1/2 At the Gates
2/2 Entombed
3/2 Sator
4/2 Tiamat
5/2 Dark Tranquility
6/2 Candlemass
7/2 Bathory
8/2 Tiamat
9/2 In Flames
10/2 Hammerfall
11/2 Pain & Deathstars
12/2 Opeth & Katatonia
13/2 Meshuggah
14/2 Nocturnal Rites
15/2 Cult of Luna
16/2 The Storyteller & Persuader
17/2 Falconer & Dream Evil
18/2 In Flames
19/2 Hammerfall
20/2 Soilwork
21/2 Arch Enemy
22/2 Evergrey
23/2 Crashdiet
24/2 Steel Attack & Nostradameus
25/2 The Haunted & The Crown
26/2 Dark Tranquility
27/2 Amon Amarth
28/2 Andromeda
Hallowed takes a closer look at Swedish Metal in february
By Caj Källmalm
Today is the leap day and the day we leap ahead in to the new generation. It is also the last day of this video special about Swedish metal and we take a look at the next generation of Swedish metal which is two band Hallowed has covered with articles and reviews in the last few years - Dead by April and Sonic Syndicate.
Formed in the southern Swedish town of Falkenberg as Fallen Angels, Sonic Syndicate released their debut in 2005 and changed their name for that very release. Almost one year later they became world known as they were offered a record deal by Nuclear Blast through a competition they won, held to find the next big thing in metal. Another year later the debut was released and as the first video/single of that album we have chosen Denied as the video song of Sonic Syndicate today. Since the debut, Sonic Syndicate has released another two albums and an EP and it's looking good for the band to become that next big thing the label hoped to find.
The second video is the breakthrough single for Dead By April, a band that just like Sonic Syndicate play a somewhat more pop-oriented version of the Gothenburg death metal. Losing You bacame a HUGE hit in Sweden after being used on national television as the promotion music for the Swedish version of Survivor in 2009. Both the album and single that followed had major success and this fall they released their second album. Currently they compete in the Swedish leg of Eurovision Song Contest and they are looking good for a chance to actually represent Sweden in the big final. We'll see if they succeed on the 11th of Mars.
The pure fresh 'Manifest Tyranny' from one of the biggest progressive metal bands in Sweden begins with Premptive Strike and this is a song they've chosen to promote through a video that lasts for exactly 3 minutes and two seconds despite the song being exactly 30 seconds shorter than that on the album. Andromeda has released five albums now and the first album was released ten years before this last one. These ten years has been enough to make Andromeda something more than just a galaxy and the name of a television series… it is also the name of a Swedish metal band!
27/2
Perhaps the most viewed Youtube video in this video special on Swedish metal with more than 13 200 000 views. Released in 2004 on 'Fate Of Norns', this is a quite representative video for this viking-hailing death metal band and all of their distinctive features are all there: the vikingish clothes, the grunting vocals by Johan Hegg, the almost bubbling guitars and the complete lack of hit-adjustment in their songs. Yet, despite this they have 13 million views. In other words, viking metal the way it should be!
26/2
This wednesday, Dark Tranquillity released their latest video out of the masterpiece 'We Are The Void' (awarded with full points in Hallowed when it was released 2 years ago). The counter has already passed 50 000 views by quite a margin and it's not surprising. 'We Are The Void' is one of those albums you so rarely get to hear. An album where everything just is right from beginning to end and that includes this song and not surprisingly it has rubbed off onto this video. The song might be two years old but the video freash this week - both of them are, however, superb, complete and fantastic and this might just be the best song/video of them all in this special. All hail Dark Tranquillity!
