HISTORY:


The roots of THANATEROS go back to 1999. In this year Ben Richter decided to bring his musical visions to life on his own. He recorded a Demo under the project-name THANATEROS. After leaving the band Evereve he concentrated just on his project THANATEROS.
In 2001 THANATEROS released it's first CD "The First Rite" and the project THANATEROS had finally become a real band.
After the CD-release THANATEROS toured successfully with In Extremo, made their first headliner-club-tour and played lots of festivals.
In 2003 the second album "Circle of Life" was released, on which THANATEROS found its own unique style by combining modern goth/rock/metal with traditional celtic-folk.
In 2005 THANATEROS released its first single "Dirty Old Town" including a video-clip produced by D. Brüggemann (Rammstein, Oomph!) and its third CD "Into the Otherworld".
At the beginning of 2006 THANATEROS changed the line-up. As the new guitar player Maxe Raith, head of the german goth-rock band "The Cascades" joined the band.
2007 Thanateros took a break and worked on new material. Also the line-up changed again. The digi-pipe player Pit - The Cyberpiper - Vinandy came into the band.
After recording the fourth album LIBER LUX in April and May 2008 also Daniel Lechner and Simon Rippin joined THANATEROS as the new bass player and the new "Schlagzeuger". The new CD LIBER LUX was released on April the 3rd.
Early 2010 THANATEROS was disbanded because of family reasons by its founder Ben Richter!




BACKGROUND:


The name comes from the chaos-magic order Illuminates Of Thanateros (IOT) and combines the ancient gods Thanatos (death) and Eros (love). Thanateros is characterised by contrasts. These manifest as well in the music itself as in the relationship between music and thematically background, which deals mainly with magic and shamanic items.
Before the rising of the Christian Church an own pagan kind of shamanism existed in Europe. And so Thanateros try to take advantage by means of analogies and images of the celtic mythology and its spirituality the Celtic Shamanism to illustrate the messages behind the songs. These are based on the personal experiences of Ben Richter, who has done an extensive amount of work on this subject, both theoretically and practically.
Nowadays just people who have a true interest in the pagan roots of Europe have knowledge of this shamanic heritage. Though the traditions of today existing groups cant be traced back to the Middle Ages or even further, they could be called the heirs of this cultural legacy. Because of their intensive interest in this topic and the fact that theyre saving knowledge and ancient techniques that seemed to be lost, they create their own tradition. As an example the Ardaga Order of Neoshamanism and Modern Magic could be mentioned.
Materialism, greed and emotional coldness, superficiality and egoism are chara- cterising our age. An age in which an intact and respectful relationship between man and nature is no more than an illusion and in which mankind seemed to have lost the way to itself. In this age of reason, that claims to be so progressive and enlightened THANATEROS tries to draw attention to our shamanic-magical heritage.
It is about us to take the fortune in our own hands by regaining our inner strength and it depends on everyone to influence the way of thinking by using this power and face the world with love and confidence. Only then we will be able to become aware of the miracles and the beauty of life. And as every wish, every thought involves the possibility to come true it is up to everyone to achieve positive changes by using the inner power.
Of course magic-shamanic topics like trance and voyages into the Otherworld or the dealing with the powers of Mother Earth contrast with the modern spirit of our western culture. But the antithetical relationship between music and thematically background is based just on this contrast. The modern rock/metal music in its unique combination with traditional Irish/Celtic-Folk effectively supports the lyrics with their celtic-pagan, chaos-magical contents.
In this way THANATEROS tries to connect the heritage of a long-gone time that seemed to be lost - the past - with the modern spirit - the present - to turn towards the future with hope and confidence.




Source : http://www.myspace.com/thanateros666