Save the date! Saturday 14th of May 2022.
Välliingby in Stockholm will be home for the upcoming Metal bands that are ruling the current Swedish metal scene. Although Omicron sounds like a very Death metal band itself, its unfortunate performance couldn't take us down. Two years after the official date, we are finally having the Wacken Metal Sweden Final 2020 taking place this Spring 2022. Four competing bands plus two special guests will perform this year and we are looking forward to finding out which band will represent Sweden at the final worldwide in Wacken Open Air this summer 2022. The competing bands for the upcoming final battle are Faustus, The Overthrone, Monoscream, and Bleeding Utopia. Let's introduce the bands in case you don't know them yet.
Faustus (Progressive Death Metal)
From the forests of the middlemost in Sweden (Bollnäs), a band was founded in 2011. After a bit of back and forth, the band found a solid lineup to steam ahead. A demo and an album were released with great ambition.
Shortly after, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Faustus set out to write their heaviest album yet. The goal? A freight-train-full-of-sledgehammers-headed-straight-towards-your-whole-family sound.
Faustus consists of Mattias, Anton, Ludvig, Oskar, and Nils who have played together on smaller stages in Sweden, with a tour booked for Ukraine. This lineup has been going strong since 2019 and they are now competing in the Wacken Metal Battle finals, which due to covid-19, has been postponed.
Bleeding Utopia (Melodic Death Metal)
Sometime in 2010, Bleeding Utopia conjured up their debut promo release and unleashed it to the public attaining the band's quick recognition.
With the buzz from their debut release, the band received great reviews, label offers, and opportunities to play with bands such as Scarpoint, Intrive, Condemnatory, Sonic Syndicate, and Hatesphere very early on in their career. Having set the precedent for what fans should expect from the group, they forged forward to exceed those expectations.
In late 2010 they released the album “Demons to some… Gods to others” which demonstrated their extreme death metal prowess, killer old school thrash, and catching melodies. Drums and Bass were completed at Studio Seventribe in Västerås, Sweden, and Guitars and Vocals done at Bleeding Music Studios. The album was mixed and mastered by Jocke Skog at FAL Studio and released in 2012 through a worldwide deal with Worm Hole Death & Aural Music Group.
In September 2012, Bleeding Utopia hit the road with Inside I & Haterial on the “Scandinavian Aggression Tour” for their recent worldwide release achieving excellent responses for the band and the album release, priming them for the next steps in their journey.
Their second album, “Darkest Potency” featured Kevin Talley (Suffocation, Six Feet Under) on drums as the band was in a transition, but determined to maintain its momentum. Jocke Skog was brought on again for mixing and mastering duties and the final album was released in April of 2014.
Some of the bands' tours include the “April Atrocity Tour” in 2015 supporting Broken Hope & Internal Bleeding, an April run in 2016 with Chronosphere & Battalion, the “Furiously Freezing February Tour” in 2017 with This Ending & Ablaze My Sorrow, the "Belong To Nowhere Tour" in 2018 with Colombian band Eshtadur and Bloodstorm from France and the "Cobra Speed Tour" with The Crown, Svart Crown, and Bleeding Gods. Bleeding Utopia has also supported The Black Dahlia Murder in Estonia in April-2019.
The band caught the attention of New York-based management company Extreme Management Group, Inc. in 2017 landing Bleeding Utopia a slot on the roster alongside bands such as Suffocation, Cattle Decapitation, Cryptopsy, Origin, Decrepit Birth, Rings of Saturn, Internal Bleeding, and more.
The third album "Where The Light Comes To Die" was released in Japan/South Korea on March 20-2019 on Spiritual Beast and in the rest of the world on March 22-2019 on Black Lion Records. Bleeding Utopias' band members have changed several times and the band is currently formed by Filip Fougstedt (Vocals), Andreas ‘Fluff’ Moren, and Chris Gustavsson on the guitars, Fredrik Ridderström plays the bass, and Adam Björk on the drums.
The Overthrone
The Overthrone is one of the latest additions to the Stockholm metal scene, a scene that has gained respect from all over the world due to revolutionary bands like Entombed, Opeth, Candlemass, the list goes on.
Overthrone’s vision and goal are to become a part of that list. The band has a yet small but powerful repertoire with influences from bigger metal bands such as Sylosis, In Flames, Revocation, and The Black Dahlia Murder. The band members derived from various bands in the Stockholm county area that never really became a household name among the people of the Stockholm underground scene. The Overthrone is now a group with endless potential and they are here to stay and ready to show the world that they belong on the biggest festival scenes! With their debut EP released, the band was received very well by the audience. While not only gaining a substantial amount of listeners on Spotify and being featured and reviewed by many bloggers, reviewers, and reaction channels, The Overthrone was also nominated for the “Yearly Newcomers” award at the “Manifestgalan” in Sweden year 2018. With a mixture of old and new, The Overthrone brings a little something for all to enjoy. Whether it’s hard, thrashy, and heavy riffs with brutal vocals or melodic solos, melodies, and vocal lines, The Overthrone thrives to give their fans and audience the best live and listening experience possible.
