BLACK OMEN

DETAILED BIOGRAPHY

In a small, cold town called Eskişehir in Turkey, a musical thought of descents into sadness and anger was been started.

Before the foundation of this thought, guitar player Baran Akalın and keyboardist Yiğit Güler was playing together in a doom metal band called “Sorrowful Lies”. In 2000, after “Sorrowful Lies” had broken up, Baran Akalın had a genuine genre of music in his mind and started the new compositions with Yiğit Güler. Thereabouts, Serkan Kaya and Gökhan Korkmaz was also composing their own music for black metal genre, waiting to form a band in the near future. Serkan Kaya, who had met Yiğit Güler, by the agency of his friend Baran Akalın, put his own compositions aside and started writing bass riffs for Baran Akalın’s songs. Then, Gökhan Korkmaz joined in this formation on vocal duties, by the agency of Serkan. Finally, Can Gürses was recruited to play drums and with this new formation they produced their first song: “Gate of Darkness”.

For the band to be “official”, a proper name must be conceived. One night, members were burning the midnight oil in the house of Baran Akalın, giving thoughts and brain storming. As a result, they were then called “BLACK OMEN”. The following years, 2001 and 2002 passed with writing compositions and doing rehearsals.

When they composed 5 songs, the band decided to record these songs as a self-released demo. In 2003, in the studio of “Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi”, these 5 songs and 1 intro melody was recorded as a single channel recording tecnique. It was entitled “Black Omen”. All duties, like cover art design, augmentation and issue of cd’s, were assumed by the band. During Autumn of 2003, they happened upon the chance to play for the first time at a local show, “3. Eskişehir Rock Festivali”, attracting the attention of the audience. The song, which is included in the demo release, entitled “Black Candle”, was in the top list of “Kara Liste” of the radio programme, “Maximum Rock” broadcasted in “Kanal D”, for weeks. Later on, several magazines and webzines gave way to the band with their promotions and reviews, thus the band’s name spread about within the country.

After the first live performance, keyboardist Yiğit Güler parted ways with the band for personal reasons. The keyboardist gap in the band was, then, filled by Kadir Yavuz, who was an old friend of Baran Akalın. Can Gürses left the band to focus on his main project, “Episode 13”, and the band began looking for a new drummer. This quest ended when Mürsel Fındıkoğlu, who played drums for various bands in Eskişehir, was inducted into the band.

The new crew played in a gig in Bursa and attracted the attention of a new audience at the first out of town show. Later on, there were various gigs in İzmir, Adana, Ankara and, needless to say, Eskişehir. At the same time they were composing their new songs and the day came that they needed a professional record. The quality of the released demo was unsatisfactory. For this reason, the band made the decision to record an album, including the songs in the demo release. In April 2004, they had started to record the songs at “Midas’ın Kulaklığı Stüdyoları”, in Ankara. Following the mixing and mastering process, the final product came into being and was sent to various labels. When the band signed a contract with “Poem Productions”, the first album entitled “When Pure Darkness Covers False World of Light”, took its place on the shelves and was published in 12 countries, including Turkey. With only local performances under their belts, the band was trying to promote the album all over the country.

Mürsel Fındıkoğlu left the band for personal reasons and Onur Özçelik, drummer of the black metal band “Infernal Torment”, joined in. With this crew, the first live performance was in Konya. During Baran Akalın’s military duty, Serkan took over the guitar and the bass guitar was accompanied by Soner Güzelsevenlerden as a session player. Shortly thereafter, the band shared the stage, in Eskişehir, with Czech band “Cerebral Turbulency”. While the keyboardist Kadir was on military leave, the keyboard was accompanied, temporarily, by Fırat Arığ, of the band “Secrophiagor”, from Ankara. In 2005, being an important milestone in the band’s history, the band supported world famous black metallers,“Marduk”, at a show held in İzmir. Following the departure of Fırat Arığ, Tolga Uz, also from the band “Infernal Torment”, became the new member on the keyboard. Meanwhile, gigs and composing new material strived onward.

Kadir Yavuz continued his assistance with the band as a sixth member, as well as taking part in gigs and compositions. At this stage, the songs to be recorded for the second album were complete with a deep, orchestral background. Serkan Kaya had a different idea about the title of the new album, having a full sense of the symphonic black metal style. The second full-length album, entitled “Sinphony”, which is a combination of the words “Symphony" and "Sin", was recorded in 2006 at “Midas' ın Kulaklığı Stüdyoları” and was released in 2007 by “Poem Productions”. The album was acclaimed in Turkey and around the world. In 2007, they shared the stage with “Rotting Christ”, in Eskişehir, which was another landmark performance for the band.

The singer, Gökhan Korkmaz, has since parted ways with the band, got married and moved to Finland. Seeking another singer, the bass player of “Aradın Azun” and the bassist/vocalist of the band,“Nord Av Snafels”, Karahan Karaoğlu, joined the band.

Following the years, the band members divided into two towns to live; Ankara and Eskişehir. Some of them started their own jobs. Although these circumstances made things difficult, they never gave up composing new tracks for the new album. Finally, after a long struggle period, new compositions have been concluded.

The band has entered the studio to record their 3rd album, “Psytanalysis”, at “Studio Deep” in Ankara, Turkey. Stay in touch for the latest news about the new album!!!