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13 Years Reanimators Greek Nephs, Annual Reunion Night - Fields Of The Nephilim, the facts

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Greek Fields Of The Nephilim fan club, Reanimators - Greek Nephs celebrating 13 years presence with the annual reunion event!

Fields Of The Nephilim is one of the most influential and unique gothic rock bands in the history of the genre. They had developed a unique atmosphere in their albums with their sound creating really dark ambience and including elements that at that time made them stand out of the other already famous bands of the dark alternative.

Reanimators, Greek Nephs is the official fan club of goth rock legends Fields of the Nephilim and was created back in 2008 along with the first concert of the band in Greece.

Since then, Reanimators have followed FOTN in several concerts around Europe, like UK, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Hungary.. and they will continue.

On Friday, March 10th, Reanimators_Greek Nephs celebrate the music and spirit of Fields of the Nephilim along with dark, sinister and obscure soundscapes and Dj sets by The Sons of Herbert West. The Annual Reunion event will take place at Rock Menudo Bar, Aleksandrou Pavli 38, Athens, Greece.

Fields Of The Nephilim Wiki

Most of the fans of gothic rock scene are well aware of the history of Fields Of The Nephilim and the influence that the band and its members had to several other bands and artists of the genres that are based in the darkest side of music. One of the most dark, influential band of the alternative scene as they have always been their unique sound and image affected many bands, from pure gothic and dark rock to industrial and black metal.

Just for those who may not be familiar with the legendary band from England and Stevenage, Hertfordshire I will mention a few points of their history in gothic rock. Fields Of The Nephilim formed back in 1984 and they named under the biblical reference to angel-humans,known as the Nephilim. Their lyric and image themes are inspired by Chaos Magick, Cthulu Mythos, Aleister Crowley and Sumerian Religion.

In 1985 they released the debut EP, "Burning The Fields" via Situation Two Records (spin-off label of Beggars Banquet), while their debut album, "Dawnrazor" came out in 1987. In between the band released "Power" and "Preacher Man" with Beggars Banquet Records, home of Tubeway Army, Gary Numan, Bauhaus, Modern English and many more. After the release of "Blue Water" and "Moonchild", FOTN released their second full length album "The Nephilim" which made it to number 28 in UK chart, followed by the highly produced "Elizium" in 1990.

In 1991 Carl McCoy leaves the band and the remaining members formed the band Rubicon with Andy Delaney in vocals. McCoy formed his new project Nefilim in 1991 and released the much heavier "Zoon". On 15 August 1998, McCoy and original bassist Tony Pettitt announced their future plans and a collaboration under two separate monikers, Fields of the Nephilim (along with the Wright brothers) and The Nefilim (an altered spelling of McCoy's solo project). However the awaited reunion of the original line-up never happened.

In 2000, McCoy released Fields Of The Nephilim's first single with Jungle Records, "One More Nightmare (Trees Come Down)" and in 2002, Jungle Records and Metropolis Records released the album "Fallen". "Fallen" consists of unfinished recordings from 1997-2001 and it was not authorised by the band. The release was disowned by the band for many years, and only one song from it, "From The Fire" has been performed live.

15 years after "Elizium" McCoy released "Mourning Sun", his fourth full-length studio album under the name Fields of the Nephilim. In 2012, Sacred Symphony released the DVD and double CD box set as well as a double LP vinyl version of "Ceromonies", the culmination of a two night event sponsored by Metal Hammer magazine in which the band played material spanning the band's career. In December 2014, the band debuted two new songs live onstage, "Earthbound" and "Prophecy". "Prophecy" was released as a single on the Sacred Symphony label available only as download on iTunes on 17 March 2016. News reports said that a release on both CD and vinyl, containing exclusive artwork and bonus material would follow, though this did not happen.

But beyond all these well-known "turns" in the history of Fields Of The Nephilim there are other several facts that point out the significance of the legendary British gothic rock band. And they are equally important.

"Elizium" days

"Elizium" is the most highly produced and flawless album from Fields Of The Nephilim. The main reason for that is that the man behind the production of the album was the famous Andy Jackson, the recording engineer, best known for his work with the mighty Pink Floyd. Andy Jackson was the primary engineer for Floyd's albums "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" and the masterpiece "The Division Bell". Many years later, Andy Jackson joined the line-up of The Eden House the collaborative music project where we find former members of Fields Of The Nephilim, Tony Pettit, Peter Yates, Nod Wright and Paul Wright along with Simon Rippin of The Nefilim and NFD.

Another thing that connects Fields Of The Nephilim and "Elizium" with Pink Floyd is that it was partly recorded at David Gilmour's houseboat studio Astoria.

“Elizium was a big jump forward from their previous albums,” remembers Andy Jackson. “They’d gone for more of a soundscape kind of approach and it made sense why they wanted to get involved with me. It was big and cinematic, with lots of space… That was something they’d already formulated themselves and it was instinctive for me to do because I’d already done it.”

