Christianity: Details about 'Extol'
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Extol is a Christian metal band from Norway. They are known as a technical metal band in the Christian metal scene. They started out playing black metal, moved to death metal later on, and more recently have been playing thrash metal.
History / BiographyExtol was formed in 1993 by drummer David Husvik and guitarist Christer Espevoll, who had been playing together and wanted to start a band. Peter Espevoll became their vocalist. In 1994, bassist Eystein Holm joined the band just before their first gig. Emil Nikolaisen joined as a second guitarist in 1995. In 1996, they recorded for Norwegian metal compilation, Northern Lights. Later that year they recorded "Embraced", a short demo. Ole Børud soon replaced Emil, who wanted to give more attention to his other band, Royal, on guitar. In 1997, Extol recorded Burial, the band's first full album. They signed with Endtime Productions in 1998. The next year, they released the EP, Mesmerized, which featured three industrial remixes of songs from Burial. Eystein was replaced by Tor Magne Glidje on bass. They later recorded Undeceived, which was much darker and more intense. Then, Ole left the band, so Tor Magne switched over to guitar, and Jon Robert Mjåland joined as bassist. In 2001 another EP, Paralysis was recorded; it was only released in Sweden. This EP featured a cover of "Shadow of Death" by Believer, who the band considers to be a great influence. After Paralysis, Tor Magne left the band to focus on his other project, Lengsel, and Ole returned to the line-up. After Undeceived was released, Extol was no longer obligated to Endtime, and they signed with Century Media in 2002. Their album Synergy, released in 2003, showed an even greater appreciation of the band Believer. The music on the album is very similar to Believer's style of thrash metal. In June of 2004, Ole Børud and Christer Espevoll left Extol to "invest their time and energy elsewhere". Taking their place as permanent members in the band are the return of Tor Magne Glidje and also Ole Halvard Sveen, both from Ganglion, an Extol-side project that merged with Extol when four out of five bandmembers ended up playing in both bands. In 2005, the band released what could be considered their most diverse album in The Blueprint Dives, or "Blueprint" for short. The album was nominated for the Norwegian Grammy, Spellemannsprisen, for best Norwegian metal album in 2005. Discography
Side projectsTor Magne Glidje, Jon Robert Mjåland, and Ole Halvard Sveen are the sole members of Lengsel, a progressive black metal band that formed in 1995 and released one album, called Solace, on Solid State Records. As of 2006, they are working on a second album, Hell Calls Hell.
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