Von

Biography

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Von (1987-1992, 2010-present): a Black Metal band from O'ahu, Hawaii, USA.

merican black metal band Von formed in 1987 in O'ahu, Hawaii; although they later relocated to San Francisco, California. They are thought to be the first American black metal band, and strongly influenced the second wave of black metal.

Von was allegedly formed in 1987 by Goat (Real Name: Shawn Calizo; guitars/vocals), Snake (drums) and Venien (Real Name: Jason Ventura; bass/vocals; who left the band in 1990, before Von was chosen as the band name). The role and involvement of member "Venien" in the early days of Von have always been very unclear, as no proof that this member was active in the band during that period exists. In late 1990 or early 1991, Kill (Real Name: Joe Trevisano) joined the band as bassist and the trio recorded their Satanic Blood demo. During 1991, Von played some live gigs that resulted in another demo, Blood Angel, which was never released on its own as the band disbanded in 1992, shortly after the release of the first demo. Since then Venien has been accused of trying to cover up facts of Von's past on various archiving and encyclopedic websites, in an attempt to further solidify his professed involvement in Von's original formation.

The band's members also recorded a gothic rock demo under the name Sixx.

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In 2003, 'Nuclear War Now! Productions' released Satanic Blood Angel, a double CD/triple LP compilation featuring the band's demos on one CD and a recording of a live show on another. Besides the original Satanic Blood demo, this was the only other official Von release prior to 2010. In 2009, 'Nuclear War Now! Productions' released the Sixx recording on an LP entitled Sister Devil.

The band reformed with a new line-up for a one-off show on June 6, 2010, at the Armageddon Fest in London, England with Watain and The Devil's Blood opening for the band, marking the first time Von had played live in 20 years. Snake was replaced by Blood (Real Name: Diego Arredondo) as a session drummer, while Kill was replaced by Venien for real this time; the first time he had actively played with the band. The band was also joined by a second guitarist: Lord Giblet (Real Name: Jon Gonzalez), leaving Goat was the only member left in the band from the original line-up.

To commemorate the show, the new line-up of the band put out a brand new 7" single with re-recorded versions of Satanic Blood and Veadtuck, and a new song titled Blood Von, a reworked version of the Von track from the Satanic Blood demo cassette. The 7" was released on 'VMG Records' with a limit of 500 copies.

After the London show, the last member of the original line-up, Goat, and recent new drummer Blood left the band to focus on Goat's solo-project, Von Goat. Goat's departure left Von in the hands of Venien, who hired a slew of session musicians to start writing and rehearsing new and reworked material for two full-length records in the form of Satanic Blood (2012) and Dark Gods: Seven Billion Slaves (2013) featuring Lord Giblete and Venien as the only permanent members. Most of said new members were with the band for only short periods of time.

A large number of singles were released before the arrival of Dark Gods: Birth of the Architects (2017) featuring new members Dirty FvKn! Pistols (Real Name: Anthony Mainiero; drums/vocals (backing)) and HangMan (Real Name: Carter Grant; guitars/drums/vocals (backing)).

Two compilations in the form of Rarities Compilation compilation (2021) and Dark Gods: Harbinger compilation (2022) followed.

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