Dargaard was founded by Tharen in 1997. Tharen had already played a prominent role in several underground bands by this time, including Abigor and Amestigon, both black metal bands and Dominion III, an industrial music act. Tharen was the keyboard player in Abigor, but Amestigon, Dominion III and Dargaard are entirely his projects. Dargaard was born out of Tharen’s desire to move away from black metal and express himself through more ambient and classical music.

Also joining the band was Elisabeth Toriser as vocalist. Elisabeth was also the vocalist in Dominion III and was also involved in the band Antichrisis. She claimed in an interview to have split with this band because it interrupted her studies, and she felt their musical conception was different. Tharen has also commented that Elisabeth is working on another project based around acoustic guitars, but as of writing this no recordings or releases have been made.

Dargaard, taken from the fantasy book series DragonLance, is the name of a cursed stronghold that stands in everlasting darkness after a tragic failure of its owner. The name of the stronghold is in full Dargaard Keep.

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