25/2
The Haunted - Trenches (Versus) &
The Crown - Doomsday King (Doomsday King)
Grammisbelönade The Haunted sitter på en egen piedestal inom svensk metal. De är nämligen det enda svenska thrash metal-bandet som kan anses ha lyckats komma någonstans med sin musik. Det finns ett antal svenska thrashband som t.ex. Carnal Forge, Impious, Witchkrieg, NonExist, Defleshed och Merciless utöver The Haunted men det är The Haunted som står störst. Denna video kommer från bandets näst senaste album, men det senaste albumet hyllades stort i Hallowed med 6 H och ett förslag till en grammisnominering, som grammiskomittén också nappade på. Tyvärr fick inte bandet priset (och inte heller In Flames eller Opeth som också var nominerade och hyllade av Hallowed)
The Crown skulle lätt kunna förknippas med The Haunted vid en slarvig genomlyssning. Det är ett lite snabbare, lite hårdare band som började lite tidigare än sina Göteborgskollegor. The Crown började som Crown Of Thorns 1990 och bytte sedan namn i slutet på 90-talet efter tre fullängdsalbum. 1999-2004 hade bandet sina bästa år då de inte bara släppte fem ganska framgångsrika album utan även fick åka ut och turnera en hel del. Därefter har bandet splittrats och ombildats och nu är bandet på gång med en uppföljare till albumet vars titellåt ni kan spela idag.
24/2
Steel Attack - Angels (Carpe DiEnd) &
Nostradameus - Not Only Women Bleed (Pathway)
As I write this, the Angels video by Steel Attack has been on Youtube for four years and during this time the Sala-act has only had 2720 views. Of course this is way too few and therefore you can be part in boosting the video now. During the 17 years they've been playing together, Steel Attack has changed a lot of faces and the following list will probably give some sort of perspective: 5 vocalists, 5 guitarists, 5 bass players and 6 drummers has been in the band. Today they've reunited some sort of "original cast", if you can speak of such a setting in the band, and a new album shouldn't be too far away. However, Angels comes from 'Carpe DiEnd', their latest album of today.
The second video of the day comes from the Swedish metal capital, Gothenburg. This is the home of many bands and Nostradameus is one of them. They released their debut in 2000 and has since released six albums with the latest released in 2009. The video of the day comes from their 2007 album, 'Pathway' and is the first video ever by the band- Both Nostradameus and Steel Attack was seen quite a lot in the old printed version of Hallowed but since then they haven't been as present. This is somewhat of a hidden Swedish power metal treasure and both bands are still hoping for that breakthrough. The question is wether it comes or not?
23/2
Chrashdïet - Riot In Everyone (Rest In Sleaze)
Last time we were in Stockholm was the 12th with Opeth and Katatonia so it's high time to return to the Swedish capital and todays band was a centerpiece in sleaze and hair metal becoming big in not only Sweden but the entire world again in the middle of the 00's. Hallowed was one of the first magazines to interview the band back in 2003 when they still only was a demo-band but only one year later they were famous all over Sweden because of the release of their debut album but mostly due to the band being in the television commersial for a national telephone operator. In 2006 the papers printed the story of Dave Lepard, the vocalist and founder of the band, being found dead in his appartment. The band decided to continue and has since released two albums, but the video of the day comes from the first album with Dave Lepard on vocals. Rest in sleaze, Dave! There's a Rion In Everyone!
22/2
If you search "Evergrey" at Youtube and sort by relevance you get a Quiet Riot-video first. Then a Dream Evil-video. Then an Iced Earth-video. It's first by the fifth video you get an Evergrey video and this is with a cover song. But this is also the song that gave Evergrey some sort of breakthrough and therefore it feels like the best video to have in this video special. The Dilba cover I'm Sorry released on 'Recreation Day' from 2003. I don't think this is the best song Evergrey has done, mainly because they've done better songs but also because it's not even their song. It's a cover! But it's quite nice and it has given Evergrey their 15 minutes of fame…
21/2
This weekend we had two videos with 10 million views and the band we look at today are no worse. Arch Enemy actually have TWO videos with 10 million views on Youtube, beside this song also My Apocalypse from the same album. Arch Enemy is the band that somehow became some sort of cult in Japan already with their first albums and since then their success in the land of the rising sun has followed them through their entire career. Europe and America wasn't as quick to catch on and it was first by 'Anthems Of Rebillion' from 2003 and especially 'Doomsday Machine' from 2005 they harvested some success here. Today they're considered one of the biggest band in this genre and their latest album, 'Khaos Legions' released last year, got a 6 H score in Hallowed. The album also resulted in Arch Enemy getting their highest chart positions in almost every country on this planet (among these Japan, USA, Germany, Finland and the UK). 'Doomsday Machine' was the album that laid the foundation for this success…
20/2
When it comes to metal, the town of Helsingborg is only known for two things: Arch Enemy and Soilwork (and Anette Olzon - the voice of Nightwish these days). We'll start with Soilwork today and see where we end up tomorrow. This is the band that took the Gothenburgh metal away from its capital and brought it to Helsingborg. The band has roots back to the mid 90's but in was first by 2003 the band really had a breakthrough with the album 'Figure Number Five'. Since then things has only gone forwards and for the fourth album in a row they've been on the charts now in Sweden, FInland, Germany and France with 'The Panic Broadcast'. This was also their second time on the Billboard charts. Exile comes from the album previous to 'The Panic Broadcast' and this is Soilwork in all possible ways with a fair amount of heaviness, melodicness and goodness.
