Celtic Frost was a Swiss metal band from Zürich. They are remembered for their strong influence on the development of several varieties of extreme metal and for their avant-garde approach to music more generally.
Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres. Both the music and the lyrics are intended to evoke a sense of despair, dread, and impending doom. The genre is strongly influenced by the early work of Black Sabbath, who formed a prototype for doom metal. During the first half of the 1980s, a number of bands such as Witchfinder General and Pagan Altar from England, American bands Pentagram, Saint Vitus, the Obsessed, Trouble, and Cirith Ungol, and Swedish band Candlemass defined doom metal as a distinct genre. Pentagram, Saint Vitus, Trouble and Candlemass have been referred to as "the Big Four of Doom Metal".
Bloodbath is a Swedish death metal supergroup from Stockholm, formed in 1998. The band has released six full-length albums, two EPs and two DVDs depicting their performances at Wacken Open Air and Bloodstock Open Air. The group consists of Martin Axenrot (ex-Opeth), Anders Nyström (Katatonia), Jonas Renkse and Nick Holmes.
Dan-Erland Swanö, also known as Dan "The Man" Swanö, is a Swedish musician and record producer who is currently the vocalist, guitarist, ex-bassist and ex-drummer for the band Nightingale, lately vocalist, keyboardist and drummer for the band Witherscape, as well as the owner of Unisound, but he achieved fame as the vocalist and songwriter of progressive death metal band Edge of Sanity.
Katatonia is a Swedish heavy metal band formed in Stockholm in 1991 by Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström. The band started as a studio-only project for the duo, as an outlet for the band's love of death metal. Increasing popularity led them to add more band members for live performances, though outside of the band's founders, the lineup was a constantly changing, revolving door of musicians throughout the 1990s, notably including Mikael Åkerfeldt of the band Opeth for a period. After two death/doom albums, Dance of December Souls (1993) and Brave Murder Day (1996), problems with Renkse's vocal cords coupled with new musical influences led the band away from the screamed vocals of death metal to a more traditional, melodic form of heavy metal music.
Rage is a German heavy metal band formed in 1984 by Peter "Peavy" Wagner. They were part of the German heavy/speed/power metal scene which emerged in the early to mid-1980s, and have been referred to as one of the country's so-called "big four" of power metal, along with Grave Digger, Helloween and Running Wild.
Daylight Dies is a melodic death-doom band from North Carolina, United States.
Rigor Mortis was an American thrash metal band that formed in 1983 in the Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas metroplex.
Nocturnus, currently Nocturnus AD, is an American death metal band formed in Tampa, Florida, in 1987 by the drummer/vocalist Mike Browning. They were known for their science-fiction-themed lyrics and use of keyboards, both of which were virtually unknown in extreme metal at the time. The 1990 debut from the band is considered by some to be the first progressive death metal album.
Draconian is a Swedish gothic metal band formed in Säffle in 1994.
Brave Murder Day is the second studio album by Swedish heavy metal band Katatonia, released on 1 August 1996 by Avantgarde Music. The lead vocals on the album are provided by Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth, as Katatonia frontman Jonas Renkse was medically unable to perform screamed vocals anymore following health issues that arose from performing the band's debut. It was also the band's first album with second guitarist Fredrik Norrman.
Viva Emptiness is the sixth studio album by Swedish heavy metal band Katatonia, released in 2003 by Peaceville Records. On the album's tenth anniversary in 2013, it was re-released, featuring a new mix, mastering and additional keyboard arrangements.
Hibernus Mortis is a band started in December, 1995 by Cesar Placeres and Ralf Varela. The band took its name from the ancient Latin translation for "Dead Winter". Starting out, the South Florida band's primary goal was to create some of the most crushing and extreme music ever recorded. Taking influence from a variety of sources, the band took musical inspiration from old-school death metal bands like Incantation, Autopsy, Morbid Angel, Death, Dismember, Immolation, Entombed, Obituary, Vader and Suffocation just to name a few.
Xasthur is the project of American musician Scott "Malefic" Conner. Conner formed Xasthur in 1995 and released eight studio albums of black metal by 2010, when he announced the end of the project. However, he began using the name once again in 2015 to instead perform acoustic neofolk music. The first album with this new style was entitled Subject to Change, released in 2016.
Avantgarde Music is an Italian record label, formed as a continuation of Obscure Plasma Records, focusing on black and doom metal artists. The label had a sub-label called Wounded Love Records, which has released albums by Dolorian and Taake. A new sub-label, Flowing Downward, had been founded in 2018, specializing in atmospheric black metal bands specifically.
Avulsed is a Spanish death metal band, formed in August 1991 in Madrid by Dave Rotten.
October Tide is a Swedish death/doom metal band that was created in 1994 by Katatonia vocalist Jonas Renkse and then-Katatonia guitarist Fred Norrman. Norrman revived the band after leaving Katatonia in 2009.
Astarte was an all-female black metal band from Athens, Greece, named after the goddess Astarte.
Stab Wounds is the third studio album by German melodic black metal band Dark Fortress which was released on 11 June 2004, through German record label Black Attackk. The whole layout and cover art of the booklet has been designed by Travis Smith. A strictly limited 2-LP Vinyl version was released in December 2004 by the new German label Imperium Productions.
City Burials is the eleventh studio album by Swedish heavy metal band Katatonia. The album continues the progressive rock direction used in recent albums while returning to some of their earlier metal instrumentation. Three singles were released in promotion of the album; "Lacquer", "Behind the Blood", and "The Winter of Our Passing".
