covermount CD, a twice yearly 'Fear Candy Unsigned' CD, and a double-sided poster.-1993:Terrorizer published its first...
, Heavy Oder Was and Rock Hard
Rock Hard (magazine)
Rock Hard is a heavy metal magazine originally released in Germany. It was founded in 1983 by Holger Stratmann and is dedicated to all styles of rock and heavy metal. The magazine has independent offspring with the same name in France, Greece, Italy and Spain....
magazines in Europe. The album was elected for "Album of the Year" on Hungarian Metal Awards in 2007.
The main event for the band in 2008 was their 15th birthday show in November in Avalon Club, Budapest, where the original Sear Bliss line-up including Csejtei brothers, Winter and Gergely Szűcs played together again after 11 years. A few weeks before the concert guitarist Péter Kovács had left Sear Bliss and Attila Kovács joined from Hungarian experimental death metal band Watch My Dying.
In 2009 Vic Records has re-released Glory and Perdition and Forsaken Symphony for Europe because the original Red Stream releases were hardly available there. Forsaken Symphony is remastered by Swedish death metal fame Dan Swanö
Dan Swanö
Dan-Erland Swanö is a Swedish musician who is currently the vocalist, guitarist, ex-bassist and ex-drummer for the band Nightingale as well as the Owner of Unisound but he achieved fame as the vocalist and songwriter of progressive death metal band Edge of Sanity.As a multi-instrumentalist he is...
.
At the end of August Andras Nagy left alone in the band. The other four members had decided that they would form a new band called I Divine. Nagy recruited a new line-up from former Sear Bliss musicians. Guitarists Csaba Csejtei and János Barbarics joined again the band as well as Oliver Zisko on drums. In December they found a trumpeter, Balázs Bruszel.
Current members
- András Nagy - vocals, bass, synth (1993–present)
- János Barbarics - guitars (1993–1999, 2009–present)
- Csaba Csejtei - guitars (1994–1997, 2001–2006, 2009–present)
- Olivér Ziskó - drums (2009–present), keyboards (2001–2002)
- Balázs Bruszel - trumpet (2009–present)
Former members
- Csaba Tóth - bass (1993)
- Norbert Keibinger - drums (1993–1994)
- Zoltán Csejtei - vocals (1994–1995), drums (1995–1997)
- Winter - keyboards (1994–1995, 1995–1997)
- Gergely Szücs - trumpet (1994–1999), keyboards (1995, 1997–1999)
- Viktor "Max" Scheer - guitars (1997–1999)
- András Horváth P. - guitars (1999–2000)
- Péter Kovács - guitars (2006–2008)
- Attila Kovács - guitars (2008–2009)
- István Neubrandt - guitars (2000–2009)
- Zoltán Pál - trombone (2000–2009)
- Zoltán Schönberger - drums (1997–2009)
Session musicians
- Balázs Bertalan (Extreme Deformity) - drums on The Pagan Winter demo (1995)
- Attila Török (Amon Hen) - keyboards on stage (1999)
- Péter Bokros - keyboards on stage (1999)
- Róbert Pintér - trumpet on stage (1999)
- Krisztián Varga - guitars on stage (2001)
- Attila CsiharAttila CsiharAttila Csihar , also sometimes known as Void, is a Hungarian black metal vocalist, best known for his vocal work on the album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas by Mayhem. Author Ian Christe describes his vocals as "operatic."-Biography:...
- guest vocals on album Glory and Perdition (2004)
Discography
| Title | Type | Date of release | Label |
| The Pagan Winter The Pagan Winter The Pagan Winter is the first studio recording by Hungarian symphonic black metal band Sear Bliss. In that time founder/bass guitarist András Nagy was only 17 years old... |
demo | May, 1995 | self-released |
| Phantoms | album | August, 1996 | Mascot/Two Moons |
| The Pagan Winter + In The Shadow of Another World The Pagan Winter The Pagan Winter is the first studio recording by Hungarian symphonic black metal band Sear Bliss. In that time founder/bass guitarist András Nagy was only 17 years old... |
re-release | February, 1997 | Mascot/Two Moons |
| The Haunting | album | February, 1998 | Mascot/Two Moons |
| Grand Destiny | album | April, 2001 | Nephilim Records |
| Grand Destiny | re-release | April, 2002 | Red Stream |
| Forsaken Symphony | album | October, 2002 | Red Stream |
| Glory and Perdition | album | August, 2004 | Red Stream |
| Decade of Perdition | live dvd | May, 2005 | Red Stream |
| The Arcane Odyssey | album | September 24, 2007 | Candlelight Records |
| Glory and Perdition | re-release | February, 2009 | Vic Records |
| Forsaken Symphony | remastered | April, 2009 | Vic Records |
External links
- Sear Bliss official site
- [ Sear Bliss bio on Allmusic.com]
- Vic Records official site, re-issues of first 6 Sear Bliss albums in 2009