19/2
The first best-of album released by Hammerfall celebrated the first ten years since releasing their debut album and on two albums they collected the best from the six albums they'd released until then on two CDs. They even put three new songs on the album and among these was the video song of the day, Last Man Standing. Yesterday you could see a video watched 10 million times by In Flames and this Hammerfall video is no worse that. A video watched 10 million times that is very typical for Hammerfall and if you don't get the chorus stuck in your head, you must be impervious to repetitive music.
18/2
In Flames - Take This Life (Come Clarity)
Despite that this is the hardest song In Flames had released in many years, people still accused In Flames of being sell-out due to their commercial success. Take This Life is the first song of 2006s 'Come Clarity' and today it has 10 million views on Youtube! That's pretty amazing for a song that is this hard and heavy. But it's not the views that makes people accuse In Flames of being sell-out. It's not the fact that Lisa Miskowsky (a Swedish singer in the pop-genre and ex-half pipe snowboarder) guest-sung on one song on this album (Dead End). And neither is it that 'Come Clarity' was the first In Flames album to top the Swedish album charts (and it even made the same in Finland). It's just something people do, accuse them of selling out regardless of the heavy fist-punch in the face that 'Come Clarity' and especially this song is. In Flames have four Swedish Grammy-awards, sold millions of albums and with their last album they even peaked the German album charts. Regardless of their success, they remains as one of the most interesting bands today and with 'Sounds Of A Playground Fading' from last year, they returned with full points from Hallowed.
17/2
Falconer is a band that's gone through several phases of their 13 year long career already and the video of the day comes from the one in the middle of the two major ones. After releasing two albums with vocalist Mathias Blad (a very popular vocalist for fans and non-fans as well), Kristoffer Göbel replaced him in 2003 and made two albums before leaving the microphone back to Blad. With Göbel came a more traditional power metal sound but with Blad Falconer has always had a very distinctive folk-sound on their music, even more so after Blad returned. Why we've chosen not to use a video from any of the folk-eras in not because we don't like them (in fact it's when they do that they sound the best) but because we are in the middle of the month and the middle of this video special, to use something from the middle of the career just seemed more suitable.
The second video comes from a band that has no real phases, but if we assign one to them, this video comes from the ending of the first half. Dream Evil has banged on with their stereotypish heavy metal with dragons and other well-used metal elements since 1999 when well-known produced Fredrik Nordström started the band with some friends and acquaintances. 'The Book Of Heavy Metal' was the last album released with the original line-up and the video they made is just as unserious as this whole band is. You got to be a bit off to take it seriously, yet I still think grown up men in silver make-up and foil clothing is somewhat ridiculous.
16/2
The Storyteller - Seed Of Lies (Tales Of A Holy Quest) &
Persuader - The Hunter (The Hunter)
The Storyteller from Gävle was one of the many power metal bands that surfed on the wave of popularity that genre experienced in the late 90's and early 00's. A band that never really got a breakthrough on their own, but struggled on for about ten years before putting their instruments on the shelf in 2006. However, on the 25th of February this month, they are back! On Club Wasteland in their home town, they've said they'll do a reunion show and to all of you who was a fan back "in the days" you should take a trip to Gävle, Sweden and see this happen! To build up the tension, here's something that will get your desire going in the first video of today.
The second video comes from Umeå (just like the previous three this week) and it's the Blind Guardian-flavoured Persuader that gives us a song from their debut album released in 2000. Persuader then got some sort of reckognition by getting a record deal through the Noise records competition Young Metal Gods in 2003. However, after releasing 'Evolution Purgatory' in 2004 they kind of disappeared and only released one more album in 2006. Since then they've said they're working on an album for three years now but nothing happens. We eagerly awaits something from them...
