Members: (From left to right) • Sterghios (drums) • Ilia (guitars, vocals) • Kostas (vocals, keyboards) • Andy (ex-vocals) • Pete (ex-guitars) • Mark (bass, vocals)
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Pantheist started out in early 2000 in Belgium as an-one man project by Kostas. Soon Nicolas joined him. After experimenting with dark synth music at first, Kostas and Nicolas turned their attention to slow, dark music of a metallic kind. In November/December 2001 Pantheist entered the Templa Libitina studio of fellow doomster Stijn van Cauter from Until Death Overtakes Me and recorded with the assistance of a session bass player a first demo called '1000 years'. The demo drew the attention of other musicians who joined the band, as well as of labels and the Finnish Firebox records offered Pantheist a two-album deal. The band entered the studio in January 2003 for the recording of a first album called 'O Solitude'. The release of 'O solitude' received worldwide acclaim from the underground media, establishing Pantheist as a force to be reckoned with in the doom scene. Several live performances in west Europe followed, with the likes of Morgion, Evoken, Mourning Beloveth, Skepticism, While Heaven Wept, Esoteric and Until Death Overtakes Me. In May 2004 Kostas decided to move the band to the United Kingdom due to the geographical distance with the other band members. As in the early days, the band became again a two-man studio project, but Kostas and Nicolas saw soon two talented musicians join their ranks, namely Andy and Mark, at the time both in Esoteric. With this line-up, the band recorded at The Lodge studios, Northampton 'Amartia'. The album was released in April 2005 by Firedoom and took the band’s sound to whole new dimensions of oppressive, emotional music with a mystical atmosphere. After the recordings, the band’s line-up was bolstered with the addition of guitarist Ilia (Indesinence). In June 2005, Sterghios (The Lost Legion) joined Pantheist on drums. A few months earlier, Russian underground label Serpent’s Lair Productions had contacted the band and offered to release a combination of new, old and re-recorded material. So in July 2005, Pantheist entered The Lodge again to create two new lengthy compositions. At the same time, a cover of Katatonia’s ‘For funerals to come’ was recorded at Priory Studios, Birmingham and engineered by Greg Chandler. The tracks were released in addition to the band’s '1000 years' re-mastered demo as well as a live video recorded in Belgium in October 2003. The result was the EP ‘The pains of sleep’, a very diverse yet coherent collection of tracks covering all stages of the band’s history. With the addition of guitarist Pete (Concept, For the Blind) Pantheist have started again to take their dark funereal music on stage, with various gigs in the UK, Belgium and The Netherlands as a result.
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