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The Bereaved - Biography


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Biography

In 1998 Mikael Nilsson (bass) and Henrik Tranemyr (guitar) conspired to start a metal band and decided to seek out others that would share there musical ambition. They quickly recruited Jonny Westerback (guitar) and Tobhias Ljung (drums).

In August 2000 The Bereaved were confirmed to appear on a Blind Guardian tribute-record. They went into the studio and recorded "Welcome to Dying" with Tobhias behind the microphone.

This time with Jonny taking care of the vocals position, the "Inverted Icons" demo was recorded in Soundlab studios by Mathias Färm and Mieszko Talarczyk (R.I.P.) and The Bereaved in 2002.The band sent the demo out to various magazines and record companies and the feedback was great with amazing reviews and several contract offers. The band felt that Black Lotus records had the best offer for The Bereaved, so the band signed the contracts in the summer of 2003 and started writing material for the debut album, adding the talents of keyboardist Tony Thorén to the band and giving The Bereaved the ability to expand its sound and song writing.

In January 2004 The Bereaved entered Studio Underground for three weeks, working 24/7 to complete there first full length release "Darkened Silhouette" (Recorded, produced and mixed by Pelle Saether and The Bereaved, engineered by Lars Linden and Pelle Saether). For the artwork and layout of "Darkened Silhouette" The Bereaved sought out Seth Design to create a unique design that would capture interests. The mastering for the record was done by Athens mastering studio.

Due to delays out of the bands control, the bereaved were forced to wait for over a year until "Darkened Silhouette" was finally released in the beginning of 2005.

In the beginning of 2006 The Bereaved got an OK from Black Lotus records to start recording the second record. The Bereaved entered Studio Underground once again in March 06 for two and a half intensive weeks. This time around the band was just recording there; the mixing was set to be done by Dan Swanö (Edge of sanity, Nightingale) at Unisound. While waiting for Black Lotus to take care of the finances for the studio time (scheduled till June 06) so the band could get there hands on the raw material to do some finishing touches and then send to mixing and mastering, The band received a phone call instead, Informing The bereaved that Black Lotus Records was shutting down!!

As the time passed the band was at a complete stand still and starting to plan the next move. Meanwhile Dan Swanö had been in contact with VIC Records about The Bereaved to try to line up a new record deal. After some time VIC showed interest in The Bereaved and felt that the label could be a good home for the band. After some talk, serious negotiations were engaged and The Bereaved signed a deal with VIC records.

In early 2007 Jonny parted ways with The Bereaved, feeling that all the trouble wasn't worth it anymore. Everything that had been the bands dreams turned out to become the bands nightmares and he felt all the fun was gone, but didn't want to abandon the ship before things had straighten up. The Bereaved felt it was time to seek out a replacement. With only two auditions to fill the void, The Bereaved added the talents of Denny Axelsson (Blinded Colony) to handle the vocals and the Per Bergquist (Closer) to fill the second guitar spot. After a few months of writing, some differences started within the band. The band felt that due to creative differences the bereaved would part ways with Denny Axelsson. So once again the search was on to find a replacement to fill the vocalist spot in The Bereaved. After a few auditions the band received an e-mail from a US singer Travis Neal (Mother Mae I) inquiring about auditioning. The band sent him a demo track from the untitled upcoming release. He recorded vocals to the track in San Diego and the results were amazing. The band felt that it was all or nothing!! Travis took a flight to Sweden to start recording the vocal tracks for the upcoming record and they all very quickly became a great union. Travis was a perfect fit in "The Bereaved" family! The upcoming release is titled "Daylight Deception" with the artwork once again being handled by Seth Design and is to be released this summer (2008) by VIC Records.