The Vision Bleak is a German

gothic metal Gothic metal (or goth metal) is a fusion genre combining the aggression of heavy metal music, heavy metal with the dark atmospheres of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different ...

duo comprising Ulf Theodor Schwadorf (famous for his work with

Empyrium Empyrium is a German symphonic folk metal, folk/doom metal and (later) neofolk/dark folk band. History Empyrium was founded in 1994 by Markus Stock (musician), Markus Stock (mostly using the pseudonym Ulf Theodor Schwadorf) and Andreas Bach, ...

and

Noekk Noekk is a German progressive metal, progressive doom metal band that is a collaboration of two then former Empyrium members (Markus Stock (musician), Markus Stock, Ulf T. Schwadorf, and Thomas Helm (musician), Thomas Helm). The origin of ...

) and Allen B. Konstanz. The group's lyrics are noted for their

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction **Psychological horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Christmas horror, a subgenre of horror fiction **Analog horror, a subgenre of horror fiction * ...

themes and heavily allude to works of classic writers/filmmakers of the genre, such as

H. P. Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos. Born in Provi ...

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

, George A. Romero and

John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror film, horror, action film, action, and science fiction film, science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is ...

, among others. They self-describe their musical style, which mixes gothic metal,

doom metal Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres.K. Kahn-Harris, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'' ...

symphonic metal Symphonic metal is a cross-genre style designation for the symphonic subsets of heavy metal music subgenres. It is used to denote any metal band that makes use of symphonic or orchestral elements. The style features the heavy drums and guitars ...

and

horror punk Horror punk is a music genre that mixes punk rock and 1950s-influenced doo-wop and rockabilly sounds with morbid and violent imagery and lyrics which are often influenced by horror films and science fiction B-movies. The genre was pioneered by t ...

aesthetics, as "horror metal".

History

The Vision Bleak was formed in 2000, in the

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

n city of

Mellrichstadt Mellrichstadt is a town in the district Rhön-Grabfeld, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated 17 km southwest of Meiningen, and 13 km northeast of Bad Neustadt. It includes the following villages: Bahra, Eußenhausen, Frickenhausen, Mühlfe ...

, by Markus Stock (a.k.a. Ulf Theodor Schwadorf) and Tobias Schönemann (a.k.a. Allen B. Konstanz). Their first release was the independent extended play '' Songs of Good Taste'', which came out in 2001 and contained, among other tracks, a cover of

The Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in May 1964. The band initially consisted of Graeme Edge (drums), Denny Laine (guitar/vocals), Mike Pinder (keyboards/vocals), Ray Thomas (multi-instrumentalist/vocals) and Clint W ...

' "

Nights in White Satin "Nights in White Satin" is a song by English rock band the Moody Blues, written by Justin Hayward. It was first featured as the segment "The Night" on the album '' Days of Future Passed''. When first released as a single in 1967, it reached nu ...

". The EP caught the attention of

Prophecy Productions Prophecy Productions is an international record label, founded in Germany by Martin Koller in 1996. It proclaims promoting "transcendental ..captivating music".

, who approached them to record their first full-length, '' The Deathship Has a New Captain'', on 23 February 2004; counting with a guest appearance by

Dark Sanctuary Dark Sanctuary is a French neoclassical darkwave band that was formed in Paris in 1996. History The band's first official release was a 20-minute single-track music CD, ''Funeral Cry'', released in 1997. At that time, the band consisted of onl ...

vocalist Dame Pandora, it would be their first of many releases under the Prophecy label. A teaser EP containing two tracks which would eventually appear on the album was released the year prior. In 2005 the band released "Carpathia", a promotional single for their then-upcoming second full-length, '' Carpathia: A Dramatic Poem'', which came out on 29 August 2005. On 31 August 2007, the band released their third studio album, '' The Wolves Go Hunt Their Prey'' – it is a loose

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

whose first part is based on the story of the Indian feral girls

Amala and Kamala Amala ( – 21 September 1921) and Kamala ( – 14 November 1929) were two "feral girls" from Midnapore, Bengal (Currently West Bengal), India, who were alleged to have been raised by a wolf family. Their story attracted substantial mainstream ...

, and its second part is mostly composed of the "Black Pharaoh Trilogy", a series of three songs based on

's short story "

The Haunter of the Dark "The Haunter of the Dark" is a horror short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written between 5–9 November 1935 and published in the December 1936 edition of ''Weird Tales'' (Vol. 28, No. 5, p. 538–53). It was the last written ...

