Astennu (musician)
Encyclopedia
Astennu is the professional name of Australia
n heavy metal
musician Jamie Stinson. His name is derived from a creature in Egyptian mythology
.
ist and songwriter for the Australian black metal
band Lord Kaos
. The band recorded both the demo "Path to My Funeral Light" and a full-length album Thorns of Impurity in 1995. Before the album's release Astennu went to Norway
and found interest in the album from Head Not Found Records however the other members of the band decided to remain in Australia and Thorns of Impurity was released by Sydney label Warhead Records
in 1996. Astennu stayed in Norway and reworked some music he had written for Lord Kaos into songs for a solo project called Carpe Tenebrum
.
The first Carpe Tenebrum album Majestic Nothingness featured Astennu on all instrumentation with vocals
from Nagash
of Dimmu Borgir
and The Kovenant
. It was released in 1997. Later the same year, Astennu joined Dimmu Borgir on guitar, freeing Shagrath
to concentrate on vocals. Astennu's first recording with the band was the 1998 EP "Godless Savage Garden
". He was also a member of Nagash's other band, The Kovenant
, at that time and was featured on the band's 1998 album Nexus Polaris
. He also contributed some guitar solos to the album Aggressor and the EP "Triumph of the Blasphemer" by Nocturnal Breed
, a band that also featured Dimmu Borgir's other guitarist Silenoz
.
A second Carpe Tenebrum album, Mirrored Hate Painting, again featuring Nagash, was appeared in 1999. Astennu's second album with Dimmu Borgir, Spiritual Black Dimensions
was released the same year, on 1 March. During the tour in support of the album, Astennu was fired from Dimmu Borgir and returned to Australia in late 1999.
Once back in Australia, Astennu worked as a live sound engineer for a number of bands on the Sydney heavy metal scene and also acted as mixer, engineer and producer on a number of albums and releases. In 2002 he recorded and released a third Carpe Tenebrum album, Dreaded Chaotic Reign, this time performing vocals himself. Dreaded Chaotic Reign was a death metal
album whereas previous Carpe Tenebrum recordings had been black metal. In May 2003, Astennu returned to the live circuit with Sydney band Infernal Method
, for whom he had been engineering for several months. Early the following year he and Infernal Method drummer
Graham Goode joined a hardcore band called Stronger Than Hate but by the end of the year both that band and Infernal Method had disbanded. Since then Astennu has not played live with a band but continues to work in the field of sound engineering.
with Dimmu Borgir
with Covenant
with Nocturnal Breed
(as guest)
with Carpe Tenebrum
He also has a little sister named Cassie.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
musician Jamie Stinson. His name is derived from a creature in Egyptian mythology
Astennu
In Egyptian mythology, Astennu refers to a baboon associated with Thoth. It was also stated that Astennu was merely another aspect of Thoth, as the god could take the form of a baboon...
.
Biography
Astennu first came to notice as the guitarGuitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist and songwriter for the Australian black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
band Lord Kaos
Lord Kaos
Lord Kaos was an Australian black metal band that formed in Sydney in 1994. For several years the group was the most prominent act of its style in the country with one founding member going on to record and perform with several Norwegian black metal bands including Dimmu Borgir...
. The band recorded both the demo "Path to My Funeral Light" and a full-length album Thorns of Impurity in 1995. Before the album's release Astennu went to Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and found interest in the album from Head Not Found Records however the other members of the band decided to remain in Australia and Thorns of Impurity was released by Sydney label Warhead Records
Warhead Records
Warhead Records was an independent record label based in Sydney, Australia that specialised in releasing albums by Australian heavy metal bands. It was formed in 1992 by British migrant Brad Sims and Julie Martin who began by selling demo tapes of local bands at heavy metal shows at Sydney's...
in 1996. Astennu stayed in Norway and reworked some music he had written for Lord Kaos into songs for a solo project called Carpe Tenebrum
Carpe Tenebrum
Carpe Tenebrum is a black metal solo project of the former Dimmu Borgir and Covenant guitarist Jamie Stinson, better known as Astennu...
