Soulreaper

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Soulreaper
General information
origin Gothenburg , Sweden
Genre (s) Brutal death metal
founding 1997 as a Reaper
resolution 2004
Last occupation
Mikael Lång
Tobias Kellgren
Johan Norman
Electric guitar
 Stefan Karlsson
former members
Christoffer Hjertén
Electric guitar
 Mattias Eliasson
Electric guitar
 Christoffer Hermansson

Soulreaper (occasionally also spelled Soul Reaper ) was a Swedish brutal death metal band from Gothenburg , which was founded in 1997 under the name Reaper and disbanded in 2004.

history

The band was formed in October 1997 after Dissection was dissolved by drummer Tobias Kellgren and guitarist Johan Norman. The line-up was supplemented by bassist Mikael Lång, singer Christoffer Hjertén and guitarist Mattias Eliasson. Hjertén had been approached by Kellgren and Norman at a party in December 1997. Eliasson left the cast a short time later due to lack of time. Christoffer Hermansson came in as a replacement. After a first demo consisting of four songs , the group signed a contract with Nuclear Blast , whereupon the debut album was recorded in January 1999 at Gain Productions in Gothenburg. After the recordings, Hermansson, who had left the group for personal reasons, was replaced by Stefan Karlsson in summer 1999 and the band name was changed to Soulreaper, as another band had already claimed this name for itself. The album was released in March 2000 under the name Written in Blood . The song contained on, among other Satanized was previously on Dissections The Past Is Alive (The Early Mischief) and Decamerons , Norman's previous band, My Shadow ... appeared. In May 2000 they went on a European tour . After the album was released, Nuclear Blast split up with Soulreaper due to unsatisfactory sales of their debut album. Up to this time the band had not yet played a gig. In 2003, the second album Life Erazer followed on Hammerheart Records . This was produced by Nicklas "Terror" Rudolfsson ( Runemagick ) and Andy LaRocque . The recordings had taken place at Los Angered Recordings . The band had made the move from Nuclear Blast to Hammerheart Records because they felt that they received too little attention with the first label and that they felt better cared for with the second. In 2004 the band broke up.

style

According to Janne Stark in The Heaviest Encyclopedia of Swedish Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Ever! the band plays Brutal Death Metal in the style of Morbid Angel . Daniel Ekeroth drew the same comparison in his book Swedish Death Metal . Joel McIver assigned the group in Extreme Metal II to this genre as well. In an interview with geocities.ws/necromanticart , Mikael Lång named Morbid Angel, Candlemass , King Diamond and Slayer as influences , while trying to stay away from the typical Gothenburg death metal sound .

Martin Popoff described the music of the debut album in his book The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 4: The '00s as American- style death metal , where it is played fast, aggressively and semi-technically demanding.

Robert Müller from Metal Hammer noted in his review of Written in Blood that it lacks the classic Gothenburg sound, instead they are based on classic American death metal bands such as Morbid Angel. One thinks specifically of the bands of the late 1980s, which becomes clear musically in the simple satanic lyrics and the "grumbling" singing. This is combined with “style elements that grew later and are now regarded as typically Swedish”, with typical dissection features playing a subordinate role. One issue later, Christoffer Hjertén stated in an interview with Stefan Müller that they had resolved to proceed more brutally than they had done with Dissection. In addition, one tried to focus more on the rhythm. Johan Norman is solely responsible for the songwriting . The texts, however, he writes, they are mood-dependent and personal in nature. Three years later, Martin Wickler wrote about Life Erazer that the album sounds a bit “crisper” than its predecessor. They are still very much oriented towards bands like Morbid Angel. The songs would offer a mixture of "variety and playful finesse" without being too melodic. In an interview with him, one issue later, Mikael Lång stated that with this album they tried to be more independent, more virtuoso and more complex.

Discography

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Tobias R. Kellgren: The story so far ... soulreaper.tk, archived from the original on December 5, 2004 ; accessed on February 9, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Janne Stark: The Heaviest Encyclopedia of Swedish Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Ever! Premium Publishing, 2013, ISBN 978-91-89136-56-4 , pp. 725 .
  3. ↑ a b c Stefan Müller: Soulreaper . Against doing nothing and sadness. In: Metal Hammer . April 2000, p. 120 .
  4. ↑ a b c Martin Wickler: Soulreaper . End of the comparisons. In: Metal Hammer . July 2003, p. 92 .
  5. ↑ a b c Soulreaper. geocities.ws/necromanticart, accessed February 9, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Biography. rockdetector.com, archived from the original on May 22, 2016 ; accessed on February 9, 2019 .
  7. ↑ a b Martin Wickler: Soulreaper . Life Erazer. In: Metal Hammer . June 2003, p. 108 .
  8. ↑ Soulreaper. metalstorm.net, accessed February 9, 2019 .
  9. ^ Daniel Ekeroth : Swedish Death Metal . Index Verlag, Zeltingen-Rachtig 2009, ISBN 978-3-936878-18-9 , pp. 411 (English: Swedish Death Metal . Translated by Andreas Diesel).
  10. ^ Joel McIver: Extreme Metal II . Omnibus Press, 2005, ISBN 1-84449-097-1 , pp. 153 f .
  11. ↑ Martin Popoff , David Perri: The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 4: The '00s . Collectors Guide Ltd, Burlington, Ontario, Canada 2011, ISBN 978-1-926592-20-6 , pp. 461 .
  12. ^ Robert Müller: Soulreaper . Written in Blood. In: Metal Hammer . March 2000, p. 100 .