MANIMALISM / EX TAARENES VAAR

Experimental/Post Metal • Norway

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Manimalism / ex Taarenes Vaar biography
Manimalism are a Norwegian progressive black metal band from Oslo, founded in 1992 as Taarenes Vaar before changing their name to -M- from 2002 to 2013, and settling on their final form in 2014. The sole constant member throughout each iteration has been Kim S�lve Madsen, who also spearheads post-industrial projects Swarms and Blitzkrieg Baby, and co-owns both the Trine + Kim Editions record label (formerly Adversum) and visual operation Trine + Kim Design Studio with partner Trine Paulsen. With Madsen the chief guitarist, songwriter and lyricist, he was accompanied in Taarenes Vaar by percussionist/keyboardist Anders Brun�s and the vocalist known only as S.. During the band's tenure as -M-, Madsen operated as a duo with his Swarms bandmate Bj�rge Eide Martinsen on drums; the two also founded the thrash-minded project Delirium Bound in 2005, which lasted until 2013 and yielded the 2010 LP Delirium, Dissonance and Death. Upon becoming Manimalism, Madsen and Martinsen were joined by their auxiliary Delirium Bound partners: bassist Petter Berntsen (formerly of Ved Buens Ende and Virus) and vocalists Joachim Svebo and Fredrik Guldberg Fugelli (of The Konsortium).

Taarenes Vaar's style was an avant-garde and doom-inspired interpretation of second-wave black metal, somewhere in the vicinity of their friends Fleurety and Ved Buens Ende, resulting in only two limited-run demo cassettes and a compilation appearance between 1996 and 1998. The band initiated recording their debut full-length in 1999 but left it incomplete due to Madsen's displeasure, and the album would be re-recorded multiple times over the years with different drummers, most notably Ved Buens Ende/Virus' Carl-Michael Eide. Taarenes Vaar's long-gestating material finally saw the light of day in 2014 with their eponymous album released through Adversum, with the harsh vocals of their early incarnation replaced by a cleanly-sung Scott Walker-esque baritone, supported by a foundation of gothic and post-punk-inspired black metal. The band's English-language lyrics address, as Madsen cryptically explained, "Death. Sex. Violence. The animal in Man."

In 2015, Taarenes Vaar's early tapes were combined with rare and unreleased tracks on the compilation Demo Sessions 1996-1998, issued by Kyrck Productions & Armour. According to Madsen as of late 2020, the group are still writing their sophomore LP.

Manimalism and their predecessor will appeal to fans of Virus, Fleurety, Hail Spirit Noir, ...Manimalism are a Norwegian progressive black metal band from Oslo, founded in 1992 as Taarenes Vaar before changing their name to -M- from 2002 to 2013, and settling on their final form in 2014. The sole constant member throughout each iteration has been Kim S�lve Madsen, who also spearheads post-industrial projects Swarms and Blitzkrieg Baby, and co-owns both the Trine + Kim Editions record label (formerly Adversum) and visual operation Trine + Kim Design Studio with partner Trine Paulsen. With Madsen the chief guitarist, songwriter and lyricist, he was accompanied in Taarenes Vaar by percussionist/keyboardist Anders Brun�s and the vocalist known only as S.. During the band's tenure as -M-, Madsen operated as a duo with his Swarms bandmate Bj�rge Eide Martinsen on drums; the two also founded the thrash-minded project Delirium Bound in 2005, which lasted until 2013 and yielded the 2010 LP Delirium, Dissonance and Death. Upon becoming Manimalism, Madsen and Martinsen were joined by their auxiliary Delirium Bound partners: bassist Petter Berntsen (formerly of Ved Buens Ende and Virus) and vocalists Joachim Svebo and Fredrik Guldberg Fugelli (of The Konsortium).

Taarenes Vaar's style was an avant-garde and doom-inspired interpretation of second-wave black metal, somewhere in the vicinity of their friends Fleurety and Ved Buens Ende, resulting in only two limited-run demo cassettes and a compilation appearance between 1996 and 1998. The band initiated recording their debut full-length in 1999 but left it incomplete due to Madsen's displeasure, and the album would be re-recorded multiple times over the years with different drummers, most notably Ved Buens Ende/Virus' Carl-Michael Eide. Taarenes Vaar's long-gestating material finally saw the light of day in 2014 with their eponymous album released through Adversum, with the harsh vocals of their early incarnation replaced by a cleanly-sung Scott Walker-esque baritone, supported by a foundation of gothic and post-punk-inspired black metal. The band's English-language lyrics address, as Madsen cryptically explained, "Death. Sex. Violence. The animal in Man."

In 2015, Taarenes Vaar's early tapes were combined with rare and unreleased tracks on the compilation Demo Sessions 1996-1998, issued by Kyrck Productions & Armour. According to Madsen as of late 2020, the group are still writing their sophomore LP.

Manimalism and their predecessor will appeal to fans of Virus, Fleurety, Hail Spirit Noir, Manes, Whirling and Thorns.

- Gordy, April 2025read more