Hellcommander Vargblod (real name: Mark Azzopardi), born in Malta in 1982, discovered the world of Metal back when he was still very young, remembering his dad and uncle playing Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and other 70s rock bands when he was still 5-6 years of age.

About some time later he began to learn guitar with his dad, but it wasn’t until the early teens that H.V. took it more seriously on his instrument, and that was when he formed his first band – Hell Rats, together with 2 other friends from school.  It was kind of a thrashy mix with NWOBHM and was also at the time already adding some black metal influences in the songwriting. At the same time he was also playing in another garage band called Mannaris.

In the late 90s H.V. left these projects and joined local symphonic black metal act Martyrium with whom he played for 12 years, recording 3 full length albums, several gigs and two European tours.

In 2008 he also joined Maltese hard rock veterans Lord Adder and did some local shows with them, while at the same time joining veteran thrash metal band X-Vandals with whom he played until 2013.

In 2011 though, he felt that the style of Martyrium was moving farther away from his personal tastes and decided to go out solo, and actually formed two “one-man-band” projects – Draugul and Khaospath. Draugul was a folk/pagan/black metal project and under that name he released 4 full lengths, 1 split and 1 EP until 2019. With Khaospath, H.V. released 3 full lengths. At this time we must mention that H.V. had moved from Malta to Northern Sweden (April 2014) and shortly after, the one man band Khaospath became a full membered band as he found similar individuals with the same tastes almost immediately who showed interest in his material. Together with the new members, Khaospath performed various gigs in Sweden, Bulgaria, Finland and even appeared in Malta once again at the Xtreme Metal Assault in 2016.

At around 2016, H.V guested on some guitar parts together with Lord Ahriman from Dark Funeral, with a band named Thokkian Vortex, the new project of the ex-frontman of Norwegian Black Metal act - Ancient.

In 2019 though, due to a line up change in Khaospath, H.V. forged an alliance with Bjarkan and continued the project under a new name – Myronath, which is actually 2 Elvish words conjoined, and meaning “The Dark (or Hidden) Temple”. During the years Myronath saw quite a few members leaving their mark in the band with members like Lars Broddesson (ex-Marduk) who played drums on the 1st album “Into the Qliphoth”, and Fredrik Andersson (ex-Amon Amarth) who played drums on the 2nd release “Djevelkraft”. In May 2024 Myronath shall be releasing its third blasphemy with the Italian record label “Dusktone”.  

H.V and Bjarkan also formed another project together called Dodskold with which they released one album “Ödesriket” up till now.

During the “Djevelkraft” period, H.V. and Bjarkan joined forces with the Norwegian Black Metal veterans Ragnarok and both were active in the band for 2 years, playing various renowned festivals and gigs, until late 2023 when all members but one left Ragnarok for reasons beyond their control, and formed a new entity – Helvitnir (Old Norse, meaning “Wolves of the Underworld”). The band consists of H.V. on bass and vocals, Bjarkan on guitars, Ihizahg (ex-Mayhem live) on guitars and none other than Jan Axel “Hellhammer” Blomberg from Mayhem on the drums. The band is set to record their first album together in late 2024 and to be released as well under the Italian label “Dusktone”.

In his home studio – “Minas Morgul”, H.V. also helped out fellow brother in metal Zain with his debut solo album “Saint Vermin – Together as None” in 2023 and did mixing and mastering for the album.

With Zain, and as well Clint Aquilina and Clayton Cini, H.V is currently writing material for a death metal project (Horned Majesty) that started out as a side thought but moved on to get a proper release. No concrete plans for the release are planned so far though, apart from a digital single released in late 2023.

Since late 2023 Mark commenced collaborating with New Yorker Liliana Amatoria who approached him with her new project. Her debut EP featuring this collaboration titled 'Forgive me Father, I AM SIN!, was released on November 19, 2023.

No rest for the wicked they say, and so it is, as while H.V. was writing material for the active bands, he ended up with extra stuff that did not quite fit the style that the bands were playing at that particular time. He decided to release that material as a solo EP with the same label he had been working with for Draugul, Khaospath and Dodskold. The project was named after his alias – Hellcommander and the EP was out on the 2nd week of February 2024 under the german record label “Pesttanz Klangschmiede”.

H.V is exclusively endorsed by Ibanez Guitars and Richter Straps.

And the journey into the Abyss continues…