After a long pause, here's the letter K!
The band:
Keep of Kalessin is an extreme metal band from Trondheim, Norway formed in 1993. The name comes from a series of books called "Earthsea" (by Ursula K. Le Guin), where Kalessin is the name of the arch-dragon who is the bearer of the Earthsea world.
The original line-up consisted of Obsidian C (guitars, synths), Warach (bass), Ghâsh (vocals) and Vyl (drums). They recorded two albums - Through Times of War (released 1997) and Agnen: A Journey Through the Dark (1999)
Unlike most black metal bands, Keep of Kalessin is in its harshness still melodic and technically oriented. In contrast to traditional Norwegian black metal, Keep of Kalessin also make use of other instruments like the piano, keyboards and synthesizers. They started experimenting with a new sound which gave Keep of Kalessin its new character after Obsidian C. (the band founder) recruited the new band-members Thebon, Wizziac and Vyl for their album Armada in 2006 (Obsidian C. toured with Satyricon for a while, so Keep of Kalessin wasn't active during that time).
In 2007 the album "Kolossus" was recorded; it was released in the summer of 2008, demonstrating the band improved their sound after the well received and highly acclaimed release Armada in 2006 which even got some good attention from the more mainstream media in Norway. This resulted in a nomination for the "Spellemannprisen" in the metal category in 2008. On Kolossus they started to experiment more with different instruments and the band indeed created a unique character for Keep of Kalessin.
In 2010, Keep of Kalessin entered a song in the Melodi Grand Prix, the annual competition to select Norway's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, which was hosted by the country due to its victory in the 2009 content, becoming the first heavy metal band to vie in the competition. The band performed their new song, "The Dragontower", in the first of 3 semi-final rounds and advanced to the Gold Final round, where the band finished in 3rd place overall through a combined viewer and jury vote.
Also in 2010, the album "Reptilian" was released.
The song:
Here's a live version of "The Dragontower". Funny to see a Metal Band performing in a song contest, lol.
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The cover:
kinggila
Haha, I remember the bitching from some metal elitists when The Dragontower was a song for Eurovision. They weren't happy one bit. Then again, neither was Abbath.
Haggard
Abbath just isn't happy because he still didn't manage to cover the whole world in permafrost.