Versengold is a German folk and neo-medieval band formed in 2003 by the singer Malte Hoyer in his hometown Osterholz-Scharmbeck. The band, originally formed as a hobby project, mainly consisted of the founding duo Carolin Fährmann and Malte Hoyer, who at the time also played the cittern and the hurdy-gurdy, together with the percussionist Jan Schröder and the violinist Arndt Rathien. The quartet’s content and music were mainly geared towards LARP and medieval re-enactment. In October 2005, the debut album Hoerensagen was released. On the second album Allgebraeu, published in April 2006, Thomas Heuer was already present as a featured artist. For the 2008 season, Jan Schröder and Arndt Rathjen left the band and in May 2008 the album Ketzerey was released, with percussionist Thomas Heuer and violinist Alexander Willms. After the album was completed, Carolin Fährmann also left the band and the female soprano role was taken by the guest artists Martje Saljé and Maren-Mechthild Meyer-Wünsch (vocals, cittern, flutes, bodhrán). The three remaining band members Hoyer, Heuer and Willms therefore decided to dissolve the band and publish one last album as an all male trio. During the production, Florian Janoske and Daniel Gregory joined as guest musicians. In this line-up, the band released the album Dreck am Stecken in January 2011. Subsequently, Janoske and Gregory became full members and the band continued playing as a pure male quintet.
The band professionalised over the years and its style also transformed, first including Celtic elements, later with rock and folk moving more into the centre. Immediately after Versengold’s performance at Wacken Open Air 2013, the band released the album Im Namen des Folkes in August 2013. Also in August 2013 Versengold played together with Die Kammer, Lyriel and Fiddler’s Green in an opening act for Schandmaul in front of 10,000 visitors.
In 2015, Sean Lang and Eike Otten joined the band, on the drums and on the bass respectively. The album Zeitlos, released in this line-up, rose to 22nd place on the German album charts and was subsequently presented in an accompanying club tour. In addition to another appearance at Wacken Open Air, the band played at other festivals, including Summer Breeze, Rockharz, Open Flair and Greenfield. In the same year, the band published its first live album Live 2015. In 2016 the VD Live in Hamburg, recorded at the Hamburg Gruenspan, was released, featuring Katja Moslehner.
In 2017 the album Funkenflug was published and reached second place of the German album charts, constituting the greatest success of the band to date. In the same year, Thomas “Pinto” Heuer left the band. In October 2018, Versengold celebrated its 15-year anniversary with two concerts in Hamburg with 3,500 visitors at the Große Freiheit 36, to which a series of guests including Schandmaul and Subway to Sally also took part. The concert was recorded and released as a limited fan box on Blu-Ray.
In 2019, the band released the album Nordlicht. In 2022 the album Was kost die Welt was published, which reached first place in the German album charts. In November 2023, Versengold released its new album Lautes Gedenken and celebrated its 20-year anniversary the following day with around 10,000 fans in the Barclays Arena in Hamburg.