15/2
Cult Of Luna - Leave Me Here (Salvation)
The third Umeå-act for this week is the progressive post-metal band Cult Of Luna and this is a band awarded by the biggest national radio channel in Sweden as the best hard rock band in Sweden 2006. The song of the day comes from the album that paved the streets leading up to that success, 'Salvation' from 2004 and the song is called Leave Me Here which doesn't sound like anything from that time and comes in a completely black and white video. 'Salvation' was celebrated by critics and gave Cult Of Luna the fan-following that resulted in the commercial breakthrough with 'Somewhere Along The Highway' and a nomination for best hard rock at the Swedish Grammy with their latest album, 'Eternal Kingdom' from 2008. They didn't win then, but we want to see them take revenge with a new album soon!
14/2
Nocturnal Rites - Against The World (New World Messiah)
We go from the first Umeå-act to the next and ends up with Nocturnal Rites on today, Valentimes day. The romantic song of the day is Against The World, which isn't a very romantic song at all. For over 20 years, Nocturnal Rites have entertained us with their relaxed approach and superb albums as well as great live shows. It's almost five years since they put a new album out now, but as we watch this video and enjoy this Nocturnal Rites classic they are in the studio working on something new. Patience my metal friends, patience!
13/2
Meshuggah - Rational Gaze (Nothing)
Bandet som aldrig slog igenom i hemlandet men gjorde succé i utlandet var fram till 2005 Meshuggah. Med albumet 'Catch Thirtythree' ändrades dock detta och Meshuggah kunde äntligen börja njuta av lite framgångar på hemmaplan, vilket nu givit dem två topp tjugoalbum på svenska försäljningslistan. Rational Gaze kommer från albumet 'Nothing' från 2002 och visar Meshuggah från en mellantid i bandets konstiga karriär då de som så många andra svenska band gått mot en mer melodiös och radiovänlig ljudbild allt eftersom började dock bandet väldigt psykedeliskt och argt medan senaste albumet, 'obZen' är mer melodiös och inte fullt lika hård. Albumet 'Nothing' och singeln Rational Gaze står någonstans emellan dessa. Den progressiva och oförutsägbara galenskapen Meshuggah står för finns i allra högsta grad närvarande i låten från detta Umeåband.
12/2
Hallowed gives room for Swedish Grammy awared Opeth to make their debut in our video special with a song from their breakthrough album 'Blckwater Park' called Harvest. This six minute long epic is a ballad that provest the complexity of Opeth in a nutshell. They make progressive music, but not to the extent that it becomes weird and incomprehensible. 'Blackwater Park' was the first Opeth album that wasn't dominated by growls, instead Mikael Åkerfeldt sings mostly in clear vocals, which probably is one reason for the arriving success following this album. Today Opeth has topped the charts in FInland, been as high as fourth in Sweden, seventh in Norway and Australia, ninth in Germany, tenth in Holland, thirteenth in Switzerland and ninteenth in USA. And they've been awarded with a Swedish Grammy for best hard rock!
The second video of today comes from a band that hasn't charted top ten anywhere, or won grammy awards anywhere. They are Katatonia and despite the above still an important band for Swedish metal. Formed in Stockholm 1991 they released their debut in 1993 but the video we can watch today comes from 2006 and the album 'The Great Cold Distance'. This is the first video they recorded and if you think they sound like Type O Negative, you're not alone. They are sometimes referred to as a Swedish Type O Negative (yet I can't remind myself that I've ever heard them do any Type O Negative songs in Swedish…). Perhaps not an entirely false label?
11/2
Pain - End Of The Line (Rebirth) & Deathstars - Blitzkrieg (Termination Bliss)
Pain released a self-titled debut in 1996 but it was with their second album, released three years later, that things started to happen and they had a breakthrough. 'Rebirth' became a big hit and went to 21st on the Swedish charts and the first single, the video song of the day (End of The Line), made it even better and climbed to 15th. Pain took the industrial hard rock sound one step further, in to something that's almost techno or disco within hard rock. Many hated it, of course, but many loved it as well. Make up your own mind with this song, if you haven't heard it already.
