This horror story begins in the darkness of the winter 2018 when guitarist Alex Nine and vocalist/rhythm guitarist Harley Vendetta officially announced the band online and the release of their first single “Revelation for the lost” on YouTube.
Things really started to happen in 2019 when they got signed by German record label Arising Empire and booking agency Contra Promotion which led to record deals, music video shootings and several tours abroad, both as headline and as support for big names such as Beyond the Black and Dream Theatre. They were joined by the beast behind the drums Rizzy Misery, which allowed the band to stretch the limits even more. In the same year their trendsetting, powerful debut album “Unalive” was unleashed across the globe. This drop earned Mister Misery star status in the metal battlefield and a well acknowledged name overnight, thanks to the albums powerful content, including tracks such as “Tell Me How”, “The Blood Waltz” and of course, their ghastly anthem; “My Ghost”.
The band grew fast and strong, but just as for everyone else, the pandemic hit, and everything was put on hold. They did however recruit new bass player Alex Alister, who had been selling merch for them during a previous tour. With a new member wielding the 5-string, the band released fan favorite “Ballad of The Headless Horseman” later the same year together with a mind-blowing music video. This, together with the later release of their second full-length album “A Brighter Side of Death”, made the bands' fame flow once again. Just as the restrictions dropped in 2022 Mister Misery was on the road again, playing at several big summer festival stages and treating their fans with a long awaited headline tour.
Mister Misery is doing anything but stepping down, with big plans in mind and heads held high. They are currently touring across Europe with legendary Helsinki vampires, The 69 Eyes, and we did not expect anything less from these ghosts in 2023.
STAGETIME: Saturday July 8th 22:00-23:00.
In the heat of the summer of 2013 fellow band members Filip German (ex Vicious Trust, Behind These Walls) and Oscar Berglund (ex Vicious Trust) had a heartwarming reunion where they decided to start a new project together. Though the previous band they played in together was broken up a year prior due to circumstances unknown.
They later reconnected with another former band mate Jonathan Karlson (ex Vicious Trust) and Marcus Gustafson (ex Behind These Walls). With the same ambitions and desire to create pacy metal with roots in the modern American metal scene, the foundation of what would come to be known as K.A.Z was formed.
The band have since been touring through the country, dominating the stages with their heavy breakdowns, fast guitar solos and a perfect mix of growls and clean vocals. In 2019 their long awaited first full-length album "Fighting for Life" was released, including gems such as "Heart of glass" and "Beautiful".
We can expect big news to be announced by the band later this year, and there’s not a single good reason to not get excited about it.
Gravefest will be the bands’ first ever Stockholm festival appearance and we are more than honored to host them.
STAGETIME: Friday July 7th 19:10 - 20:10.
Mother Mersy was formed in 2015 by vocalist Emil Starbrandt and drummer Erik Gustafsson together with two former band members in their hometown of Malmö. Although they all had their different muses they shared the visualizations of how to dominate a stage with an explosive live show and jaw dropping aesthetics.
With strong cornerstones such as their energetic live performances and their producer Gustav Brunns’ (Mando Diao, Danko Jones, Viagra boys) ability to capture that live show spirit into recordings, the band has been established as a solid rock n roll phenomena in the Swedish and Danish music scene. The band is heavily inspired by mixing the European and American drag scene with classic 70’s retro, with legendary musical inspirations such as Rival Sons, David Bowie, and Led Zeppelin in their hearts. During the pandemic vocalist Emil grew very fond of the show RuPaul’s drag race and their “larger than life” attitude, which came to heavily inspire their uncompromising aesthetics. He states “It’s important to not let yourself be limited by preconceived notions about how you should dress as a man and only wear things that you feel comfortable and stylish in.”
In May 2022 Mother Mersy released their in vogue debut album “From Above”. It was well received by the audience, earning itself a buzz in the Scandinavian rock scene thanks to its melodic mix of dirty up-tempo rock n roll and melancholy, psychedelic ballads, or as the band themselves put it “The way we think rock music should sound in 2022: energic, soulful and unapologetic”. The album was recorded in legendary Tambourin studios and Gula studion, released by Raw Street Noize and produced by, you guessed it, Gustav Brunn, starring hits such as “See Right Through Ya”, ”Your Thing” and “Take You There”.
Mother Mersys’ current line up includes Emil Starbrandt (Vocals), Erik Gustafsson (Drums), Svante Norlin (Bass), Emmanuel Benigh Hemmander (Guitar).
Want a taste of this acid trip a la 70’s rock meets contemporary rock n roll meets uncompromising drag? Get your tickets now!
