swedish

It started in the summer of 1999 when Roberth, Janne, Mikael and Jonas began to talk about forming a new band. They wanted to build a brutal and straight-forward metal act. And in autumn that same year they started to rehearse. One day their friend Janos stopped by during a rehearsal-session. He asked if he could join and soon he was a permanent member of the band. Their line-up was now complete.

Refused is a <a href="http://www.last.fm/tag/hardcore%20punk" class="bbcode_tag" rel="tag">hardcore punk</a> band originating from Umeå, Sweden, formed in 1991. The band's final lineup comprised its founding members, vocalist <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Dennis+Lyxz%C3%A9n" class="bbcode_artist">Dennis Lyxz&eacute;n</a> and drummer David Sandström, as well as guitarists Kristofer Steen and Jon Brännström. Their lyrics were often of a non-conformist and politically far-left nature. The band released five EPs and three albums before initially splitting up in 1998.

Royal Republic is a Swedish rock band formed in Malmö in late 2007. The band consists of guitarist/lead singer Adam Grahn, guitarist Hannes Irengård, bass guitarist Jonas Almén and drummer Per Andreasson. In late 2008 the band began recording their first album at Beach House Studios in Malmö, Sweden, with producer Anders Hallbäck. The album was completed in 2009 and all songs were mixed at ToyTown Studios by Stefan Glaumann (Rammstein, Europe, Def Leppard, etc.).

Fever Ray is the solo project of Karin Dreijer Andersson, who is one half of the Swedish electro act The Knife (the other half is her brother Olof Dreijer). Andersson was also the lead singer and guitarist for the defunct indie pop group Honey is Cool. The first, self-titled Fever Ray record was released digitally on January 13, 2009 and its first single "If I Had A Heart" was released on December 15, 2008.