Artist description This band develops more and more into an agressivedirection, playing technical and slow up to fastblack and heavy/black/death metal. No clean vocals.

Music Style Black Heavy Metal

Musical Influences Heavy Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal

Similar Artists Opeth, Dissection, Hypocrisy (old), Dimmu Borgir, sometimes Marduk

Artist History In September of 1997 Dennis Klink on the keys, Thomas Reeß on the drums, Robby Beyer at the vocals, Florian Spannagel and Michael Zieschang on the guitars wrote the original kind of Black Metal on their banner and formed up the basis of "Karkadan". But the first creative activities of the band were taken up at the beginning of December. The line-up of this time was replenished by replacing Michael Zieschang on the guitar with Daniel Pütz and Felix Moosmann joining the band on the bass guitar. In seeking its own style the music of "Karkadan" developed to a very varied mix of the dark types of Metal. The result is a symbiosis between hard Heavy Metal and extreme Black and Death Metal vocals. Because of no better description the followed direction was called "Black Heavy Metal". Only three months after its foundation the band did its very successful live debut. The very positive reactions were the reason for the decision to present the written material to the public. In December of 1999 the debut album called "Eternal black reflections", which was first thought to be a simple demo record, was finished. It was recorded and produced at the Maranis Studios by Vagelis Maranis (Sanvoisen). After the recordings Florian Spannagel left the band for musical reasons and Thomas Reeß for health reasons. Thomas Reeß was replaced by Marcel Frano on the drums for a short period. After numerous changes on the instruments the band has found a new line up which has a good future. At the side of the founding members Daniel Pütz (g) and Robby Beyer (voc) the band is now completed by Philip Oefner on the guitar, Gruni on the bass guitar and Martin Daniel on the drums. The band has won more and more fans playing various gigs which were always acoustical and optical impressing events.

Group Members Robby Beyer (vox) Martin Daniel (dr) Philip Oefner (g) Gruni (b) Daniel Pütz (g)

Instruments Blasting Guitars, Pumping Bass, Variating Keyboards, Komplex Drums and Blackest Vocals

Albums Eternal black reflections (1999), The Lost Secrets (2002)

