Midnight Priest - Biography
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2008-
Biography
Midnight Priest was born 2008 in Lisbon. The first line-up consisted of Iron Fist (currently also in Alkateya) on guitars, Alex "War Tank" (currently also in Ravensire) on drums, Joe "Murderface" Dalton on bass, Rod "The Mystical" Wolf on guitars and The Priest on vocals.
The band played live for the first time on the 13th of September of that year, a night to be immortalized by the song "Sábado Negro", featured later on their debut album. They were making history as the first Portuguese heavy metal band to play a punk festival in Portugal, and the first band singing in Portuguese at Wacken Open Air festival three years later, in 2012.
They put out their first demo tape The Priest Is Back through Herege Warfare Productions in 2009. The same year the EP entitled Rainha da Magia Negra was released by Stormspell Records that released also their self-titled debut full-length in 2011 (out the same year on vinyl on A Forja). The album saw the change on the guitarist position: Nasty Nightmare replaced Rod Wolf.
Following a stream of tours around Europe (including several festivals like Up the Hammers special edition in October 2012, and in 2013: Santa Maria Summer Fest, Headbangers Open Air and Mosh Fest among others) and the departure of their charismatic frontman The Priest in 2013, they released a 3-track demo tape Hellbreaker - Demo XXIV and then their second album Midnight Steel, introducing the high pitch extravaganza of Lex Thunder (Toxikull), together with lyrics in English, and the evil twin genius of Steel Bringer (Inquisitor, Disthrone, Booze Abuser) on guitar. The album was published on CD by Slaney Records and on vinyl by Anger of Metal in 2014.
In May and June 2015 they went on Midnight Steel tour with 17 dates in Europe, starting with SWR Metal Fest, and in July 2016 they went rogue going on the legendary No Way Out Of Hell Tour, driving across 10 European countries and playing 25 sold out shows in 31 days. Apart from playing many single gigs, in 2017 the band participated in Metal Keeper Festival, ADM Metal Fest and Moita Metal Fest, and in 2018 in Mosher Fest, Hard Saturday Heavy Fever in Lyon, France, and Assembleia do Metal.
In late 2017 Metal on Metal Records approached Midnight Priest for the release of their upcoming third full-length, the agreement was reached, but unfortunately the album wasn't ready in time for the originally planned 2018 release date. But as they say, good things come to those who wait, and Aggressive Hauntings will be finally out in early May 2019, with songs that range from the sheer deliverance of mid-paced anthems, to the iron pounding, breakneck speed galore of the good old in your face heavy metal. Soon before the album's release, the band officially announced Speedfaias Axecrazy (Roädscüm) as their new bass player, although he had already played with them live in the autumn of 2018.
Source: metalonmetalrecords.com
The band played live for the first time on the 13th of September of that year, a night to be immortalized by the song "Sábado Negro", featured later on their debut album. They were making history as the first Portuguese heavy metal band to play a punk festival in Portugal, and the first band singing in Portuguese at Wacken Open Air festival three years later, in 2012.
They put out their first demo tape The Priest Is Back through Herege Warfare Productions in 2009. The same year the EP entitled Rainha da Magia Negra was released by Stormspell Records that released also their self-titled debut full-length in 2011 (out the same year on vinyl on A Forja). The album saw the change on the guitarist position: Nasty Nightmare replaced Rod Wolf.
Following a stream of tours around Europe (including several festivals like Up the Hammers special edition in October 2012, and in 2013: Santa Maria Summer Fest, Headbangers Open Air and Mosh Fest among others) and the departure of their charismatic frontman The Priest in 2013, they released a 3-track demo tape Hellbreaker - Demo XXIV and then their second album Midnight Steel, introducing the high pitch extravaganza of Lex Thunder (Toxikull), together with lyrics in English, and the evil twin genius of Steel Bringer (Inquisitor, Disthrone, Booze Abuser) on guitar. The album was published on CD by Slaney Records and on vinyl by Anger of Metal in 2014.
In May and June 2015 they went on Midnight Steel tour with 17 dates in Europe, starting with SWR Metal Fest, and in July 2016 they went rogue going on the legendary No Way Out Of Hell Tour, driving across 10 European countries and playing 25 sold out shows in 31 days. Apart from playing many single gigs, in 2017 the band participated in Metal Keeper Festival, ADM Metal Fest and Moita Metal Fest, and in 2018 in Mosher Fest, Hard Saturday Heavy Fever in Lyon, France, and Assembleia do Metal.
In late 2017 Metal on Metal Records approached Midnight Priest for the release of their upcoming third full-length, the agreement was reached, but unfortunately the album wasn't ready in time for the originally planned 2018 release date. But as they say, good things come to those who wait, and Aggressive Hauntings will be finally out in early May 2019, with songs that range from the sheer deliverance of mid-paced anthems, to the iron pounding, breakneck speed galore of the good old in your face heavy metal. Soon before the album's release, the band officially announced Speedfaias Axecrazy (Roädscüm) as their new bass player, although he had already played with them live in the autumn of 2018.
Source: metalonmetalrecords.com