Artist description Death/Black/Thrash metal with keyboards from Sweden with three albums out.

Music Style Death/Black/Thrash Metal

Musical Influences King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Mayhem, Malevolent Creation, Katatonia

Artist History In early 1993 Niklas Sundqvist, Robert Sundelin and Henrik Åberg formed the band Leprechaun with the intention of making dark, violent music. Vocalist Daniel Björkman was soon added to the line-up. Leprechaun played a couple of gigs before changing their name to Necromicon. In January 1994 the first demo 'When the Sun turns Black' was recorded. This demo wasn't spread widely at the time of its release but recieved some good and average reviews in the underground. The second demo 'Through the Gates of Grief', recorded in July '94, featured a new bassplayer, Jonas Mejfeldt. This tape made Necromicon a more or less well-known band in the underground. Soon after the recording Henrik left the band. Jonas moved on to play guitar and Niklas' younger brother Patrik filled in on bass. Also a keyboardist, Roger Johansson, was recruited at this time, as the keyboards were becoming a more important part in Necromicon's music. In early '95 a deal for a split-cd was signed with the new French label Impure Creations Records (now known as Velvet Music International). At this time Jonas was forced to leave the band, as he was becoming a father. The remaining members recorded five songs for this release in February of '95, but as the contract was altered later in the year, three additional songs were recorded in August. These tracks featured a new guitarist, Stefan Lundgren. The eight songs became the 'Realm of Silence' album, which was released in April '96. Following the release, Necromicon signed a new deal with the Dutch label Hammerheart Records, and started to make songs for the next album. This album, entitled 'Sightveiler', was recorded in the autumn of '97, and was released in March '98. This record was released in a luxurious A5 digipack and sold very good. After that the band was put on ice a while since the members had to concentrate on personal things etc. Some problems within the band resulted in a different line-up.Robert left the band due to almost no rehearsal, Daniel had to leave the group due to personal problems with stefan, Sara left the band and Roger moved to another town for a job. The remaining souls of Necromicon braced themselves and started to make new music, Daniel was replaced by Kai Jaakola (Twilight), Sara with Ann zofie Elert and Robert with Alzazmon (drummer on Dark funerals Vobiscum album).The new Material is faster, More technical, Sicker and most of all BETTER!!!!

Group Members Nicklas Sundkvist - Guitars, Patrick Sundkvist - Bass, Stefan Lundgren - Guitars

Instruments Electric and accoustic guitars, drums, bass, keyboards

Albums Realm Of Silence (1996), Sightveiler (1998), Peccata Mundi (2000)

Press Reviews ------ PECCATA MUNDI ------ Wow fuck! The least we can say is that Necromicon have changed a lot since their excellent album 'Sightveiler'! First of all, the line-up: their drummer Rob left, and has been replaced for the recordings by Alzazmon (Dark Funeral); their singer left; and their keyboard player too. Concerning their music, it has evolved a lot too. It's still in the black metal style, but with guitars that sound more powerful and more death metal-like, and the keyboards have lost their importance, and are now appearing more as a backing instrument than before. By the way, the use of a harpsichord sound for the keys is a very good idea! Apart from that, the sound is really good (thanks to the studios of mister Therion), Alzazmon bashes his skins like a maniac and kicks ass on the double drum bass, the voices are still fat as death metal and screamy as black metal, and you can also feel a strong heavy metal influence (especially Mercyful Fate) in some guitar riffs. In addition to that, you have cool melodies, a lot of energy, and some quite original tracks like 'Suicide Caravan' will do more than please you! With 'Peccata Mundi', it's obvious that Necromicon is one of the Swedish rising bands Rating: 8/10 ------ REALM OF SILENCE ------ These guys from Luleå in Sweden had a interesting demo out a few years ago and I decided to check their album out if they ever got a deal. Well now it's out, but I can't say I got what I'd expected. For a demo it was quite good, but now it's a album and the sound is almost the same and the material is not much better. The production is a bit better, but it's very poor for an album. Sorry boys, this doesn't appeal much to me. Sure there are some good songs and several good riffs with keyboards and even some female vocals. All this had been great if it where done better. Everything is cheap with this album. Why didn't you put down a bit of hard work into it and made it good instead of something resembling to a demo? 3/5 ------ PECCATA MUNDI ------ This band is not a newcomer on the Heavy Metal scene cause they exist since 1994. The band comes from Sweden and if you try to imagine their sound you might be correct in half. Yes, they play a Death Metal in the way that almost all Swedish bands do, but they are also have an equal amount of old school Death Metal as well for the retro fans. Many melodies are embedded into the songs and they manage to create an album that can be heard with the interest high. The band is very technical and this becomes obvious not only on their fast songs but also on the bridges and they keyboard melodies. Excellent work on keyboards, great work on guitars, and a vocalist, with a throat as deep as a well, who sometimes crosses the line and sounds purely Black, everything on this album is carefuly planned and arranged so, the result is a disk of eight songs that are pure Swedish Death Metal. Special mention on the drummer who is the ex-Dark Funeral, Alzazmon, whose skills are well known on the fans of the group. Great, violent, old school, technical Swedish Death. What more could we ask? 8/10 and 7/10 ------ SIGHTVEILER ------ This was a big surprise as I was fairly disappointed by the debut. It opens up with a keyboard/piano intro. which is nice and then it continues to surprise. Very interesting touches to the music that makes it original and good. The production could have been a bit better, as the drum sound sometimes annoys me. But over all has it got a powerful and majestic sound thanks to the good keyboards and material. This has also got a more sad and beautiful touch then the usual B.M. band has. The 58 min. goes fast when listening to this album. I know that they got plenty of bad criticism about the female vocals on their debut so my guess is that they will get that again. I didn't mind then and I don't really mind now, but in my opinion it sounds much the same. This album is telling a story about a serial killer driven by voices in his head (if I'm not wrong). I don't like the cover artwork very much, but I think it's still original to release it as an A5 book just like Burzum's Filosofem. 5/5

Additional Info Necromicon interview on Metal Guide.com - http://www.metal-guide.com/int/NECROMICON.html ------ Necromicon interview on Sweet Suffering E-Zine answered by former drummer Robert (Zoid) - http://www.sweet-suffering.de/darken/necromicon.html ------ Necromicon interview on Russian Metal site answered by former keyboardist Roger - http://www.rusmetal.ru/vae_solis/necromicon.htm ------ Grade our debut album Realm of silence - http://www.chez.com/azazel/album/necromicon_ros.html ------ Necromicon interview answered by Patric - http://home.nestor.minsk.by/emn/interview/necromicon.html

Location Luleå, Norrbotten - Sweden

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