Nemhain (band)

Nemhain are a London based rock/punk/goth influenced band named after the mythological celtic fairy spirit for Havoc Of War. Formed By Adrian Erlandsson, then with Cradle Of Filth, and his wife, model Morrigan Hel in 2006.

Their music deals with the darker side of sex, drugs, addiction and revenge, they have also recorded and performed covers of songs by The Distillers, Nirvana, Misfits and The Gits.

Their debut album 'From The Ashes' is to be released in March 2009.

2006
It was one night early in 2006 when husband Adrian Erlandsson on guitar and wife Morrigan Hel(Amber Erlandsson) began to sing Leadbellys classic ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night' that the idea to start their own band came into being. Deciding to draw on their influences from the likes of Danzig and the Ramones and create a self styled "Blues stained punk rock" group.

Adrian's career began back in 1981 when inspired by Judas Priest’s Dave Holland he formed the ‘Black Nuns’ who evolved into ‘Berits Polisonger’ playing until 1986. There then followed a series of other bands including thrash metal band ‘Penance’ in 1987 until becoming a founding member of ‘At The Gates’ in 1990. During his time with them he was part of the punk band ‘Skitsystem’,recording 3 EP’s between 1995/96. Adrian also had another two bands with ATG connections with ‘Terror’ who cut a 3 track demo and ‘Hyperhug’. In '96 Adrian formed ‘The Haunted’ with fellow ATG brothers Jonas and Anders Bjorler, cutting one demo in '97 and releasing one album in '98. Leaving late in '98 Adrian drummed for Swedish black metal purists ‘Nifelheim’ and numerous other bands! Adrian was approached by Cradle Of Filth in June 1999 and played drums on one track for the ‘Cradle To Enslave’ EP, before becoming a full time member, playing on no less than 20 albums/singles/dvd’s until May 2006 when he joined ‘Needleye’ playing on their album ‘Ode To None’ and some additional demo’s that were available on their Myspace page.

Morrigan is also well known for her Cradle Of Filth connections, appearing on stage with them as well as being the model on the “Cradle To Enslave Ep”, in the video for "Born In A Burial Gown" and the Horror Movie "Cradle Of Fear". That aside, a career as a fetish model, TV presenter, stage performer and actress in Nature Morte and as an extra in the films 'Still Crazy', 'Judge Dredd' and 'Hackers'. Her musical projects date back to her teens when she first learned the guitar & along with a friend played and sang along to Black Sabbath, they formed a band called “The Art Of Falling Apart”. Later She joined the band ‘Obsidian’ they also recorded a version of ‘Girls Like Honey’ a song later ressurected for Nemhain.

Cherry Forever (Rachel Irving) began her music career as bassist with all girl group ‘Desolation Angels', when their drummer dropped out a young lad by the name of Charlie Simpson (Busted, Fightstar) stepped in. Cherry also sang backing vocals for Franz Ferdinand on the track ‘L.Wells’ (On the single 'The Fallen') in April '06 and numerous tracks on the Demented Scum Cats Lp, which was an all star side project LP from Demented Are Go. Cherry then switched from Bass to Guitar and continued to write songs drawing on her numerous influences. When not making music Cherry was also a Model and made an appearance in the film ‘Nature Morte’.

Music had always been part of Lisa Witch's (Lisa Dickinson) life since learning to play the tenor horn at school. When she went to university she and some friends “Messed Around” with some comic songs but nothing came of this. In 1997 lisa decided to learn the Bass, she also made an appearence in the film 'Nature Morte'.

Liv Fast (Olivia Boeree), a lead guitarist completed the line up. When Liv entered a poker playing competition she became hooked and was soon offered a job presenting Poker TV in Las Vegas, which she accepted.

Her replacement was Sam Hain (Sam Astley), a multi-talented musician who can play numerous instruments. Despite the experimental nature of his solo work, under the name of ‘EWSS’, he is a fan of Slash and Children Of Bodom. He is also one half of ‘The Cry & The Chainsaw’, a small independent film company who have made a number of music videos (including ‘Ana’) and short films. Aside from the production and filming he contributes to the soundtracks.

After rehersals and writing sessions a small private gig took place at the Dungeon. By August they were ready to unleash themselves upon the world at an all day music festival at the Bar Monsta in Camden. More gigs followed In October as did a recording session in Eastbourne, resulting in the EP called ‘Blood Runs Free’ (named after a song written by Morrigan but not recorded). Cradle released the ‘Thornography’ album and soon after the official announcement was made about Adrian leaving.

The ‘Blood Runs Free’ demo was released as a limited pressing of 1000 copies only. It went on sale at the Bar Monsta gig on 12.11.06, the same day they also shot the promo video for the song ‘Ana’. The year ended with a new years eve gig with King Lizard at the Purple Turtle club in Camden.

2007
In January they played the newly located Intrepid Fox in London wearing clothes designed by ‘Kates Clothing’ at a launch party gig. They also recorded a version of 'Die Die My Darling' with Tristian McGarrigle for the Misfits tribute album "Anniversary Of Brutality". The band minus Sam then set of to LA for the NAMM convention, here much work was done including gaining a sponsorship deal with Orange Amps.