.
The first Carpe Tenebrum album Majestic Nothingness featured Astennu on all instrumentation with vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
from Nagash
Stian Arnesen
Nagash or Lex Icon is a Norwegian black metal musician. He plays guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and does vocals....
of Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir is a Norwegian black metal band from Oslo, Norway, formed in 1993. Dimmu borgir means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic, Faroese and Old Norse. The name is derived from a volcanic formation in Iceland, Dimmuborgir...
and The Kovenant
The Kovenant
The Kovenant is a Norwegian black metal band from Oslo/Hamar. The band originally formed as Covenant in 1993, but in 1999 were forced to change their name to The Kovenant due to a dispute with a Swedish electronic band of the same name....
. It was released in 1997. Later the same year, Astennu joined Dimmu Borgir on guitar, freeing Shagrath
Shagrath
Shagrath is a Norwegian musician best known as the vocalist of Dimmu Borgir.-Biography:Stian Thoresen was born on November 18, 1976 in Jessheim, outside of Oslo, Norway....
to concentrate on vocals. Astennu's first recording with the band was the 1998 EP "Godless Savage Garden
Godless Savage Garden
Godless Savage Garden is a compilation album by Norwegian black metal band Dimmu Borgir. It was released in 1998 by Nuclear Blast and re-released on 3 October 2006 with 2 bonus tracks....
". He was also a member of Nagash's other band, The Kovenant
The Kovenant
The Kovenant is a Norwegian black metal band from Oslo/Hamar. The band originally formed as Covenant in 1993, but in 1999 were forced to change their name to The Kovenant due to a dispute with a Swedish electronic band of the same name....
, at that time and was featured on the band's 1998 album Nexus Polaris
Nexus Polaris
Nexus Polaris is the second album recorded by Norwegian black metal band, The Kovenant, and was released in 1998 through Nuclear Blast.- Album history :...
. He also contributed some guitar solos to the album Aggressor and the EP "Triumph of the Blasphemer" by Nocturnal Breed
Nocturnal Breed
Nocturnal Breed is a Norwegian thrash metal band, formed in Oslo in 1996 by singer/bassist Kenneth Svartalv and guitarist Sven Atle Kopperud .-Members:*S.A. Destroyer : vocals/bass...
, a band that also featured Dimmu Borgir's other guitarist Silenoz
Silenoz
Silenoz , is a Norwegian guitarist who is a founding member, along with Shagrath and Tjodalv, of the Norwegian symphonic black metal band Dimmu Borgir which he is the primary songwriter...
.
A second Carpe Tenebrum album, Mirrored Hate Painting, again featuring Nagash, was appeared in 1999. Astennu's second album with Dimmu Borgir, Spiritual Black Dimensions
Spiritual Black Dimensions
-Personnel:Dimmu Borgir*Shagrath - lead vocals*Silenoz - rhythm guitar*Astennu - lead guitar*Nagash - bass, backing vocals*Tjodalv - drums*Mustis - synthesizers, pianoGuests*ICS Vortex - clean vocals on tracks 1,3,7,9*Peter Tagtgren - Engineering and mix...
was released the same year, on 1 March. During the tour in support of the album, Astennu was fired from Dimmu Borgir and returned to Australia in late 1999.
Once back in Australia, Astennu worked as a live sound engineer for a number of bands on the Sydney heavy metal scene and also acted as mixer, engineer and producer on a number of albums and releases. In 2002 he recorded and released a third Carpe Tenebrum album, Dreaded Chaotic Reign, this time performing vocals himself. Dreaded Chaotic Reign was a death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
album whereas previous Carpe Tenebrum recordings had been black metal. In May 2003, Astennu returned to the live circuit with Sydney band Infernal Method
Infernal Method (band)
Infernal Method was a melodic death metal band from Sydney, Australia. Despite the volatility of its line-up, the band was a dominant presence on Sydney's live metal music scene between early 2002 and late 2006 and notable for featuring an array of members who came from or later joined other bands...
