ANATHEMA

Anathema is an English band from the city of Liverpool, which, together with Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, helped to develop the death/doom sound, a subgenre of doom metal. However, their album Eternity was a departure from doom and metal, and signaled their transition to atmospheric rock.

Anathema was formed in 1990 as a doom metal band, initially under the name 'Pagan Angel'. In November of that year, the band recorded their first demo, entitled An Iliad of Woes. This demo caught the attention of several bands from the English metal scene, allowing Anathema to play gigs with bands like Bolt Thrower and Paradise Lost.
At the beginning of 1991, the band adopted its current name, and gained a lot of attention with the release of their second demo entitled All Faith Is Lost, resulting in a four-album deal with Peaceville Records. Their first release under the label was The Crestfallen EP in November 1992. They took the material from that album on the road, touring with Cannibal Corpse.
Serenades, Anathema's debut LP, attracted a lot of mainstream attention, propelling their "Sweet Tears" music video onto the MTV playlist.
Anathema's first European tour was in 1994, and was closely followed by gigs at the Independent Rock Festival in Brazil.
In May 1995, vocalist Darren White parted with the band, eventually forming The Blood Divine. Rather than recruiting a new vocalist, the band decided that guitarist Vincent Cavanagh should assume White's role. This new formation debuted by touring with Cathedral in the United Kingdom.

DARKSEED

Darkseed is a German gothic metal band, formed in 1992. Darkseed, beginning as a death metal band, took a more unconventional song writing method that aimed more towards the gothic experimental route. They changed their music to gothic metal on their first studio album Midnight Solemnly Dance.

Early years, death metal era (1992-1994)
Beginning as a death metal band, Darkseed released two demo albums in 1992 and 1993, playing more gothic experimental routes, not wanting to take the traditional methods of generic death metal, followed by their EP, Romantic Tales, in 1994 which was re-issued in 1998.

Stylistic change, mainstream success, break up (1994-2006)
Serenades Records release Darkseed's first full-length studio album, Midnight Solemnly Dancethey in 1996, in which they changed into a gothic metal act. Nuclear Blast caught up with the band in their second release Spellcraft a year later, in which they continued playing gothic metal having influence from heavy metal music. The album was well received and a critical success. They had several line up changes after their underground success, which resulted in Darkseed's year long hiatus. During this period,a re-issued version Romantic Tales was released. Finally, after several line up changes, the band released their third album Give me the Light in 1999, followed by their next album Diving Into Darkness in 2000 which was well-received by the critics. Lead vocalist Stefan Hertrich left the band in 2003, only to return in 2004 to make "Ultimate Darkness", which was released in 2005. In 2006, he and Martin Motnik left the band again, thus effectively forcing the band to disband.