The Undertaker

Mark William Calaway (born March 24, 1965), better known by his ring name The Undertaker, is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is currently signed to WWE, where he has worked since 1990, making him the company's longest tenured in-ring performer. Calaway began his wrestling career with World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) in 1984. After wrestling for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as "Mean" Mark Callous from 1989 to 1990, he signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1990.

As The Undertaker, his gimmick is a horror-themed, dynamically dark, macabre entity who employs scare tactics and holds links to the supernatural. He has won the Wrestling Observer Newsletter "Best Gimmick" award, a record five times. The Undertaker is the storyline half-brother of fellow WWE wrestler Kane, with whom he has alternately feuded and teamed with as The Brothers of Destruction. Since unseating Hulk Hogan as WWF Champion in 1991, The Undertaker has been involved in various pivotal storylines and matches within WWE history.

The Ministry of Darkness

The Ministry of Darkness was a heel professional wrestling stable in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1999. Led by The Undertaker, the Ministry was a controversial group with pseudo-Satanic themed storylines, that included rituals and sacrifices.

History

Formation

In October 1998 at the Judgment Day: In Your House pay-per-view event, Paul Bearer turned his back on his son Kane and rejoined the side of Kane's brother The Undertaker. The next night on Raw Is War, The Undertaker announced the Ministry of Darkness and a "plague of evil" that would be unleashed on the WWF, thus making Undertaker a villain. The Undertaker continued to feud with Kane and Stone Cold Steve Austin, which involved segments in which Undertaker hit Austin in the head with a shovel giving him a storyline concussion. On the following Raw Is War one week later, interviews were conducted with Austin throughout the night in his hospital room in a medical center in the San Jose, California area, where the night before at a WWF live event Austin blacked out, as part of the storyline in the lead up to the Buried Alive match.

Of Darkness...

Of Darkness... is a debut studio album released on February 1991 by the Swedish band Therion and it contains songs written in the early years of the band, during the 1980s. The album is indicated by the band itself as an end of its first era.

The album was re-released on 27 November 2000 under Nuclear Blast label as a part of The Early Chapters of Revelation box-set. It contains remastered songs, as well as four bonus tracks.

Recording and production

After releasing the third demo record Time Shall Tell EP in 1990, Therion got attention from the British label Deaf Records, a subsidiary of Peaceville Records, and signed the band's first contract.Of Darkness... was recorded in Swedish studio Sunlight in Stockholm from August to September 1990 and released on February 1991. The initial line-up has not been changed since its last production. The album was produced by Tomas Skogsberg and the band itself.

Songs, lyrical themes and influences

Of Darkness... consists of songs Christofer Johnsson had written in the years of 1987–1989. Despite having newer songs, the band opted to save them for their next full release. The album can be seen as a progressive death metal album in that it contained mainly influences that were not standard to death metal at the time. The album was influenced especially by the Celtic Frost's thrash metal album Into the Pandemonium. Its sound was compared to Dismember (melody), Suffocation and Morpheus (rhythm), Entombed, Napalm Death, Repulsion, Bolt Thrower (guitars), Carcass and other extreme thrash metal and grindcore bands of those days.

Ministry

Ministry may refer to:

Government

Religion

Music

Fiction

Funeral director

A funeral director, also known as a mortician or undertaker, is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as well as the planning and arrangement of the actual funeral ceremony. Funeral directors may at times be asked to perform tasks such as dressing (in garments usually suitable for daily wear), casketing (placing the human body in the coffin), and cossetting (applying any sort of cosmetic or substance to the viewable areas of the person for the purpose of enhancing appearances). A funeral director may work at a Funeral home or be an independent employee.

Etymology

The term mortician is derived from the Latin word mort- (“death”) + -ician. In 1895, the trade magazine The Embalmers' Monthly put out a call for a new name for the profession to distance itself from the title undertaker, a term that was then perceived to have been tarnished by its association with death. The term Mortician was the winning entry.