". A promo EP which served as a teaser for the album, '' Club Single'', was released the month prior. The band's fourth album, '' Set Sail to Mystery'', came out on 2 April 2010; it would be their first album (and so far only) to not feature a teaser released before it. It is a concept album loosely based on the writings of Romantic poets such as

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; ; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was an outstanding poet, writer, and literary criticism, literary critic of 19th-century German Romanticism. He is best known outside Germany for his ...

and

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...

(its opening track, "A Curse of the Grandest Kind", takes its lyrics from an excerpt of Byron's 1817 dramatic poem ''

Manfred ''Manfred: A dramatic poem'' is a closet drama written in 1816–1817 by Lord Byron. It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of Gothic fiction. Byr ...

'', while "Descend into Maelstrom" references in its lyrics and title Poe's short story "

A Descent into the Maelström "A Descent into the Maelström" is an 1841 short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. In the tale, a man recounts how he survived a shipwreck and a whirlpool. It has been grouped with Poe's tales of ratiocination and also labeled an early f ...

"), and also of

and

Clark Ashton Smith Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893 – August 14, 1961) was an influential American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction stories and poetry, and an artist. He achieved early recognition in California (largely through the enthusiasm ...

Niklas Kvarforth Niklas Olsson (born 7 December 1983), better known as Niklas Kvarforth, is a Swedish musician. He is the founder, composer and vocalist of the black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits ...

of Shining was a guest musician on the album. The band's fifth album, ''

Witching Hour In folklore, the witching hour or devil's hour is a time of night that is associated with supernatural events, whereby witches, demons and ghosts are thought to appear and be at their most powerful. Definitions vary, and include the hour immed ...

'', came out on 27 September 2013. A

stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

for the track "The Wood Hag", directed and animated by

Fursy Teyssier Fursy Teyssier (born 22 September 1985) is a French songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist, animator, and graphic designer. He is most known for being the creator, leader, guitarist, bass guitarist, and lead vocalist of shoegazing band Les Discr ...

, was uploaded on Prophecy's official

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel as a teaser on 4 September. On 31 October 2015, The Vision Bleak announced that they would begin a tour around Europe, accompanied by

John Haughm John Haughm (; born September 14, 1975) is an American musician and artist. He is most known for being the founder, guitarist, and vocalist of the band Agalloch, and later Pillorian. He is also a designer who has created packaging and merchandi ...

Agalloch Agalloch () is an American extreme metal band from Portland, Oregon. Formed in 1995 by frontman John Haughm, they released five full-length albums, four EPs, two singles, one split single, two demos, four compilation albums and one live video a ...

and Danish

death-doom Death-doom (also known as death-doom metal or doom-death) is a fusion genre of death metal and doom metal. It combines the slow tempos and pessimistic or depressive mood of doom metal with the deep death growl, growling vocals and double bass dr ...

band Saturnus, to promote their sixth album, '' The Unknown'', which was released on 3 June 2016. The "Into the Unknown Tour" lasted from 25 March to 20 August 2016. A four-track EP that served as a teaser to ''The Unknown'', entitled '' The Kindred of the Sunset'', was announced on 21 February 2016 and eventually released on 25 March. As a means to celebrate their 16th anniversary, and to introduce newcomers to their music, the band also released a

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

entitled '' Timeline: An Introduction to The Vision Bleak'' as a companion to ''The Unknown''. On 27 December 2015, the band stated that Fursy Teyssier officially joined them as bassist for future live performances. Teyssier stayed with the band until 2017. The Vision Bleak's first studio album in eight years, ''Weird Tales'', is due for release on April 12, 2024.

Band members

Line-up

* Ulf Theodor Schwadorf (a.k.a. "Markus Stock") – vocals, electric guitars, electric bass guitar, electronic keyboards (2000–present) * Allen B. Konstanz (a.k.a. "Tobias Schönemann") – vocals, drum kit, electronic keyboards (2000–present)

Live musicians

– electric bass guitar (2015–2017)

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Compilations

Singles

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vision Bleak, The German gothic metal musical groups Musical groups established in 2000 2000 establishments in Germany Cthulhu Mythos music German musical duos Prophecy Productions artists