EBM legends Covenant, the band behind dance anthems like Call the Ships to Port, Stalker and Theremin, will be performing in Malta on Saturday.
Beginning, as most bands do, as teenagers fiddling with instruments in their parents’ basement, the earliest incarnations of the band featured, astoundingly, six members.
Over time, the line-up trimmed down to three: vocalist and songwriter Eskil Simonsson, keyboardist and lyricist Joakim Montelius, and keyboardist Clas Nachmanson.
The band’s first release, Dreams of a Cryotank, was an ambitious effort that reflected the influence of visionary works by Ridley Scott and Arthur C. Clarke, and the cold, rhythmic precision of their electronic music forbearers on everything from obvious club tracks to a 23-minute-long ambient noise piece called Cryotank Expansion.
The album spawned an important early club hit for the band, Theremin, a track that can still be heard on dance floors today.
By this point Covenant was already making a name for themselves through their live shows, and early 1995 saw the band sign its first record deal outside of their native Sweden.
Sequencer, the second record, was soon released, arguably one of the band’s greatest works and the vehicle that would launch them onto the international forefront.
Everything about Sequencer was a step forward, from the densely-layered sonic mélange to the emotionally-nuanced lyrics.
Meantime, the band took over Europe and the US.
With tracks like Stalker gaining immense traction in clubs. Years later, after touring extensively with their seventh studio album Modern Ruin, Daniel Myer amicably parted from the band, while Joakim Montelius made the decision to support the band as a studio-only member.
The band’s first release was an ambitious effort that reflected the influence of visionary works by Ridley Scott and Arthur C. Clarke
Keyboardist Daniel Jonasson, co-founder of the Swedish band Duport, and a superstar DJ and prominent concert promoter in his own right, joined. The band released its ninth studio album in November 2016.
The Blinding Dark has been described by Montelius as “a triumphant embrace of the strengths and resilience of the soul, showcasing the dystopian, unforgiving music of the reflective shadows we all carry within us, but often lack the courage to take a good look at. It’s implosive instead of explosive, fuelled by cold fury rather than a roaring fire, as beautiful as a collapsed star”.
From a musical perspective, the album also shows a remarkable development in style, with the Swedish/German outfit perhaps having delivered their artistically most ambitious album yet.
Covenant will be performing on Saturday at The Garage, Żebbuġ. Door open at 9pm. Tickets are available online.
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