Swedish Death Metal Bands

As heavy metal spread across Europe in the 1980s, more and more metal bands from Sweden started to appear. The same happened in countries such as Finland and Britain. Unlike many American metal bands, the Swedish ones were strongly influenced by punk, and especially the hardcore punk scene, which gave their music a raw and aggressive edge.

Some of the early Swedish metal bands

In 1983 a band called Bathory was formed. Named after the Hungarian countess Elizabeth Báthory, the band is considered the pioneer of Viking metal, and it became the main influence on extreme metal in Sweden. That led to a wave of new bands in Stockholm and Gothenburg in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Two scenes, two sounds

The Stockholm scene included bands such as Nihilist, which became Entombed, as well as Carnage, Dismember, Morbid, Unleashed and Grave. Many of them recorded at Sunlight Studio with producer Tomas Skogsberg, and the heavily distorted guitar sound, often made with a Boss HM-2 pedal, became known simply as the Swedish death metal sound.

The Gothenburg scene went in a different direction. Bands such as At the Gates, In Flames and Dark Tranquillity combined the aggression of death metal with melodic guitar harmonies inspired by classic heavy metal. The result became known as melodic death metal, or the Gothenburg sound, and it went on to influence metalcore bands all over the world. At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul (1995) is still one of the most important albums of the style.

Swedish influence

Swedish death metal bands have had a bigger impact on the genre than anyone could have imagined. For a country with a population of around ten million, the impact on the international scene is remarkable. Together with genre-defining bands such as Candlemass, Meshuggah, Opeth and Katatonia, Sweden will always be remembered for its contribution to heavy music. If you want to start listening, read our post on the best Swedish death metal albums.