Biography
Crucifix began back in the summer of 93 as a cover band.
It was childhood friends Morten Agerbo and Lars Groth who were the founders
of what would eventually turn out to be Crucifix. They teamed up with
another friend of theirs, Tommy Johnson and he introduced the guys to
Bo Simonsen. The basics of the band had been put together but a leadsinger
was still missing. The band started looking for a singer and Bo suggested
an old school buddy of his, Hans Henrik – HH. The line-up was finally
complete and the band began playing tunes of such bands as Metallica,
Slayer and Obituary etc. Line-up 93:
Lars Groth: Drums
Morten Agerbo: Guitar
Tommy Johnson: Guitar
Bo Simonsen: Bass
HH: Vocals
It wasn’t long until the band started making music of their own. The style however was more brutal and soon after the band played more deathmetal than cover tunes. They soon had got a reputation in the local area as an alternative to all the other bands that played music from the grunge scene. They began playing a lot of gigs and their reputation as a quit decent live act grew.
In 95 the band was put out on a compilation along side of other Danish
bands, called Danish Upcommers. Soon after tragedy struck the band when
front man HH was killed in a motorcycle accident. After the accident Bo
Simonsen left the band but the rest of the band decided to continue and
honour the memory of HH by releasing their first demotape. It was entitled
Crucifix and vocal duties were handled by Morten Agerbo and Tommy did
the bass lines.
Line-up 96 on the demotape:
Lars Groth: Drums
Morten Agerbo: Vocals and Guitar
Tommy Johnson: Guitar and Bass
A new bass player was needed and the band called upon another friend from the local area called Jesper Hansen. He joined the band in the late summer of 96 and the line-up was:
Lars Groth: Drums
Morten Agerbo: Vocals and Guitar
Tommy Johnson: Guitar
Jesper Hansen: Bass
From here on the band played a lot of gigs and it seamed like everything was going in their direction.
In November 1997 Morten Flindt, an old friend of Tommys, was asked to join the band. At the same time long-time friend Morten Agerbo was asked to leave due to his lack of commitment. He had joined the military and the rest of the band felt he didn’t make an effort to combine the two.
Rene Engholm stepped in on vocals so now the line up was:
Lars Groth: Drums
Jesper Hansen: Bass
Rene Engholm: Vocals
Tommy Johnson: Guitar
Morten Flindt: Guitar
In the months to follow Crucifix played a lot of gigs around Denmark
and everything seemed fine. The music was great and people were enjoying
playing live but Rene never really fit in. The band couldn’t cope
with him and in the summer 1998 he was kicked out. He later went on to
join a band called Evil Pigs.
Morten Agerbo, who in the mean time had finished his military duties,
rejoined Crucifix and things began to happen.
Line up late June 98:
Lars Groth: Drums
Jesper Hansen: Bass
Morten Agerbo: Vocals
Tommy Johnson: Guitar
Morten Flindt: Guitar
Studiotime was booked and in January 1999 the much acclaimed demo, Extermination,
was released. It was a 4 track album recorded at the Aabenraa studio by
Jacob Hansen of Invocator. One of the tracks featured on that album, Into
the Unknown, was later released on a compilation called Extremity Rising
Vol. 4.
Due to some internal misunderstandings however, the demo was only sent
to record labels in Denmark and at that time there weren’t that
many labels around.
Months followed, again with several gigs but none of the labels seemed
interested in the band and frustration began among the members. Finally
Crucifix decided to take a break. The first break ever in 6 years.
During the spring of 2001 Diehard records had got around to hear Crucifix and offered them a contract. The only problem was the band hadn’t played together for almost 2 years and obviously they were out of shape. The record label therefore wanted to hear some new material. Sadly enough, a lot of things had happened to some of the members during the break and after only a few weeks of playing together again, Tommy, Jesper and Morten Agerbo left the band and decided to call it quits.
Lars and Morten Flindt were determent however not to let this change
slip away. They found guitarist Jeppe Larsen and he joined the band along
with Kristian Ohmer, from Evil Pigs, on bass. Vocal wise there were still
problems finding a decent front man and after only a few rehearsals, Kristian
Ohmer left the band.
Finally Crucifix hooked up with Jens “Killhailer” of Victimizer.
He was just what the band had been looking for in a front figure. The
same couldn’t be said about Jeppe. He skipped rehearsals and when
he on rare occasions decided to show up, he was stoned out and hanging
off the wall. It didn’t take long for the band to kick him out.
Lars Groth: Drums
Morten Flindt: Guitar
Jens Pedersen: Vocals
The new material however, didn’t fit into what Diehard Records thought of as extreme and brutal deathmetal so they dropped further contract negotiations after staling them for several months.
In late autumn 2003, Måns and Martin joined the band but only for
a few months. Jens had moved away to concentrate on Victimizer and Lars
couldn’t find the motivation to keep playing in Crucifix. He decided
to put his energy in a band he had joined a few years back called Lunar
Caustic. Later on Morten Flindt also joined them.
So once again a break came about. Line up before the split:
Lars Groth: Drums
Jens Killhailer: Vocals
Måns: Guitar
Martin: Bass
Morten Flindt: Guitar
It would seem that faith was sealed but in December 2004, Lars and Morten
decided to give it a go and reformed Crucifix. This time around with frontman
Soeren Kusk. Nevertheless he wasn’t the sort of singer they wanted
and he was therefore asked to leave in February 2005. They called upon
former singer Jens Killhailer to help them out.
Current and strongest line up ever:
Lars Groth: Drums
Jens Killhailer: Vocals
Måns: Guitar
Martin: Bass
Morten Flindt: Guitar
Studio time has been booked and hopefully somewhere around early spring
2005 a new demo called "Where angels rot", will see its release.