Monoscream
Monoscream was formed in early 2007 in Stockholm Sweden. After the great response following the release of the EP "Reborn" (produced by Degradead), Monoscream kept working on new material, the music evolved and songs got more complex and heavy.
In spring 2010 the band went down to Gothenburg, Sweden to start recording their debut album "REDEMPTION" together with producer Svein Jensen at Grand Recordings, Gothenburg (M.A.N, Hide The Knives, Sister Sin), Göran Finnberg at Mastering Studio (In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Opeth, The Haunted). The sound that came out from the studio was mind-blowing. Redemption was released on the 21st of September 2011 through Dead tree music and Rambo Music. After spending a few years playing shows around Sweden, around the baltic countries, and a two-week headlining Russian tour, the band buckled down to start writing their follow-up album.
In June of 2014, the band entered Echobox studios in Stockholm, to start recording what would become their second album AEON, together with producer Oscar Ammer. In April of 2016, Monoscream embarked on a two-week tour all over Europe, together with headliner Nightrage. In September of 2017, Monoscream went back to Russia and completed a second headlining tour. AEON was released in 2019.
Monoscream is formed by Kim Wiklund, Vincent Lindberg and Michael Jonsson on the guitars, Hampus Lindh plays the bass and Fredrik Sundberg in the drums.
"After two years of expectation, the WMBS team is working harder than ever to deliver an Epic show"
Besides having this amazing lineup on stage, we are going to bring a couple of Special guest performers as well, the bands you can expect to see on stage while the jury is counting the votes are:
Chugger (Wacken Metal Battle Sweden winners 2018)
Chugger is a five-piece death machine hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden.
Sonically they walk the razor-wired border between groove and death metal, expertly navigating and picking between the two. Like a bastard child of Lamb of God and Machine Head, fused with a healthy dose of old-school At The Gates, this groove death metal monster proves that the golden days of Gothenburg metal are far from over. Visually the band dips their blood-stained fists in buckets filled with Rammstein, Slipknot, and the horror movies we all love to hate. On stage Chugger is a well-oiled machine that has delivered intense performances on top stages across multiple continents all over the world, praised by masses and the founding father of Wacken Open Air himself.
If you have the opportunity to catch them live - buckle up, kid. You're in for a treat!
"Every track really shows what Chugger is truly capable of after years of honing their craft to the point where it’s extremely deadly to the touch."
"Chugger is part of a terrific group of contemporary bands that keeps Sweden at the very forefront of modern metal."
"Fits alongside the likes of Lamb of God, In Flames and Arch Enemy"
In 2018 Chugger won the Wacken Metal Battle Sweden and went to Germany to represent us at Wacken Open Air. We are proud to inform you that Chugger was placed within the top-5 worldwide, and their performance left us in the spotlight internationally.
Lost Domain
Lost Domain was born from a collision between two worlds; vocalist Catalina Leonte hails from the Transylvania area in Romania while the other members come from the Stockholm area in Sweden. While Leonte’s lyrics handle life and death in surreal and suggestive ways, the compositions are equally dark and heavy, yet with a melodic sound to the songs.
In 2018 the band released their first full-length album: “In The Waiting Room of Death”. The album was mixed and mastered at the studio Ghost Ward by producer David Castillo, known for his work with bands like Katatonia, Opeth, and Dark Tranquillity. The album contains guest vocals by Björn Strid (Soilwork, The Night Flight Orchestra) on the track “Rebellious Angel”.
Lost Domain is currently preparing the release of their second album “Merchant of Emotions”, due in the spring of 2022. The album is mixed at Studio Gröndal by David Castillo and mastered by Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna).
Lost Domain are Catalina Leonte (Vocals), Michael Ahlin (Guitar), Viktor Gineman (Drums)
and Niklas Lundqvist (Keyboards).
"The Wacken Metal Battle Sweden final 2020, 2 YEARS LATER is a live show that you can not miss"
The event will take place at O'Learys Vällingby (in the new basement stage) on Saturday 14th of May 2022, doors will open from 18.00 onwards and the audience capacity will be limited, so you better be there on time. The entrance will be free and you will be able to buy food and beer in-house while you enjoy the concert. For more info about the venue and location, you can visit their website https://olearys.se/stockholm-vallingby/ .
