GOD DETHRONED
Bio:
God Dethroned was formed by main-man Henri Sattler (guitars/vocals) in 1990. After one demo they released their debut album The Christhunt in 1992 on a small German label. Due to problems with the other band members and the record company, Henri decided to end the band. He then formed Ministry Of Terror, a Thrash Metal band, and released the Fall Of Life album with them in 1994. After a European tour, Henri left the band and re-formed God Dethroned. Armed with new band members and better songs, Henri and the new God Dethroned recorded The Grand Grimoire and inked a deal with Metal Blade Records. Many successful tours followed in Europe, the USA and Japan with great Death and Black Metal acts like Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Immortal, and Marduk, just to name a few.
The band also played most of the renowned festivals: Dynamo Open Air, Wacken, Graspop and Summer Breeze. However, not everything went smoothly. Drummer Roel Sanders left the band after the USA tour promoting Bloody Blasphemy. Nile‘s Tony Laureano played on the Ravenous album, but couldn’t stay in the band for obvious reasons. Janne Saarenpää from The Crown played on that tour, until finally new drummer Ariën van Weesenbeek joined the group, whose first recording experience with the band was Into the Lungs of Hell. This album was received very well by the press around the globe, and again the band toured around Europe and played festivals like Party San and Summer Breeze.
The time following the release of Into the Lungs of Hell was one of the most difficult periods in the band’s history. God Dethroned had been together so long that the individual band members had developed new views on life and the band. Somehow the challenge was gone. At a certain point, Beef (bass) and Jens van der Valk (guitars) decided to leave. The remaining band members, Henri and Arien, wrote a new album, The Lair of the White Worm, based on a novel by Bram Stoker. New band members Isaac Delahaye (guitars) and Henk Zinger (bass) joined the band right before the recordings. After the release, God Dethroned played numerous festivals (Summer Breeze, With Full Force), headlined tours in Europe and the USA, and supported bands such as The Haunted and Bolt Thrower.
In between tours, the band worked on a new album, The Toxic Touch, and went straight into the studio after the European tour with Bolt Thrower. After the release of the album, the band toured Europe as main support for Vader, then played festivals like Earthshaker and New England Metal & Hardcore fest, with a number of headliner shows across Europe. Family issues kept Henri at home for a long time until he started working on Passiondale – (Passchendaele) mid-2008.
During mid-October, the band went to Soundlodge Studio in Leer, Germany to work with Jörg Uken again, since the production of The Toxic Touch turned out so well. Compared to the previous album, this new album – Passiondale – (Passchendaele) – was a lot more extreme and furious (while still containing the band’s signature melody), mainly due to the return of Roel Sanders on drums (who played on The Grand Grimoire and Bloody Blasphemy). Henri recalls, “It seemed the most logical thing to do, to go back to our early sound. Danny Servaes, who also played keyboards on aforementioned albums, participated again and added that touch of mystique, which made the songs even more special…The grimness of war is reflected in the songs, and the atmosphere creates a feeling of listening to the soundtrack of a war movie.“
Passiondale – (Passchendaele) was recorded as a three-piece because guitarist Isaac Delahaye decided to go in a different direction. He did, however, contribute to the album by doing a lot of additional research for the lyrics Henri wrote. Themed around World War I, these lyrics aren’t from a particular point of view or speak about a specific country, since God Dethroned‘s band members don’t want to take political sides. After the release of the album in 2009, the band embarked on a massive world tour, playing South America for the first time in their career. Plans for another album about World War I were made during those days on the road, and Under the Sign of the Iron Cross was written and recorded soon after.
With its grim atmosphere and aggression, Under the Sign of the Iron Cross (2010) was again well received by the press around the globe, earning “Album of the Year” accolades from various outlets. However, the band needed a break after more than 20 years on the road, and the decision was made to play a farewell tour during 2011. After playing many festivals in Europe, God Dethroned‘s grand finale was at the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise (USA) in February 2012.
In 2013, Henri attended the funeral of his former label boss, Michael Trengert, and he met several people from the music industry again, as well as many fellow musicians. He decided that day he needed music more than anything else in his life and decided to get the band together again. The full reformation of God Dethroned would still take several years to achieve, but by 2014, the band was ready to go out on the road again. This re-boot took place where it all ended, on the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise in 2015. Another year of playing festivals followed, before the band finished recording the last album of the World War I trilogy. The World Ablaze was recorded at the end of 2016 by the band, mixed by Dan Swanö and mastered by Sander van der Heide at Wisseloord Studios in the Netherlands.
Dan Swano comments: “God Dethroned have taken a great turn on the fields of death metal. This album is a great combination of all kinds of tempos and styles the genre has to offer, each performed with crushing perfection, and catchy choruses and memorable melodic hooks! Will go down well among fans of Bolt Thrower (R.I.P.) and some of the other Dutch death brigades I’ve had the pleasure of working with!”
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