Adrian also announced a busy shedule with sessions for ‘Netherbird’, ’Tenet’ with former guitarist Jed Simon (Strapping Young Lad) and joining Mexican legends ‘Brujeria’ on their first world tour. When ‘Needleye’ announced that they had taken the band as far as it could go, Duncan Wilkinson and Ray Holoryd began working on some new ideas and demos and formed ’12 Ton Method’ with Adrian acting as session drummer. Two further tracks were cut, ’From The Ashes’ and ‘Dirty Weekend’(based on the book by Helen Zahavi), this was recorded at fortress studios and was produced by Greg Brimson (Rammstein) and Russ Russell (Dimmu Borgir).

In March ‘Nemhain’ were given the opportunity to support Australian rock group ‘Rose Tattoo’ at the Scala in London. As Adrian was touring with ‘Brujeria’ at the time he asked his friend and fellow session drummer Robin Guy to take his place. Robin is a seasoned session musician whose credits include ’Faith No More’, ’Bruce Dickinson’ and GMT.

April began with two gigs in Wales & London. On the 26th Sam left the band. His replacement on the 28th was Dick Limelight (Daniel Kjolsrud) a Swedish bassist previously with ‘King Lizard’. Dick had played on their third EP titled ‘Late Night Dynamite’.

The new line up made their debut at Camden's Electric Ballroom on 6th of May, followed by their first mini UK Tour. With new songs being introduced into the set, including a disturbing cover of Nirvana’s ‘Rape Me’. Also in May Cradle Of Filth released a live Dvd/Cd set from April 2001, and the song ‘Dirty Weekend’ appeared on a cd given away with Devolution Magazine.

At the end of June the band were due to play the River Town Festival in Prague, but on the band never made it there as both Dick and Rachel suddenly left due to “personal reasons” as stated in an E-mail on July 2nd. Initially a replacement was found for Dick with Mick Priestley from glam band ‘Nothing To Lose’ who agreed to help out at an upcoming rehersal, also at the rehersal was model/TV presenter/music journalist Samara Kain, the bassist with ‘Spiders Superstars’ as replacement for Rachel. Within a week Mick had been replaced with Stevie Lee formerly of controversial glam band ‘Spit Like This’. Stevie had made himself known to the band at the Download Festival. The new line up made its debut at the Revue Bar in Soho on July 30th and then set off on a tour of Holland.

In November they went to Belgium to record a new EP. Adrian also announced that At The Gates were reforming for a series of one off gigs around the world. After a gig at club SIN in Soho it seemed that there was a degree of tension in the band. They played the Hard Rock Hell festival without Samara then Stevie quit afterwards and Samara did not return.

In December a reliable and talented guitarist was found with Lakis Kyriacou. Lakis has been playing in bands since the age of 13, he was the driving force behind the band ‘Area 54’ formed in the late 90’s their brand of thrash/maiden styled music saw them release 3 albums : ‘No Visable Scars’ in 2000, ’Beckoning Of The End’ in 2003 which featured guest vocals from At The Gates vocalist Tomas Lindberg and in 2007 ‘Bring Out Your Dead’. In July however they decided to end the band with Lakis putting all his efforts into the glam influenced band ‘Love & Bullets’ who he had formed in September of 2006.

2008
The year began with a return to NAMM in America again, but this time they play 2 gigs as well. Upon return to the UK Adrian sets off on a massive European tour with swedish glam/goth band Deathstars who were supporting KoRn throughout February.

In March/April they recorded their debut album in Sweden with Fredrik Nordstrom (At The Gates, Dimmu Borgir, Arch Enemy) producing, one song which features a guest appearence from The Haunted vocalist Pete Dolving is a cover of The Gits 'Second Skin'.

With huge touring commitments with At The Gates the band were quiet until October 5th when they appeared on Total Rock radio and aired 4 new tracks. A four track promotional EP was also released and they then played the "Night Of The Evil Red" Halloween show at the Big Red bar in London's Holloway Road. In November Lakis performed at the Camden Underworld for a one off appearence with Love And Bullets, where he was joined by Liv Fast as guest guitarist. Also Mick Priestley and Adrian released an EP under the name of the Green River Project. On the 15th Nemhain had the honour of playing the final night at the Ruskin Arms in East London for the charity Clive Aid, which is a charity to help Iron Maiden's original drummer Clive Burr, making them the last female fronted band to ever perform at the venue. The December gig with Municipal Waste at the Peel in Kingston saw the return of Sam Hain bringing the bands twin guitar sound back.

2009
In January they filmed a video for the song 'Second Skin' with Gdrax from Ted Maul replacing Pete Dolving who was touring with The Haunted at the time. They also headlined a charity concert called Rock Against Rape in aid of Rape Crisis. The debut album titled 'From The Ashes' is to be released in March.

Samara returned to the music scene with her new band 'Catfight' and played their debut gig supporting Nemhain at The Gaff in Holloway Road on Friday 13th February.

Discography

 * Blood Runs Free EP [2006]
 * Various Artists - Hotter Than Hell - 08/09/07 [2 Tracks] [2007]
 * Various Artists - Devolution Unsigned Summer Spirit (Magazine Covermount CD) [1 Track] [2007]
 * Various Artists - Anniversary Of Brutality (Tribute To The Misfits) [1 Track] [2007]
 * Album Preview EP [Promotional Only] [2008]
 * From The Ashes [Debut Album] [2009]

Videoography

 * Ana [2007]
 * Second Skin [The Gits Cover] [2009]