Press Reviews Power-Metal.de November 2001 (translated) Oh boy. I am deeeply impressed what these 5 Swabian Black Metal guys burned on CD. On the other side, it is not really Black Metal what you can hear on "Eternal black reflections". Here and there it is mixed up with some Heavy Metal riffs, it is changing between Black and Death vocals and you can even find progressive elements in some parts. KARKADAN, that is : Robby Beyer (v), Daniel Pütz (g), Philip Oefner (g), Gruni (b) and Martin Daniel (d). Since 1997 the group round their fronter and textwriter Robby is existing and they already got some successful gigs on their side. Therfor it is no wonder that I got the second version of "Eternal black reflections". The debut album which was released in December was sold out in a very short time. But lets have a closer look at the CD. KARKADAN do manage very well to combine classical Black Metal elements with lots of different nuances. The quintett are not backing off from pairing Black Metal vocals with Thrash or Heavy riffs ("The Calling"), bleiben aber stets ihrer dunklen Linie treu. They even do also not recoil from German Vocals, whereby "Niederkniender Todeskampf" partly reminds me of CREMETORY. The thrashy "Never ending love" is pleasing, too, with the keayboards fully integrated like in all 7 songs without being nerved. Espacially the first class procuction of "Eternal black reflections" is something to point out, which is not a standard for self produced records. KARKADAN are proving very impressiv that multifaceted and imaginative Black Metal does not have to be from Sweden or Norway. Why drift far away if the good is so near that often. The homepage of KARKADAN is also worth to be seen. Alex Cerberus Zine July 2001 (translated) The underground boooooms !!! It is really heavy what some bands are pulling out of the hat. We have heard that much bands which fallow the melodic style but I have never had any band doing this the way Karkadan are doing it. Great !!! Very much melodies. Everything with a beautiful keyboard in the back which is partly very dark and on the other hand very romantic. The voice is changing between screams and growls. Sometimes it is both at the same time. This band is very determined and will realize lots of more stuff for sure. The guitar work is very sophisticated und the drums show also up their technical knowledge. You can here the album at anytime anywhere for a really long time. Come on guys. PLEAAAAAAASE !!! Brutal Punishment Zine July 2001 (original) KARKADAN play a very unique style of metal. It's what I can only describe as power/death/black metal. A nice combination of all styles I must say. The music can go from playing black metal to even original heavy metal. Very melodic & heavy as fuck. This band use keyboards to create a very dark atmosphere. No it's not a shitty keyboard atmosphere bands like CHILDREN OF BODOM or DIMMU BORGIR would use. This music will definitly take you into a journey into darkness. Very awesome music indeed. The solos are very challenging & complexed. The music even at times thrashes very fast & extremly catchy. KARKADAN even put out slam mosh riffs that most death metal bands of today can do as well. I wouldn't be surprised if KARKADAN would to get sign. I look forward to hearing more shit from this band in the future. Metal Hammer Mai 2001 (Translated) Founded in September 1997, Karkadan from southern Germany recorded their demo "Eternal black reflections" after two years of existence and some positive reactions on first gigs. It found it's way to us a little bit late, but it is worth to have a closer look on it. Karkadan are playing an quite original mixture of hard Heavy- and Black/Death Metal, whereby the last influences mainly can be found in the voice. The demo is published as CD including a twelve pages, professionell printed booklet and leaves behind a very good impression. From the sound to the Songwriting a successful product and a worthy beginning, which should call some labels on the plan. The seven Songs are variedly and interesting structured... Contact: ... Martin Wickler Ablaze March 2001 (translated) Black Heavy Metal you may call the style of music the german Karkadan are playing. They cope with this description for all the 35 minutes of this release. The songs paint an atmosphere of gloominess with a distant sound of keyboard just to burst out into pure heavy metal-solos. Accoustic parts change with bombastic ones, always staying mid-tempo. All in all a very pleasing piece of work on a high technical level with unexpected but harmonical changes of performance. I was especially surprised by the qualitiy of this production. The explosive high-tension grooves, the crystalclear sound of each instrument, everything fits in this convincing collection of well-planned songcraft. This gorgious selfproduced release with professional Artwork is availiable at... Magnus Peror Orkus October 2000 (translated) The debut of this south german band, which has been active for several years, offers seven songs showing a summary of their sound, which they call quite appropriate Black Heavy Metal. The opener and title song or also "Requiem of yearning" show the songwriting talent of the group, espacially considering the guitar work. Listening to "Niederkniender Todeskampf, which is dominated by fast and catchy guitars, or also with the successful "My Ablaze" their description of the style seems to be even more suitable, because here heavy guitar melodies were combined with classical growl singing. "My Ablaze" even reminds me a little bit of Maiden, which nevertheless should not deter the dark fans : "Sleepwalker" and particularly "Never ending love" again spread a rather longing-spherical mood by usual, but sinfonical keybaord backgrounds. Melodic blackies, who love lots of guitars, should contact : ... Andras Kais Metal-Online August 2000 (translated) Homepage review : Karkadan (Design: 8 Contents: 9 Total: 8 of 10 points) Shit - it is embarrassing me ... instead of doing the well-deserved review for the debut of Karkadan, this thing is rotating in my player for hours and embellishing my day :) Well, matching to the music I have looked at the page of the south west Germans and I was no less taken with it. Also here a simple and reasoned Layout on which functionalty there is nothing to grumble about. Realy impressing is the contents - I think you can find here anything what you would like to find about the band. MP3s, reviews, links, a guestbook, a history, the band members, ... in any case listen to the samples of these guys ! Pro, 14.08.2000 CD review : Karkadan - Eternal black reflections (8/10) and CD tip Melodic Black Metal Underground band, 7 Songs (35:50) With "Eternal black reflections" I got the debut of the south German band Karkadan before me. Once planned as a demo it was finally the debut CD ... and that is allright. A good production and not less good songs are distinguishing this ... well, not masterpiece, but this superior album. On the search for a drawer which are likely used to catagorize a band the bands style was called Black Heavy Metal. This allways mostly nice if it fits perfectly :) With "Eternal black reflections" friends of typical Heavy Metal guitars (as long as they do not like this unspeakable True Metal vocals) can cope around as well as uncompromising Black Metal guys. Catchy guitar parts, widely excellent keyboard passages (which are not all super original, but very beautiful) und very good vocals, which can be associated with Melodic Death, are offering a melodic and not too sturdy sound experience. Not one of the seven songs deserves to be called poor. Of course with the time there are crystallizing personal faves. There is the black metal like title song, the more Heavy "Never ending love" and "Sleepwalker", which reminds me pleasant of Cemetery of Scream because of its arrangements and its vocals - genious ! Because all the songs are written in 1998 and the band has allready new material I am really looking forward to the next release. If they are escaping the monster called "development" it will really be getting interessting again. Pro, 27.08.2000 Purgatory of Grief May 2000 (original) News from the Black League in the South of Germany - the underground is not dead yet... This CD offers us 7 tracks, written between 1998 and 1999. The style of this unique dark sound can be described as more Black/Death, mostly played in mid-tempo. Sadly, most of the material is not that up to date now- but the songs, which were played at the live gigs I've seen, sounded quite hope rising to me. The production is clear - good value for money I'd say, and mixed in an affirmative way. No dominating keyboard sound - thanks. By the way - but played in a pretty good accordingly manner. Azaroth's vocals have nothing to do with those lousy shrieks we are penetrated with the whole fucking time - they are deep as hell. The growls and grunts are performed in a fascinating way either. Eternal Black Reflections - fist fingers up for it ! I think, I really have to heartly recommend this very promising debut from KARKADAN to everyone, addicted to the dark side of music. Give it a try, and you'll discover the beauty in darkness... 79 of 100 points - review by Pain Sound Base May 2000 (translated) I couldn't help smiling when I saw the CD the first time : the cover seems to be a kind of dark naive painting and would have fitted to old Last Episode releases. This first impression was soon forgotten, even the opener proves that the band has left the stage diletante very far behind. The black heavy metal of this south german group is coming both, with pressure and very variating, out of the boxes. You have to get a little bit more used to the second song, "Niederkniender Todeskampf", because the german text is a bit strange. After you have heard it a few times this song opens, too, and is fascinating because of the strange vocals. Unfortunately the fallowing songs are a little bit too long and boring and are forming a hard slog on the way through the world of Karkadan. For slow music the voice of singer Robby seems not to fit very good. "The Calling" is also not a high speed song but here Karkadan succeeded to loosen up the song with skilful inserted faster parts which remind of Dimmu Borgir's "Enthroned darkness triumphant". With "Never ending love" there is a cream piece fallowing, a little bit rocky and with funny lyrics, and "My Ablaze" represents finally a worthy end of this fantastic record with a length of 36 minutes. Dirk Gutsche

Additional Info Not yet.

Location Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg - Germany

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