, for whom he had been engineering for several months. Early the following year he and Infernal Method drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
Graham Goode joined a hardcore band called Stronger Than Hate but by the end of the year both that band and Infernal Method had disbanded. Since then Astennu has not played live with a band but continues to work in the field of sound engineering.
Discography
with Lord KaosLord Kaos
Lord Kaos was an Australian black metal band that formed in Sydney in 1994. For several years the group was the most prominent act of its style in the country with one founding member going on to record and perform with several Norwegian black metal bands including Dimmu Borgir...
- Thorns of Impurity (Warhead RecordsWarhead RecordsWarhead Records was an independent record label based in Sydney, Australia that specialised in releasing albums by Australian heavy metal bands. It was formed in 1992 by British migrant Brad Sims and Julie Martin who began by selling demo tapes of local bands at heavy metal shows at Sydney's...
, 1996)
with Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir is a Norwegian black metal band from Oslo, Norway, formed in 1993. Dimmu borgir means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic, Faroese and Old Norse. The name is derived from a volcanic formation in Iceland, Dimmuborgir...
- Godless Savage GardenGodless Savage GardenGodless Savage Garden is a compilation album by Norwegian black metal band Dimmu Borgir. It was released in 1998 by Nuclear Blast and re-released on 3 October 2006 with 2 bonus tracks....
(Nuclear BlastNuclear BlastNuclear Blast is an independent record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The record label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label moved on to releasing albums by melodic...
, 1998) - Spiritual Black DimensionsSpiritual Black Dimensions-Personnel:Dimmu Borgir*Shagrath - lead vocals*Silenoz - rhythm guitar*Astennu - lead guitar*Nagash - bass, backing vocals*Tjodalv - drums*Mustis - synthesizers, pianoGuests*ICS Vortex - clean vocals on tracks 1,3,7,9*Peter Tagtgren - Engineering and mix...
(Nuclear Blast, 1999)
with Covenant
The Kovenant
The Kovenant is a Norwegian black metal band from Oslo/Hamar. The band originally formed as Covenant in 1993, but in 1999 were forced to change their name to The Kovenant due to a dispute with a Swedish electronic band of the same name....
- Nexus PolarisNexus PolarisNexus Polaris is the second album recorded by Norwegian black metal band, The Kovenant, and was released in 1998 through Nuclear Blast.- Album history :...
(Nuclear Blast, 1998)
with Nocturnal Breed
Nocturnal Breed
Nocturnal Breed is a Norwegian thrash metal band, formed in Oslo in 1996 by singer/bassist Kenneth Svartalv and guitarist Sven Atle Kopperud .-Members:*S.A. Destroyer : vocals/bass...
(as guest)
- Aggressor (Hammerheart Records, 1997)
- "Triumph of the Blasphemer" (Hammerheart Records, 1998)
with Carpe Tenebrum
- Majestic Nothingness (Head Not FoundHead Not FoundHead Not Found is a Norwegian record label, a sublabel of Voices Music & Entertainment, specialising in various heavy metal subgenres.-Artists:The following artists released their albums through Head Not Found:* Atrox* Carpe Tenebrum* Enslavement of Beauty...
, 1997) - Mirrored Hate PaintingMirrored Hate PaintingMirrored Hate Painting is the second album of Carpe Tenebrum, released in 1999 through Hammerheart Records. Stylistically the album is similar to Dimmu Borgir's Spiritual Black Dimensions , albeit heavier and less symphonic...
(Head Not FoundHead Not FoundHead Not Found is a Norwegian record label, a sublabel of Voices Music & Entertainment, specialising in various heavy metal subgenres.-Artists:The following artists released their albums through Head Not Found:* Atrox* Carpe Tenebrum* Enslavement of Beauty...
, 1999) - Dreaded Chaotic Reign (Hammerheart Records, 2002)
He also has a little sister named Cassie.