Originally written as one continuous song and released on Beggars Banquet in 1990, Elizium was partly recorded at David Gilmour’s houseboat studio Astoria, and it explored recurrent themes of life, death and resurrection. One movement features samples of occultist Aleister Crowley, while their Floydian influences extended to them borrowing some of Gilmour’s equipment during the recording. [source: Louder]

Split vinyl with Iron Maiden

In 1989, BBC Transcription Services released a split vinyl, LP including a live set from Fields Of The Nephilim in Side A and a live set from Iron Maiden in Side B, titled Fields Of The Nephilim / Iron Maiden – In Concert-451. Fields Of The Nephilim recorded live at the Sheffield University, Sheffield, UK on September 5th, 1988. Iron Maiden recorded live at the "Monsters Of Rock", Donington Park, Leicestershire, UK, on August 20th, 1988.

BBC Transcription Services, later BBC Transcription and today BBC Radio International) discs were only made available to overseas radio stations for broadcast purposes and were not made available for sale to the general public. However, in the early 90s many international BBC libraries sold their stocks to the public. Limitation: "Typically BBC Transcription Services pressed 100 copies of each disc only with instructions to the overseas radio network to destroy the disc at the end of the licence period."

Black Metal's Uncle [source: CLRVYNT ]

According to CLRVYNT, Carl McCoy should be considered as Black Metal's "uncle". The occult and mysticism's deep connection of the band was the main factors that set them apart from other legendary gothic bands of their time, like Sisters Of Mercy, Bauhaus and Theatre Of Hate.

"McCoy’s lyrics — as well as the artwork that results from the collaboration with his partner Lynn under the name Sheer Faith — is steeped in symbolism and references to Aleister Crowley, William Blake and the obscure artist / occultist Austin Osman Spare. The title of the song "Moonchild" is taken from the Crowley text of the same name; the song "Psychonaut" is also he title of the book by chaos magician Peter Carroll. McCoy has often referred to Fields of the Nephilim performances as rituals."

Behemoth's frontman Nergal with Fields Of The Nephilim performing "Penetration".

Several bands of the darkest sub-genres of heavy metal have influenced and inspired by the Fields Of The Nephilim and their rituals. Watain refer to their live shows as rituals, while also Behemoth make reference to their shows as rituals, and oftentimes their stage setup displays the unicursal hexagram used in Crowley’s Thelema. Behemoth frontman Nergal appeared live with McCoy at a Fields of the Nephilim tour stop at Katowice, Poland back in 2011 to perform the song "Penetration."

McCoy appeared on Watain’s 2010 LP Lawless Darkness on the track “Waters of Ain”. “Fields always felt like a gang of lawless shamans in an otherwise quite bleak music world. [They] always seemed to be aware that they had tapped into something greater than themselves, that there was something literally magical at work within their songs,” Erik Danielsson, frontman of Watain, says. “That is an idea that always intrigued me, and something that has also colored our approach to Watain.” Watain’s music is similarly atmospheric, and elsewhere Danielsson has said that McCoy’s performances were what made him want to be a singer.

[sources: Louder] [source: POPmatters ]

More extreme metal bands influenced

According to Anders Nystrom, Katatonia owes its existence to a single Fields of the Nephilim riff, the one that kicks off “The Watchman". Unlike other goth bands, Fields felt much more authentic, he says. “I always saw Fields of the Nephilim walking the sidelines of goth, alternative, pop, and rock as some type of renegades to the scene. Their manifesto was to emerge as the soundtrack to an obscure mythology.”

Horseback's Jenks Miller first discovered the band through online photos during the internet’s early years. He was quickly hooked by the music, particularly the minimal, mesmerizing arrangements on songs like “Celebrate” and “Last Exit for the Lost”. Those qualities found their way into Horseback’s sound, Miller says.

[source: POPmatters ]

Fields On The Nephilim in cinemas

“I hear its sounds coming back at me from a dozen or more up-and-coming bands and it makes me smile every time. Moreover the ‘look’ of the Nephilim has invaded the über-culture in so many crazy ways you couldn’t even begin to track it….I’d like to think that it helped crystallize a certain form of magical consciousness that has been growing in the world, something that refuses to remain in the subculture or simply be pigeonholed as part of the ‘goth’ scene or the British neo-pagan movement.” says Richard Stanley [source: POPmatters ]. Carl McCoy's cameo was featured in Stanley's, 1990 sci-fi movie, "Hardware", along with Iggy Pop and Lemmy Kilmister. A film is about a self-repairing robot that goes on a rampage in a post-apocalyptic slum in which Carl McCoy appeared as "Zone Tripper".

Carl McCoy also assisted on the 2000 film "The 13th Sign", by voicing the villain (Dravel), operating the second assistant camera (as Sheerfaith), and by providing the closing credits music (Darkcell AD).

Fields Of The Nephilim's "Vet for the Insane" appeared in the episode "Death and the Lady" of the series Miami Vice. [ source: Miami Vice Wiki ]

Additionaly Fields Of The Nephilim track appeared in several movies. In "Demons 2" (1987) original soundtrack we find "Power". "For Her Light" is in "Razor Blade Smaile" (1998) soundtrack. In 1999's "La Sombra De Cain" we listen to "Phobia" and "The Watchman". In 2000, "Wall Of Summer" can be found in "No More School". "One More Nightmare (Trees Come Down)" was included in "Vampire Diary" OST (2006).