Gehenna was formed in January 1993 as a nameless project by Sanrabb, Dolgar and Sir Vereda. They didn't give the band a name until they had enough material which would represent their voice. In May of the same year, the trio entered the studio to record a Demo. Sanrabb and Dolgar shared the duty of guitars, vocals, bass and synth, while Sir Vereda took his seat behind the drum set.
The demo was recorded between the 3rd and 7th of June 1993 in Soundsuite Studios. It was released under The name "Black Seared Heart" as a tape limited to 100 copies.
Two tracks("Angelwings and Ravenclaws" and "Black Seared Heart") were taken from this demo, and released as a limited 7" by dutch Necromantic Gallery Productions. The 7" was entitled "Ancestors of The Darkly Sky", and was limited to 1000 copies.
Not long after these items were released, Sir Vereda had some problems with law and ended up in prison... The band started looking for a drummer and they were introduced to Dirge Rep by a mutual friend. The band also found a bass player, Svartalv, also introduced to them by a friend. This enabled Sanrabb and Dolgar to spend more time working on the music.
In January, the band entered the studio to record a full length album, but after a short while they cancelled the recordings. From this recording 3 songs were made in raw versions, meaning there were only guitars, bass and drums. The songs are "A Witch Is Born", "Nights of The Serpents Judgement" and "Angelwings And Ravenclaws". The songs were later re-recorded when Sarcana joined the band, and were released on other albums. The old versions were also released on the re-release of "Black Seared Heart" on Holycaust records in 1996.
The band rehearsed and prepared to do live shows. And in Febuary 1994 the band went onstage for the very first time. During this show a dark soul watched the band from the crowd. This soul was very impressed and made contact with the band and suggested to join the band as a keyboard player.... That soul was Sarcana.
Shortly after the arrival of Sarcana, the band headed into the studio once again to record their debut album. The band's "First Spell" was released as an MCD on Head Not Found, recorded in Soundsuite Studios, during March of `94
After the release of "First Spell", the band got signed to the english label "Cacophonous Records" for a 2 album deal, and the band entered Soundsuite Studios to record their second album, during March & April 1995. This time Sanrabb wasn't the only being behind the desk writing the music. He was joined by Sarcana and Dolgar in writing The music. This added more emotion to the music as can clearly be heard on the band's Second Spell "Seen Through The veils of Darkness" which saw the light of day in 1995. On this release a guest appearance was made by Garm of Arcturus and Ulver doing vocals on one of the tracks.
The band's "Second Spell" turned a lot of heads and proved they were one of the leading forces of the norwegian black metal scene. After this scene was completed, Svartalv decided to move from Stavanger to Oslo, which is about 6-8 hours by car... Due to that he was unable to stay with the band and left. He is now in another band called Nokturnal Breed, which is located in Oslo, and is doing well.
The band needed a new bass player for the next album. They had known a bass player called Noctifer since the start of the band, but he had never joined them... So they asked if he would join them about 6 months before recording the new album, and he accepted it. The band had a new bass player. But when the band entered the studio in July 1996 and started recording the new album, it became clear that the hectic schedule of a band was all too much for Noctifer and he left. And that after the band had only recorded one song.
The band had known E.N. Death, from "122 Stab Wounds", and asked him to play on this album as a session member. Everything turned out well and E.N. Death was also asked to tour with the band, which also went great. Then he was asked to join them as a full time member.
"Malice" (the 3rd spell) was also released on Cacophonous Records. The album was recorded in Soundsuite Studios during the months of July and August 1996.
The band went on some tours before settling down to record a new album. After the tours though, the band lost 2 of its members: Sarcana, who felt she didnt have anything left to offer to the band musically, and she left to try out a techno project, or somehting like that.... and Dirge Rep left as he and Sanrabb couldn't get along well, they argued too much. Dirge Rep left and joined Enslaved who are from the same Town as Gehenne.
The position of Sarcana was taken up by Damien....
Sanrabb had heard of a drummer called Blod, and asked Blod if he could come into the studio with the band to lay down some drum tracks for the upcoming release. The band decided to rehearse a bit with Blod and they ended up being really satisfied with him and asked him to be a full time member, to which Blod fully agreed.
The band once again being a 5 piece were able to return to the studio... Their music style had changed alot with the departure of Sarcana. The music got more brutal, also due to Blod's background as he played in death metal bands before. The band decided to do something new and they released a limited edition single to give their fans a taster of what was about to come. On the single the band featured a song off the upcoming album, and a song they wrote which they thought differed too much from the other material to appear on the album, and the third track was a song from the "Malice" sessions.
The title of this single is "Deadlights" and was recorded in the Soundsuite Studios, the same studio in which they recorded the upcoming album, "Adimiron Black"... The album was recorded in the first two months of 1998, and had 2 guest appearances by Sarcana on the album's title track and "Eater of The Dead".
Blod has also joined Sanrabb's side project "Forlorn" but Sanrabb has left "Forlorn" in the last few months to spend more work on the Gehenna material....