STAGETIME: Saturday July 8th 20:35-21:35
In 2017 vocalist Stefan Borg searched through his hometown of Linköping for competent musicians who shared his desire to compose their own music instead of becoming yet another cover band. He came across guitarists Janne Högström and Wilhelm Glanz, bass player Hans Liljebladh and drummer Oskar Rask. Together they started to work on a project inspired by classic heavy metal with modern metal features, the only thing missing was a cool band name. After hours of brainstorming, they finally baptized their heavy metal baby, and the result was Black Steam.
They decided to put extra focus on the guitar sound but still wanted the songs to have a melodic flow to them, this combined with their multiple purposed lyrics, primarily about different aspects of life and death, heavily inspired by Stefan’s’ military experiences, allows Black Steam to produce first class heavy metal with their own unique touch.
After regularly releasing singles the past years, they recently dropped their debut album. In November of 2022 “Come to My Darkness” was released, mastered by the coveted producer Jacob Hansen (Amaranthe, U.D.O, Pretty Maids). The album sure is a true sensation in itself with catchy choruses, old school styled riffs and dark lyrics.
Black Steams’ current lineup includes Stefan Borg (vocals), Wilhelm Glanz (guitar), Carl Lidberg (guitar), Hans Liljebladh (bass) and Uffe Tillman (drums).
We are stoked to have these metal maniacs tear down our stage this summer!
STAGETIME: Saturday July 8th 16:20-17:20
Back in early 2021 vocalist Haz Roads, bass player Calle Shots, drummer Freddie Kraft and guitarist Riley Rich bonded over their shared love for loud guitar riffs and rock n roll fashions a la Mötley Crüe in a rehearsal studio in Stockholm. Henceforth they decided to create their own contribution to the dying art of sleaze, naming it Rëdlite.
With dirty riffs, countless cans of hairspray and world domination in mind, they started their journey with their debut single release “Not like most”, that mirrored just about everything that they wanted to sound like. The sound setting single was tightly followed by the release of “Playing with death” and “Me N’ my own”, which continued down their sleazy path. But just when Rëdlite started to take form, something unexpected happened.
Riley, who played a key role in the concept and sound formation of the band moved from Stockholm in 2022 and replaced himself with his New Zealand friend Johnny Flame. During this time, childhood friend of Haz, Elias Lange, also joined, which formed the current line up of Rëdlite. With this updated lineup and the upgrade from one to two guitarists, they are ready to unleash new music and continue to aim for the stars.
STAGETIME: Friday July 7th 20:35 – 21:35
KRAKEL was founded in 2017 and is mainly a live band that impresses its audience and is appreciated for its own ID and sound.
The band describes their music as hard rock with variety and a metal twist! Heavy riffs with light and airy parts, full buzz, and melodies. They are completely independent, everything from creating the music, lyrics, recordings, mixing, producing, cover arts to videos that are made by the band themselves. Most of the songs and lyrics are written by the two founders of the band, Åsa Girgensohn (Guitar, vocals) and Kattis Söderström (Drums).
The band has released three albums and 15 singles. The third album. “Escape”, which was released as recently as of March 2023, has gotten great reviews from Sweden Rock Magazine, Rock’n’roll Magazine, Roppongi Rocks, and the German magazine Orkus, amongst others.
The band consists of Åsa Girgensohn who wields the seven-string guitar and sings with empathy and depth, Kattis Söderström who whips the drums like a machine, Jesper Gummeson who creates the magical sounds on the keyboard, the beautiful guitar solos and riffs are by Hans Schneider and Daniel Skilberg controls the heavy bass with feeling.
They state: “The band members are not afraid of following the music wherever it takes them. KRAKEL is not like any other band.”
STAGETIME: Friday July 7th 17:45-18:45
Founded during the burning covid-19 pandemic in 2020 when former bandmates Janne, Johan and Tee Park decided to create something heavier than their previous band sound. All that was missing was a drummer, they came in contact with Lionel, who after one jamming session with the guys was a clear candidate for the job.
With a complete quintet covering all the necessary components a band needs, they started to work on their own unique sound by blending a blissful mix of genres like heavy rock, fuzz rock, stoner, riff rock and fuzzy doom amongst others. Just like the inspiration for their band name and logotype suggest, they were ready to explore the unknown. The result was released in spring of 2021 with their debut single “Oceans of blood”, tightly followed by the EP “Bottom of the ocean”, that experimented widely over the different genres. Dark Ocean Circle's self-titled debut album is set to be released as soon as April 28th this year, and we can’t wait to hear it!
