Swedish Death Metal

Sweden is a small country in freezing northern Europe, with less than nine million inhabitants and a reputation for Volvos, hockey players, cheap furniture, vodka, and blonde women. Since the late 1980s, however, Sweden has produced over a thousand extreme heavy metal bands, creating one of the most respected regional music scenes in the world. This is the improbable history of how a marginalized teen movement crawled from Sweden s small towns and suburbs, and found a lasting place on the world stage. Daniel Ekeroth captures the epic tale with enlightening detail, beginning with Sweden s violent loss of innocence in the 1980s, through the metal s virtual chokehold on the country during the 1990s, into the lasting legacy and global influence in the turbulent 2000s of the Sunlight guitar tone, the Gothenburg Sound, and the countless offshoots of Sweden s most lethal cultural export. Bazillion Points has extensively revised and updated a classic for this expanded edition. The ultimate insider's account of the rise of Sweden's legendary extreme metal scene, the book boasts over 450 pages, over 500 images, and scores of exclusive interviews with members of Nihilist/ Entombed, In Flames, At the Gates, Dismember, Grave, Hypocrisy, Opeth, Unleashed, Marduk, Morbid, Mob 47, Deranged, Edge of Sanity, Merciless, Therion, Liers in Wait, Carnage, Carcass, Tiamat/Treblinka, Afflicted, Repugnant, the Haunted, and other central characters. Original cover artwork by Nicke Andersson. Introduction by U.S. death metal pioneer Chris Reifert of Autopsy/Abscess/Death. Includes 120-page A-Z of Swedish Death Metal with hundreds of band histories and discographies. Rare photos and galleries of logos, band art, demo tapes, and classic Swedish death metal fanzines. Specs: 7 x9.5 x1.5 , 3lbs., 101% addictive.