It all begun in 1993, When Lex Icon (a.k.a Nagash) and Psy Coma
(f.k.a Blackheart) started to put together low budget demos, which
resulted in the first album "In times before the light" in 1995.The
music was atmospheric Black Metal with lots of melodies. They got
the reputation of being the most prominent act in the norwegian
metal scene. Unfortunately, at the time their record label did not
see the greatness in their music . The album was not officially
released until early 1997 on a small record company called
Mordgrimm (in england). Lex and Psy had greater visions for their
music, they now recruited three new members to form a band.
Hellhammer (from Mayhem) on drums, Astennu (from Carpe Tenebrum and
Dimmu Borgir) on 2nd Guitar and Sverd (from Arcturus) on Keyboards.
In addition they also hired Sarah Jezebel Deva (from Therion and
Cradle of Filth) on Starsong for the next album, the now classic
album "Nexus Polaris" in 1998 (on Nuclear Blast) ,A masterpiece, a
brilliant performance in musicianship. The album was filled with
progressive dark pulsing atmospheric metal. As Psy described their
music; "Progressive Space Metal", he couldn?t be more right. This
is the one you should buy. In addition, it?s got the most beautiful
cover in the music history, by Andreas Marshall. Nexus Polaris
became a hit, sold over 15000 copies only in the first week when it
was released in February 1998. They followed up with a two week
promotion tour, where they found themselves one of the biggest
bands in the extreme metal scene. They also appeared on the
Norwegian national TV with their six-episode tour documentary. They
where now ready to rule the world. Unfortunately, Sverd had to part
from the band, due to some personal problems and musical
differences with the other guys in the band, at the time. They
hired a keyboard player (a session musician) and followed up their
success.
They did some summer festivals and ended the tour in a bombastic
way, headlining the Iilosaari Rock Festival in Finland in front of
20000 people. Nagash now left Dimmu Borgir to concentrate on
Covenant full time. Now, they started to work on new material for
their upcoming album. During their work they found themselves
nominated for a Grammy in Norway, for the best hardrock album of
the year. They did not only attend the Grammy TV Show, they also
won the Grammy, as the first extreme metal band ever. During the
work of their next album they where standing infront of a law suite
according to the name of the band. There is a swedish
electronic/synth band called "Covenant" so they where forged to
change the spelling of the name to "Kovenant". With the new "name"
and new musical direction, they parted with Astennu, who wanted to
concentrate on Dimmu Borgir at that time and fired Sara Jezebel
Deva. With all the new things to the band they decided to go all
the way. Spelling KOVENANT, a new logo and even changed their own
names too, to; Lex Icon (Nagash) Psy Coma (Blackheart) Von Blomberg
(Hellhammer) The new album took three month to record, "Prophecies
Of Fire" was the working title of the album. Then they finally
released the most uniqe album they ever recorded at that time -
"ANIMATRONIC" in October 1999. The album is an amazing sounding
album, with a very strong sound and full of creativity. Their old
sound from the black metal days are still there but mixed with the
industrial sounds of today. A new guitarist, Angel, joined the band
before the US tour 2000.
During May 2000 they completed their first US tour successfully,
and with the new member, they headed for the european market with
festivals and a tour in October with huge success. While preparing
for the next full length album, Lex and Psy decided to give their
first release a second chance. They did a total make-over of the
album, with new drum sounds, new synthesizers and programming and
lots of new effects. That old classic black metal album meets the
new more electronic Kovenant succesfully and was released in 2002.
In April 2003 the band released S.E.T.I. (working title
"Cybertrash") the long awaited full length album to follow up the
success with Animatronic. They continued with the more electronic
sound, but the album has a more darker atmosphere than the
previous. The fans could expect some surprices and they weren?t
dissapointed. This was the Kovenant of the future...and the search
for extra terrestrial intelligence had only begun. By the release
of S.E.T.I. Von Blomberg left the band due to lack of time, as you
might know he is involved with loads of other bands and projects.
During the summer The Kovenant recruited two new members; K? drums
(of Ram-Zet) and Brat on Keyboards and Live Effects (of Apoptygma
Berzerk) The Kovenant also celebrated their 10th Anniversery as a
band in 2003!!!.