Deathstars released their debut a few years after 'Rebirth' and is one of all these industrial hard rock bands with make-up and goofy costumes. There are plenty of them, but Deathstars is the only one from Sweden that's made international success in some way. This second video of today comes from the year of 2006 and the album 'Terminal Bliss'. The song is called Blitzkrieg (a name it shares with the term for rapid advance in war, a war-theme computer game, a Marvel comic hero, a heavy metal band, a punk-rock band, an Yngwie malmsteen song and the first part of the title to The Ramones classic debut single). A pretty representative Deathstars song in every way...
10/2
Hammerfall - Glory To The Brave (Glory To The Brave)
In 1997, Hammerfall released their debut 'Glory To The Brave' and became a big part in one of the biggest renaissances the history of hard rock has ever seen. This was an album that wasn't grunge, punk-rock, goth or nu-metal in a time when this was all media cared for from heavy music. The choice of music by Hammerfall to play this kind of music was, as their title implied, brave but in fact pretty wise. As a result, 'Glory To The Brave' peaked on the German charts at 38th and all though the single with the same name never entered any charts, it laid the foundation for the success that was about to come. This is a power ballad that shows us a Hammerfall that hadn't had the success of today - before number one albums and singles, a collective hatred (probably caused by envy) and then redemption through a common acknowledgement within the metal circuits.
9/2
In Flames - Ordinary Story (Colony)
In Sweden, every album released by In Flames has been the last before selling out, once the next album is released. When 'The Jester Race' was released, In Flames had sold out, 'Lunar Strain' was the only thing this band could manage. Until 'Whoracle' came, then 'The Jester Race' was part of that decent in Flames collection. The same thing was said when 'Colony' was released. And 'Clayman'. And 'Reroute To Remain'. And 'Soundtrack To Your Escape', 'Come Clarity' and 'A Sense Of Purpose'. And my guess is that it will be said about 'Sounds Of A Playground Fading' too, once a new In Flames album is released. But not today. Now, this year - and the next - until that next album is released, In Flames are sell-out. A band that fans of metal seems to love to hate because they love them so much, or loved - on the earlier albums. A band that I, however, loves to love… but that's not the ordinary story.
8/2
Tiamat - Brighter Than The Sun (Skelleton Skelletron)
First band with two videos in our Swedish metal special is Tiamat, which after 'Wildhoney' (the album from which the previous video came) reached the charts in Sweden. 'A Deeper Kind Of Slumber' was released in 1997 and two years later they released 'Skelleton Skelletron' and this is from where the video of today comes. Another step towards a softer and more gothic Tiamat with more atmospheres and moods with melodies rather than anger and darkness. Brighter Than The Sun shows more hit-feel and is the first video in this special that is quite entertaining (not just footage of a band playing). As we've come a week in to this video special, we've mostly seen dark, hard and heavy music which is, as I said in my very first line about the very first video: "in the beginning there was darkness". Swedish metal was mostly dark, heavy and hard in the beginning but just like Tiamat this started to change during the 90's and from here we'll get lighter. With Tiamat as our guide...
7/2
Bathory - One Rode To Asa Bay (Hammerheart)
The first satanic metal band in Sweden and the first black metal band as well is Bathory, which is the same band as Trollhorn in Finntroll think is the greatest band in the world and the same band that has released 11 albums between 1984 and 2003, yet only one video. The video we give you today, called One Rode To Asa Bay and originally released on the album 'Hammerheart' from 1990. You can't really deny the importance Bathory has had on dark and black metal in both Sweden and the world, which is why we honor them with a day in our video special despite their satanic approach which I personally wouldn't give a dead dog for. In 2004 the driving force of Bathory, Quorthon, died and with him also the band but what he's done for the entire extreme scene within metal is major and this video is among the best things Bathory produced in their 20 years as a creative band.
6/2
Candlemass - Under The Oak (Epicus, Doomicus, Metallicus)
De var inte först, vilket många verkar tro, men de var defenitivt störst i begynnelsen. Candlemass, Sveriges doom-kungar. Med sin första skiva, 'Epicus, Doomicus, Metallicus' gjorde de ett enormt fotavtryck i doomhistorien som nu firat en kvarts sekel. När bandet för sex år sedan firade 20 år gjorde de en jubileumsspelning och med sin originalsångare Johan Längqvist som sångare på andra singeln från debuten, som släpptes tre år efter skivan och mitt uppe i Candlemass storhetstid som börjat med andra albumet 'Nightfall'. Det är ifrån denna jubileumsspelning vi har hämtat dagens video av andra Stockholmsbandet i vår special (det första var som ni säkert minns Entombed) och ni som har lite öra kan höra klart och tydligt att det finns en stor skillnad på Stockholmsbanden och Göteborgsbanden så här långt. Avgör själva vad som är bäst.
