Biography

Early Years

Expatriated was formed from the remnants of the folk metal orchestra Brage. In 2009 the group consisting of Henrik (drums), Nikolaj (guitar, vocals),and Rasmus (guitar), held a barbecue at Henrik’s place - which had a slaughterhouse in the basement (alright, it was actually a meat-packing facility, but that just doesn’t sound brutal enough!). Driven by a strong desire to create and experiment with music - fueled by the gloomy atmosphere of the place - they decided to form a band with a more progressive direction, heavily influenced by scandinavian prog- and black metal acts.

By March 2010 the group finally found its bass player, Jens, and together they settled on the name “Expatriated”. In June 2010 Expatriated entered Henrik’s home studio with the aim of making a demo consisting of their first three songs. Rasmus acted as producer, and subsequently did all the editing and mixing in his home studio. The demo was finished in October 2010.

2010:

Demo.

Line up:

Nikolaj Bak

Rasmus Hell

Jens Gadeberg

Henrik Kanstrup-Smith

Hiatus and ”Expatriated demo 2013”

In the course of the following years, Rasmus and Henrik left Expatriated in order to devote more time to other aspects of their personal lives. Meanwhile the remaining members continued to work towards a full-length album. Jon Glud Kloster joined the band on drums, and this led to the completion of Expatriated’s second demo, produced and mastered at Death Island studios. On the 2013 demo, the band took a departure from their black metal roots, writing long intricate songs with constantly changing meters and dynamics. The 2013 demo laid the musical foundation on which the later full-length album, “The Last Trace of the Imprudent”, was built. After the demo’s release, the band went through another line up change as Kristoffer Bak joined on lead guitar. While working towards their full length release, Expatriated played a bunch of shows, supporting Anubis Gate (Official) among others.

Return to the original line-up and the making of “The Last Trace of the Imprudent”

In the fall of 2014, Expatriated initiated the recording process of their first full-length release, “The Last Trace of the Imprudent”. The recording was done primarily at home, while continuously revising and rearranging the songs. Rasmus offered to help the band out as mixer, engineer and producer on the album. In the middle of 2016, the recording was completed, and a long editing and revising phase, was set in motion. Jon (drums) and Kristoffer (guitar) left the band for personal reasons and Rasmus stepped in as guitarist as well as producer. Rasmus had just recently started a project with Henrik, which ended up with Henrik joining the band as well, thereby completing the original line-up. In the beginning of 2018, the production of the band’s debut was complete.

About “The Last Trace of the Imprudent”

The debut titled "The Last Trace of the Imprudent" is lyrically a concept album, in which the listener witnesses the story of a mentally troubled an unstable man, who sets out to hunt down the murderer of his beloved - a journey that turns out to be of great consequence to the protagonist. In the same vein, the music balances on a knife-edge of fragility, and is under a constant threat of collapsing into chaos. Expatriated fuses elements from progressive rock and death-metal, especially technical death metal, in order to create fertile soil for the emergence of musical experiments that push the boundaries of the metal-genre. "The Last Trace of the Imprudent" is a highly dynamical prog-album that challenges the listener and provides ample food for thought.

The debut-album "The Last Trace of the Imprudent" was digitally released on August 17, 2018. The album is engineered and mixed by Rasmus Høll Nielsen, and mastered by Colin Davis at Imperial Mastering.

2018:
Last Trace of the Imprudent.
Line up:
Nikolaj Bak

Jens Gadeberg

Jon Glud Kloster

2019:

Playing "New Shit Showcase" at Pumpehuset and Atlas.
Watch the live performance fra Atlas right here!

Curent line up:

Nikolaj Bak

Jens Gadeberg

Rasmus Høll (Hell) Nielsen

Henrik Kanstrup-Smith