Bethlehem (band)

Bethlehem is a German metal band from Grevenbroich, formed in 1991 by Jürgen Bartsch and Kläus Matton. Before starting Bethlehem, Bartsch and Matton used to play in a German thrash metal band called Morbid Vision. Bethlehem are widely credited for inventing a whole new subgenre of metal, called dark metal, named after their first full length album. Many of their lyrics revolve around sickness, morbidity, suicide, death and madness, and may to some extent be personal to the band.

History

Band

Bethlehem was formed by Jurgen Bartsch in 1991. They recorded a few demos in the early 90s before releasing their debut album "Dark Metal" in 1994, which featured Andreas Classen on vocals. On their second full length album Dictius Te Necare (Latin: You must/should kill yourself), Classen was replaced with Rainer Landfermann on vocals (known as the bass player in the German death metal band Pavor). Landfermann's vocals were particularly extreme, described by critics and fans alike as "one of the sickest and most extreme voices you'll ever hear from a human being". On S.U.I.Z.I.D. his place is taken by Marco Kehren from the band Deinonychus. Guido Meyer de Voltaire, the vocalist from Schatten aus der Alexanderwelt and Mein Weg, is also well-known with his band Aardvarks. Andreas Classen, vocalist on Dark Metal also did vocals for Shining, Dark Creation (German band), Paragon Belial, Made of Iron, Kadathorn, Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult. Over the years Bethlehem modernized their style and so the early black and doom metal influences are now hardly present, the band favouring a more Neue Deutsche Härte (New German Hardness) and electronic approach. In 1998 Bethlehem collaborated on the soundtrack for the American underground movie Gummo with the tracks "Schuld Uns'res Knöcherigen Faltpferds" and "Verschleierte Irreligiösität".

Bethlehem

Bethlehem (Arabic: بيت لحم‎  Bayt Laḥm ; "House of Meat", Bēt Laḥm; Hebrew: בֵּית לֶחֶם Bēṯ Leḥem, Modern: Bet Leḥem [bet ˈleχem], lit. "House of Bread"; Ancient Greek: Βηθλεέμ [bɛːtʰle.ém]; Latin: Bethleem) is a Palestinian city located in the central West Bank, Palestine, about 10 kilometers south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. The economy is primarily tourist-driven.

The earliest known mention of the city was in the Amarna correspondence of 1350-1330 BCE during its habitation by the Canaanites. The Hebrew Bible, which says that the city of Bethlehem was built by Rehoboam, identifies it as the city David was from and where he was crowned as the king of Israel. The New Testament identifies Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus. Bethlehem was destroyed by the Emperor Hadrian during the second-century Bar Kokhba revolt; its rebuilding was promoted by Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, who commissioned the building of its great Church of the Nativity in 327 CE. The church was badly damaged by the Samaritans, who sacked it during a revolt in 529, but was rebuilt a century later by Emperor Justinian I.

Bethlehem (disambiguation)

Bethlehem is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank, identified as the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth.

Bethlehem may also refer to :

Other places

Europe

United States of America

Bethlehem (The Original Sins album)

Bethlehem is the eighth studio album by garage rock band The Original Sins, released in 1996 through Bar/None Records. The album shows a change in tone for the band, focusing much more on pop music and psychedelic rock than the energetic garage punk fury from previous releases. The album has been is considered as the band's best, with some describing it as "the band's greatest achievement" and a "great leap-forward".

Track listing

All songs written and composed by John Terlesky. 

Personnel

Performers

Production

References