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Martyr Lucifer


Member

1997-2005 Hortus Animae - bass, vocals  
2005- Hortus Animae - vocals  
2011- Martyr Lucifer - vocals  

Guest musician

2014 Ancient - vocals  

Personal information


Official website

Artistically born around the early 90's, following the venture in the band Dogma, who played thrash-death metal of the early stages. Due to musical differences the band split, generating at least three different musical paths. Martyr, who was the most extreme of the band, joined Hortus Animae at their very beginning in 1997.

With Hortus Animae, Martyr recorded two self-produced releases, "An Abode... for Spirit and Flesh" (1998) and "The Melting Idols" (2000) and two worldwide official releases, "Waltzing Mephisto" (2003, Black Lotus Records) and "The Blow of Furious Winds" (2005, Sleaszy Rider Records). During those years Martyr & Hortus Animae had the honour of sharing the stage with great bands like Napalm Death, Konkhra, Lacuna Coil, Ancient and Necrodeath. Moreover, Martyr joined the experimental death metal band Opposite Sides with whom he recorded vocals for the demo "The Eclipse Of Existence" and recorded, with Hortus Animae, a cover medley of two Dead Can Dance classics (named "Windfall introducing Summoning of the Muse") for the Black Lotus Records' tribute CD "The Lotus Eaters / Tribute to Dead Can Dance" and that featured the notorious Norwegian singer Liv Kristine Espenæs Krull (Leaves' Eyes, Atrocity, ex-Theatre Of Tragedy).

In 2006 Hortus Animae was placed on-hold for an unspecified period of time. Martyr kept his musical activities alive by continuing his cooperation with Opposite Sides and starting a new collaboration with the Russian space-rock/metal project Space Mirrors. Around this time he started to conceive the idea of his solo album, that was meant to be something quite different from all his previous recordings. In 2008, considering the cult band status that Hortus Animae gained throughout the years, Sleaszy Rider Records released the limited edition boxset "Funeral Nation / 10 Years of Hortus Animae", that celebrated ten years of music since the release of the first demo, initially issued solely on cassette. The boxed set included different items (Hortus Animae's latest release "The Blow of Furious Winds" CD+DVD, the "Waltzing Mephisto - The Demos" CD, that included different versions from the Black Lotus release and moreover, the entire "Abode" demo as bonus material, plus numerous gadgets, showcasing the artwork of Niklas Sundin / Cabin Fever Media (Dark Tranquillity).

It was sold-out in just a few months, receiving an exceptional feedback from literally all over the world. The year 2009 saw the release of two new records, Opposite Sides' "Soul Mechanics" (Mondongo Canibale Records), album where Martyr Lucifer recorded additional synthesizers for the first time in his career and vocals, as well as Space Mirrors' "Majestic-12: A Hidden Presence" (Sleaszy Rider Records), where he had the chance to collaborate, among others, with the space rock legend Nik Turner (Hawkwind). In 2007 Martyr parted ways from Opposite Sides in order to fully concentrate to the songwriting process for his solo material and in summer 2010 finally the recordings for Martyr Lucifer's debut solo album have begun. For this album Martyr gathered different session musicians, defined for this occasion as "the Graveland Ensemble": Hortus Animae band-mates Bless (piano and keyboards, also in Nashville Trio) and Grom (that also played in the Norwegian black metal band Ancient and in the Italian epic/heavy/doom band DoomSword - drums on 5 tracks), Arke of Opposite Sides and Canada (guitars), Adrian Erlandsson of At The Gates/Cradle Of Filth/Paradise Lost fame (drums on 5 tracks), Vrolok (bass player from the cult Ukrainian band Ygg, ex-Nokturnal Mortum) and Leìt, a Ukrainian artist on this occasion entrusted with the role of female additional vocalist and graphic designer. The album's title is "Farewell to Graveland" and, as said, follows a musical direction that goes rather far from what previously traced by Martyr, being mostly inspired by the darkwave/goth movement, alternative rock, as well as 70's progressive and psychedelic rock, and featuring electronic synth arrangements but still maintaining a certain metal touch.

The platter has been blessed by the hand of the recording studio wizard Simone Mularoni (DGM, Empyrios) at Domination Recording Studio. In September 2011 Martyr Lucifer has signed a deal with Buil2Kill Records for the worldwide release of the "Farewell to Graveland" album, to be released on November the 7th. In December 2011 Monster Fuzz Records released the split 7" single Space Mirrors / Acid FM - "Dreams of Area 51 / Space Beyond Space" featuring Martyr Lucifer on vocals for the Space Mirrors track.

In 2012 Martyr Lucifer returns with 2 new records. The first is a special Hortus Animae reissue album titled "Funeral Nation MMXII" released in a 2CD set by Thrash Corner Records. The album contains remastered versions of "The Blow Of Furious Winds", "Waltzing Mephisto" and the never officially released "The Melting Idols". The HORTUS ANIMAE Cult is back! The second is the new album by Space Mirrors, "In Darkness They Whisper", released via Transubstans Records on August the 1st 2012. In late 2012 / early 2013 Martyr Lucifer entered Domination Studio again to record 3 new EPs of unreleased material, that constitute "Martyr Lucifer's Shards", a trilogy of EPs all gathered in one elegant digipack edition to be released by the German label Outline Rekordz in August 2013. "Martyr Lucifer's Shards" saw the extraordinary participation of members of Hortus Animae as well as Simone Mularoni and Dario Ciccioni (empYrios), Antarktica (Darkend) and Adrian Erlandsson (At the Gates, Paradise Lost) among others.
Simultaneously to the "Shards" recordings, Martyr Lucifer also recorded vocals for the new Space Mirrors album, "The Other Gods", the second in the Cosmic Horror trilogy, to be released by Transubstans Records again, and in August as well.
And to avoid to be overwhelmed by boredom, Martyr Lucifer entered the studio with Hortus Animae to record "Secular Music", their acclaimed comeback album after 7 years of silence.