User:Kosmateus/sandbox

Sauron - polish Black Metal band established in 1991 in Radom, Poland. The band’s name is taken from the character created by John R. R. Tolkien

First Steps
Sauron was formed in 1991 on the remains of Malleus Maleficarum by P.W. (bass, vocal) and VICO (guitar). First line-up was completed by WALEC (guitar) and BONBEL (drums). The band was strongly influenced by satanic death metal, however P.W. was huge Bathory fan and he was always leaning towards more obscure sound characteristic to that band. After playing series of gigs the band was well recognised in home City and neighbourhood (being the only Black-oriented act back then). In 1993 the band recorded first demo material "Hellish Requiem" in a studio, which actually was a rehearsal room of some local prog-rockers, having such a sophisticated gear like mixer or drums-mic. Guitars were recorded directly through the amp's line out and it was ages before such magic as amp modeler/ speaker simulators, so it sounded poorly. All the vocals were recorded in the basement using Russian delay effect pedal. The demo has 6 racks where Side 'A' is more death metal oriented while side 'B' has some black metal feeing. The tracks like Necromansy or Grave (written back in Malleus Maleficarum days) soon became one of the most recognisable Sauron tracks. Necromansy intro was taken from Clive Barker's masterpiece - Nightbreed (the scene where Lori meets the Peloquin). Cover art was made by Walec (with some help of his family). Home-copied tapes with inlays photocopied on some thicker paper were distributed mostly locally.

Entering the Pagan Black Metal
In early 1994 EVIL replaced VICO on guitar. He was sharing with P.W. fascination of intensively emerging Black Metal and Pagan Metal scenes- especially in Norway, Poland and Greece. Initially P.W. and Evil were about to form Pagan-Black-Metal horde called 'From the Pagan Forests'. After having a rehearsal or two with P.W. on drums and Evil on guitar P.W. eventually decided about replacing Vico by Evil in Sauron. Evil brought to the band chord-based guitar playing style as opposed to death-metallish precision of palm muted power chords. The band developed more black metal sound with chords attacking at least three strings at a time with no muting at all, very often supplemented by inverted power chord played by the other guitar to build up the sound wall. Except for the couple of older tracks the new lyrics were around Paganism and Slavic Mythology. Some time after Evil have joined Sauron they started to have different ideas about the band's future. Evil together with P.W. were leaning towards Black while Walec wanted to explore Death Metal. Soon they realised that there will be no compromise and more dramatic steps must be taken and so their paths have parted. Sauron also needed better drummer. Rzeczy had a break as a vocalist after Polish Death Metal act Ahret Dev antecedent - Venetis disbanded and he got back to drumming. Evil and P.W. asked him to join and he accepted the offer. In the new line-up consisted of P.W. (bass, vocals), EVIL (guitars), and RZECZY (drums), SAURON recorded second demo material - "The Baltic Fog". The recording was taken in electronic technical highschool using dual cassette deck recorder that could record 4 independent tracks and 8-tracks console. Two tracks from the "Hellish Requiem": Necromansy and Grave were re-recorded and included in "The Baltic Fog". This material had much better distribution and received very positive feedback from maniacs from all over the black metal world. Band continued to play gigs around Poland.

Kraina Martwego Słońca (The Land of Dead Sun)
After The Baltic Fog Sauron focused on playing concerts and work on new tracks. Ahret Dev's Hellish was getting more and more attention and Rzeczy started to run short on time. It became clear that he had to focus on one of the bands and so he chose Ahret. Evil and P.W. asked BLADY (drummer of local death metal act Aghast) to take over after RZECZY on drums and in 1997 SAURON was ready to record it's first professional material - "Kraina Martwego Słońca" what translates as "The Land of Dead Sun". The recording was made in New Project Studio led by Krzysztof Maszota. He just moved to Warsaw's suburbs from the Tricity where he recorded some early Behemoth and probably more gems of polish Black Metal of the early nineties. All recording was done in 3 days due to limited budget financed entirely by the band members. The record contained 7 tracks + intro and outro. Two tracks were present on former releases - Chariots of Doom (originally on "Hellish Requiem") and In the Shadow of Sventevith (originally on "The Baltic Fog"). There is also one instrumental track "Wanda" named after legendary queen on Poland. Lyrics were this time more consistently referring to Slavic / pagan mythology. All are in english except for the "Czarcie Bagna" (Tchort's Swamps) which has polish text.

Failed release and Sauron's split
Soon after recording "Kraina..." KORDIAN joined the band as a second guitarist. Band played couple of gigs with such lineup. Approximately at the same time Evil moved out from Radom to the capitol. Shortly after that he started having problems supporting Sauron remotely and so he decided to leave the band. His last contribution was arranging initial talks with Michał Kraszewski about releasing "Kraina..." under Novum Vox Mortis label. Unfortunately it was just before that label ceased to exist and the release didn't happen... In the meantime Benek took over empty guitar slot after Evil but the band eventually split up in 1999. Kraina Martwego Słońca has been released post-mortem by the underground Devil Worship Records in 2000 as a CD-R split containing also "The Baltic Fog". Painting used for the cover that release is "The Recovery of Wanda's Body from the Wisła River" by Aleksander Lesser.

Resurrection
After four years, in 2003 P.W. (vocals) and EVIL (music) decided to resurrect SAURON. Despite many obstacles they have managed to record SAURON's new material - HORNOLOGY in 2006 released next year by the Old Temple. Hornology received mixed feedback - mostly due to limited budget for the recording and production. This time the band turned into more satanic areas. Album was released in book format with lyrics illustrated with pics done by Von Krolock. In 2008 second version of Hornology has been released, this time as a box including box from black cardboard, A3 poster, CD with standard version "HornologY", 3,5" CDR with sticker with CELTIC FROST cover "Innocence And Wrath" / "The Usurper", sticker, patch, set of complete six postcards with Von Krolock's graphics, book with texts, on cover it was stamped especially "HORNOLOGY". In 2009 / 2011 Sauron recorded new material "Unholy Man" but this time failed to attract any label to release it. It was shortly distributed under changed band name - "Pandemonium Carnival". The "Unholy Man" was mixed and mastered by Tom "Thrawn" Kvålsvoll in Strype Audio studio. He also played guest guitar solo in Morbid Angel cover Desolate Ways.

Discography

 * Hellish Requiem (1993, demo)
 * The Baltic Fog (1995, demo)
 * Kraina Martwego Słońca (1997 / 2000)
 * Hornology (CD, Album, A5) (2007)
 * Hornology (Box, Ltd + CD, Album + CDr, Mini) (2008)
 * Unholy Man (2011, unreleased)

Band members
Current members
 * P.W. - vokal (1991-present), bass (1991-1999)
 * Evil - guitars (1994-1998, 2003-present)
 * Rzeczy - drums (1994-1996, 2015-present)

Former members
 * Vico - guitars (1991–1994)
 * Walec (RIP) - guitars (1991–1994)
 * Bonbel - drums (1991–1994)
 * Blady - drums (1994–1999)
 * Kordian - guitars (1997–1999)
 * Benek - guitars (1998–1999)