5/2The third band out of Gothenburg in this Swedish metal special is Dark tranquillity (following At The Gates and Tiamat) and their song is collected from the follow-up to the critically acclaimed 'The Gallery'. The album is called 'The Mind's i' and was probably not at all what the fans had wished for or what fans and media alike expected. So surprise surprise when their choice of single was the song Hedon, a classic death metal song but with more melodies and varied song. I think it's a middle thing between where they started and where they are today - not as much electronics and keyboard but a quite primitive version of the band, still far ahead of almost all competition at the time. I've always found it strange and confusing why Dark Tranquillity isn't as big as In Flames, but perhaps the reason is that they just aren't as commercial in their approach? Judge for yourself!
4/2
Tiamat - Whatever That Hurts (Wildhoney)
'Wildhoney' marked a new era for Tiamat. A more gothic sound was sneaking in to the music and both tempo and heaviness was in a transition stage. Johan Edlund had started to do other kind of vocals than grunty growls and as a result of all these changes the sales were better than ever. To label the albums musical directon is hard because it mixes everything from psychedelic rock to death metal and the song Whatever That Hurts is no exception. Here we find everything from whispering to plain screaming and growls. Calm instrumental parts turns in to frenetic guitars and heavy drumming and vice versa. Tiamat is without doubt one of the most important bands in the history of Swedish metal and probably the band that through they years have shown the biggest range as their musical direction has taken them through more or less everything you can play in metal but wherever they've turned they've always maintained top class in their material. Respect!
3/2
Sator - I Want To Go Home (Headquake)
As a band, Sator is almost as old as me writing this. As Sator Codex they released their debut album 1986 before changing name in to just Sator and releasing their second debut in 1988, called 'Slammer!'. In 1992 the band had their commercial breakthrough with the album 'Headquake' and the single 'I Want To Go Home' which was played a lot in Sweden at the radio and on MTV as well as figuring in a major Swedish film. 'Headquake' even won a Swedish grammy for best hard rock. The core members Kent Norberg, Chips Kiesbye and hans Gäfvert has been in the band since their debut and last year they released their latest album (you can read all about it here on Hallowed). This particular song, this classic song, is pretty hard to get out of your head once you've started to play it so before you play it, read this warning: highly addictive, use with care!
2/2
Entombed - Wolverine Blues (Wolverine Blues)
We opened with the fathers of Gothenburg death yesterday in this Swedish metal special, but the fathers of Swedish death overall is not from Gothenburg but the other side of Sweden (Stockholm), and they're called Entombed. The third Entombed album was released in 1993 and is called 'Wolverine Blues'. The title track of that album the video of the day and in my opinion a better choice is hard to find. When I grew up in Sweden, the only rock related shirts I saw except Iron Maiden and Motörhead was Entombeds and the imprint they made on Swedish metal is undeniable - a bit more extreme and melodic than metal from most other countries. Despite the name, this song is not related to the X-Men character, yet the X-Men Wolverine still figures some in this video. The only reason for that is that the record label though it would be good marketing to make a deal with Marvel and have him there and I personally agree, despite the lyrics saying something else (but who hears what L-G Petrov "sings" of anyway?).
1/2
At The Gates - Blinded By Fear (Slaughter Of The Soul)
In the beginning thre was darkness, then At The Gates said "let there be death". Gothenburg death is a term as accepted within hard rock as New Wave Of British Heavy Metal or Bay Area Thrash. The Swedish wave of death metal began when we turned in to the 90's and it has one band to thank for becoming what it is today - and that is At The Gates. They were first and they were the biggest. In 1995 they reached their career peak with the album 'Slaughter Of The Soul' and still today all the bands in Sweden, Finland, USA and more or less all of the world that has been inspired by them and the Gothenburg death scene struggle to get even close to that album. Blinded By Fear, the opening track of the album and the video song, is probably the most inforgetable melodic death metal song you'll ever hear. So, beginning at the top… this is the best it gets when it comes to Swedish metal - this months theme in our video special.
