In 1998
Mikael Nilsson (bass) and Henrik Tranemyr (guitar)
came up with the idea to start a metal band and
were looking for more people interested. They
quickly recruited Jonny Westerback for the (guitar)
and Tobhias Ljung (drums).
In August 2000 we were confimed to appear on a
Blind Guardian tribute-record. We went into the
studio again and recorded the BG song "Welcome
to Dying" with Tobhias behind the microphone.
This time with Jonny taking care of the vocals
the “Inverted Icons” demo was recorded in
Soundlab studios by ourselves (co-engineered by
Mathias Färm and Mieszko Talarczyk) between 2-5
september and mixed by Mieszko Talarczyk and The
Bereaved 21-22 september 2002.
Sent it out to magazines and record companies
and the feedback was great with amazing reviews
and several contract offers. We felt that Black
Lotus records had the best offer for the band so
we signed the contracts in summer of 2003 and
started to make songs for the debut album. A
keyboardist were added to the band, the talented
Tony Thorén.
In January 2004 we entered Studio Underground
for three weeks, working 24/7 to complete our
first album “Darkened Silhouette” (Recorded,
produced and mixed by Pelle Saether and The
Bereaved, engineered by Lars Linden and Pelle
Saether).
Cover artwork and layout for “Darkened
Silhouette” were done by Seth Design and
mastering were done by Athens mastering studio.
Due to delays ot of our control we had to wait
for over a year until the album were finally
were released in the beginning of 2005.
In the beginning of 2006 we got an OK from Black
Lotus records to record the second album so we
entered Studio Underground once again in march
06 for three intensive weeks.
This time around we were just doing the
recording there, mixing will be done by Dan
Swanö at Unisound.
While waiting for Black Lotus to pay the
studiotime (scheduled to june 06) so we could
get our hands on the raw material to do some
finishing touches and then mix and master it we
got a phone call instead, sayng that Black Lotus
were closing it´s doors! Putting us in a shitty
situation were we have to find another label
really quick. It really felt like shit towards
Pelle in Studio Underground who sat on the
material that we couldn’t pay ourselves. Also
knowing we had this kick-ass album that would
bang the heads of metalfans all over the world.
Time went on and we had no idea of what to do.
Meanwhile Dan Swanö had been contacting Vic
Records about us searching for a deal and
serious negotiations was engaged.
2007:
Later this led to Jonny leaving the band, we
understood why. Everything that had been our
dream turned out to become our nightmare and he
felt all the fun was gone but didn’t want to
abandon the ship before things had straighten
up.
With only two auditions his void was filled with
Denny Axelsson (vocals) and Per Bergquist
(guitars). They really impressed us with their
skills and energy.
With a new line-up and The Bereaved signed to
Vic Records a new era has just begun.
