Ninkharsag was originally a solo project that arose in early 2009 and the full band was finally formed in early 2011. All members have been in various other bands, some of which have seen some success but we are looking to the future now and past bands are not relevant to this project and we will not revel in old glories. The members are:

Paul Armistead: Lead Guitar

Kyle Nesbitt: Vocals/Rhythm Guitar

Jay Pipprell: Drums

Steve Churchill: Bass

We have already had the pleasure of supporting Bal-Sagoth, Eastern front, Old Corpse Road, Ancient Ascendant and Primitive Graven Image with other shows confirmed with acts such as Ingested, Astrohenge, merciless Savage plus more. We have played two Terrorizer sponsored shows both being a success. 

Our style is Black Metal. No gimmicks and no nonsense. Our aim is to create authentic music in the vein of the early and middle Black Metal masters such as Bathory, Venom, Mayhem, and Emperor. Lyrically we are interested in occult philosophies, ancient and alternative history, classic literature and science. The work of Manly P. Hall and Aleister Crowley both hold particular interest in terms of lyrical subject matter.

We also strongly recommend checking out the following bands: Dragged Into Sunlight, Wodensthrone, Winterfylleth and Horsebastard.

We believe that metal music is transparent. You can see at once whether it is made with integrity or not and we have no desire to release something that we as fans of metal music, would want not to listen to ourselves. Black Metal music should be made with passion and that is exactly what we are doing.  The UK Black Metal scene has been very welcoming to us in the little time that we have been together which is great for a new band and there is a definite community feel to the scene. We are starting to be recommended by other bands to promoters which must mean we are doing something right!

We only have one release at present which is a promotional demo entitled ‘Destroyed By Design’ which we recorded ourselves. So far it has picked up some positive feedback which is excellent. UK Extreme Metal said ‘if the band continues to write such well-crafted black metal songs, they can’t fail to impress’. We have been fortunate to have a track included on the upcoming UKEM ‘Disciples of Extremity Vol. 2’ compilation album too. We are waiting to hear feedback from Zines as far afield as New York, Russia and France so time will tell what people think of the material in other places around the globe.

We do play live and have had some high quality support slots such as the ones mentioned prior. The reception we received from each show has been really positive and people seem to enjoy it which is the most important thing for us at the moment. We do not wear corpse paint or other gimmickry on stage and I feel people accept this as us wanting the music to speak for itself. 

We are trying to do something different than the other bands in the UK black metal circle. We’ve only been together in this incarnation for a few months but collectively we have years of experience of playing in black/death bands so all know what we are trying to achieve and how to go about it. None of us are strangers to the tour circuit so we are well versed in what to expect and are ready to give it our all in whatever situation arises. 

We are currently writing the last few songs of our yet untitled debut album and rehearsing for a few gigs we have coming up in the next few months. We are hoping to record the album this winter which we will probably produce ourselves. Well that is unless some willing record label steps in before then...

You can listen to our music on either our Website/Facebook/Myspace pages or you can buy the demo CD and t-shirt from our Big Cartel online shop.  The addresses of which are:

Or you can come and see us in the flesh...

September 2011