The Sins of Thy Beloved is a doom metal band from Norway. They are often compared to metal bands such as Tristania and Theatre of Tragedy, mainly because of the bands combination of a female voice with male death grunts. Their music features death/doom metal rythmics enhanced by the prominent use of violins, especially on the Lake of Sorrow album, typical of many doom bands. Their live recordings offer a sound closer to traditional death metal than their studio albums which make heavy use of arrangements and effects.

The band was formed in November 1996 by Glenn Morten Nordbø, Arild Christensen and Stig Johansen. The band was initially called "Purgatory" but they soon decided to change their name to something less common. Anita Auglend and Ola Aarrestad quickly joined the band, and they recorded their first demo All Alone in January-February 1997. Anders Thue and Ingfrid Stensland then joined before they recorded their second demo Silent Pain in January 1998. Pete Johansen played the violin on that demo though he did not officially joined the band until the recording of their first full-length album Lake of Sorrow later in 1998. They toured across Europe, before recording their second full-length album Perpetual Desolation in 2000. After the 2nd album releases, a live album and VHS/DVD appeared, called "Perpetual Desolation Live" recorded at Metalmania Festival, in Kraków (Poland), though it was not distributed worldwide and is thus very hard to come by.
They were conquering people's heart with their music, but the things started going bad as Anita Auglend, decided to leave the band by unknown reasons, then, Hege-Marie Aanby replaced her in early 2001. Hege stayed a very short time with TSOTB, as she was fired after only two concerts in Mexico. Also, a few times latter Anders Thue and Ingfrid Stensland grew weary of traveling and left the band. The band has been dormant since the departure of its three members(three as we can't say Hege has been an official member). Pete Johansen has since left to play the violin on several Tristania albums.

The band re-appeared in 2002 with its original line-up in a festival in Norway but Anita set clear she was just appearing as a guest member, and then, not much was heard of them til 2005 when they played at the Lost Souls festival in Norway and as a result rumours of a new album, with the 3 new members: Myriads' Mona Skottene as the female singer, The Scarr' Maiken Olaisen as the female keybordist and also Anders Thue only as a SESSION keybordist, not an official member anymore, but the current line-up and band status is still unknown. It is also rumoured, but also more than likely, that Pete Johansen will return to play violin on any album.
These are just rumours... If they will come back one day, only time will tell.

Glenn Morten Nordbø - Grunts and Guitar
Anita Auglend - Female Vocal
Arild Christensen - Grunts and Guitar
Ola Aarrestad - Bass
Stig Johansen - Drums
Anders Thue - Keybords
Ingfrid Stensland - Keybords
Pete Johansen - Violin