Masquerade (band)

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Masquerade
General information
origin Borås and Skövde , Sweden
Genre (s) Adult Orientated Rock , Hard Rock , Progressive Metal , Power Metal
founding 1988
Current occupation
Henrik Lundberg
Marco Tapani
Thomas "G: Son" Gustafsson
Tony "Yoanson" Johansson
former members
Drums
 Marco Tapani
Electric guitar
 Ulf "Wolf" Andersson

Masquerade is a Swedish metal and rock band from Borås and Skövde that was formed in 1988.

history

The band was formed in 1988. In 1991 the single Dancin 'on the Edge was released . Then the guitarist Ulf Andersson left the band and was replaced by Thomas "G: Son" Gustafsson , before the group's self-titled debut album was released in 1992. Of these, around 30,000 units were sold in Japan in the period up to the release of the second album. After the demo Suffering , which contains three songs, was released, the second album Surface of Pain followed in 1994 . The sound carrier was initially only released in Scandinavia , later also in the rest of Europe on various labels and in 1995 in the USA on Metal Blade Records . The US version and the version for non-Scandinavian Europe each received a redesigned cover. The band took a longer break until 1998, before the 2001 album Flux was released. The sound carrier was published by Metal Blade Records, whereby the European cover design was different from the American one. In 2004 the album In Disguise was released . The Japanese version was released by Spiritual Beast Records , on which My Dying Days II is included as a bonus song. The album contains previously unreleased demos from the band's early days. Gustafsson writes full-time lyrics for pop singers . For example, some of his songs were featured in the Eurovision Song Contest , which he won in 2012 with the song Euphoria sung by Loreen .

style

According to Martin Popoff in his book The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 3: The Nineties , the band plays progressive alternative metal on Surface of Pain with clear and operatic vocals that are reminiscent of Tad Morose and Geoff Tate . The group is doing what Queensrÿche has forgotten to do, namely "rocking out". Janne Stark was in The Heaviest Encyclopedia of Swedish Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Ever! that the band played in the style of TNT on the first single and first album Adult Orientated Rock . Later they dedicated themselves to the melodic hard rock of the 1990s. According to Wolfgang Schäfer from Rock Hard , the band plays a mixture of Dokken , Queensrÿche, Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake on Surface of Pain . The hard guitars were also striking, which reminded him of groups like Overdrive , TNT, 220 Volt and the old Europe . In an interview with Schäfer, the band stated that they were influenced by groups like Toto , Black Sabbath and Judas Priest . According to Matthias Weckmann from Metal Hammer , the first two albums range between Def Leppard , Fates Warning and Whitesnake. Influences from Mindfeed , Skin and Mental Hippie Bloed can be heard on Flux . Matthias Mineur from the same magazine assigned the band to Power Metal in his review of Surface of Pain , with the band making use of other genres such as crossover , alternative metal and grunge . The music is comparable to that of Iron Maiden , Helloween and Queensrÿche and the vocals sound like a mixture of Geoff Tate and Michael Kiske .

Discography

  • 1991: Dancin 'on the Edge (single, self-published)
  • 1992: Masquerade (album, Dino Music )
  • 1992: Sudden Love Affair (single, self-published)
  • 1993: Suffering (demo, self-published)
  • 1993: Marilyn (Dancin on the Edge) (single, self-published)
  • 1994: Surface of Pain (album, Empire Records )
  • 1999: Wish (single, Metal Blade Records )
  • 2001: Flux (album, Metal Blade Records)
  • 2004: In Disguise (Album, Sorcery Records )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Janne Stark: The Heaviest Encyclopedia of Swedish Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Ever! Premium Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-91-89136-56-4 , pp. 498 .
  2. ↑ a b c Biography. (No longer available online.) Rockdetector.com, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on January 23, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rockdetector.com
  3. ↑ a b Wolfgang Schäfer: Scandinavian Attack . Masquerade. In: Rock Hard . No. 102 , November 1995, pp. 52 .
  4. ^ Masquerade (11) - Surface Of Pain. Discogs , accessed January 23, 2015 .
  5. ^ A b Matthias Weckmann: Masquerade . Hit guys. In: Metal Hammer . April 2001, p. 45 .
  6. ↑ Martin Popoff : The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 3: The Nineties . Collectors Guide Ltd, Burlington, Ontario, Canada 2007, ISBN 978-1-894959-62-9 , pp. 265 f .
  7. ^ Matthias Mineur: Masquerade . Surface of pain. In: Metal Hammer . October 1995, p. 46 f .