Although each of them have their own personal experiences when it comes to stepping on a festival stage, Gravefest will be Dark Ocean Circle’s first ever festival appearance, and we are so ready to explore the wide unknown with these fuzz rockers.
STAGETIME: Saturday July 8th 13:30-14:30
Stockholm based blues rock band Firecrest was founded in the fall of 2021 by lead guitarist Sara Jeppsson and ex-vocalist Freja Rylander. They immediately began to meet up for countless jamming sessions and started to write riff rocky songs with grunge and stoner influences with roots in the 70’s. Two months later they released their debut single “The Final Fall” tightly followed by the EP “Primordial Power”, right before Freja decided to leave the band in early 2022.
In the summer of 2022 Sara picked up the pieces of the band and recruited new vocalist Klara Gripe and drummer Johan Nilsson, and a few months later bass player Isabella Grunditz also joined. With this new complete line up, the show could go on. They began to write new music and dropped the single “Run” in December the same year, and their latest banger “I scared you” that was released as recently as April 7th this year. They are often told that their sound reminds the listeners of bands like Rival Sons, Led Zeppelin, Alice in Chains and Larkin Poe. Firecrest is anything but done with the music business and are currently working on new materials and are really eager to get out there and to play live as much as possible. We are honored to be a part of their hopefully long journey.
STAGETIME: Saturday July 8th 14:55-15:55
This four-piece rock n roll sensation was formed in Gothenburg in 2018 by vocalist David Roobert, guitarist Jonas Heimdahl and drummer Emil Thoresson. They were quickly signed by LMH records, which set the pace. They released their debut EP “Tales from Disgraceland” and started doing some local gigs, soon enough they found themselves working on new material and were once again back in the studio.
In the middle of the pandemic, they released their second EP “Wounded Hearts and Bloodstained Souls”, where they managed to get none other than the legendary Tyla J. Pallas from one of their biggest inspirations, The Dogs D’Amour, to provide the EP with his characteristic artwork. This really put things in motion, as they started to make themselves a name abroad. The only problem was that the entire world was put on hold because of a certain party pooper aka covid 19, this forced their long-awaited European tour to be postponed.
This did not stop the guys from making new tunes though, armed with their acoustic guitars and a case of beer they went right back into the studio, and it did not take long until they released their third EP “Jokers & Chainsmokers”. This EP includes six original tracks about having a good time, getting your heart broken and waking up and not knowing where you are.
The Royal Beggars continues to dominate everything from smoky bars to festival stages across Europe and we are truly excited to raise our glasses with these guys at Gravefest this summer.
STAGETIME: Friday July 7th 22:00-23:00
Stockholm death metal band RIKET was formed in 2016 by a group of metalheads with a mutual desire to play brutal, dirty metal with Swedish lyrics. They usually describe their sound by simply stating “We play death metal in Swedish, it’s not more difficult than that”.
Their aim is to create old school styled death metal without overthinking, as they put it themselves “we sweat, we bleed, and we play. Nothing more and certainly nothing less”.
Since their formation RIKET has put a lot of focus on exposing themselves live, and have played countless gigs over the years. As recently as in March this year they played at Slakthuset in Stockholm together with heavy names like Marduk and LIK. Even though RIKET mainly is a live-oriented band, they have released two EPs, their 2016 debut “Avarter” and their 2020 drop “Ofärder” released by Vicisolum Productions, and of course a full-length live album, “Motvalser” which was recorded in October of 2018 at Copperfield’s in Stockholm.
Even though there has been several lineup changes over the years, they still keep their heads held high, with their current line up RIKET is stronger than ever. The band consists of Johan (Vocals), Tobias (Guitar), Isabelle (Guitar), Micke (Bas) and Mackan (Drums).
RIKET is without a doubt our most brutal act this year and we are more than ready to bang our heads to their heavy hymns.
STAGETIME: Saturday July 8th 19:10-20:10
Formed in Stockholm back in 2017, vocalist Sara Lindberg, guitarist Patrik Andersson, drummer Emil Mickols and bass player/keyboardist Erik Arkö all shared the same urge to create something new by mixing all of their favorite musical elements. The magical 70’s and dirty 80’s blended with modern tones and contemporary rock musicians, inspired by bands like The Winery Dogs, Freak Kitchen and Audioslave, they picked the name ‘Six Feet Deeper’ in tribute to one of their common favorites, The Winery Dogs.
Six Feet Deeper dropped their debut release the very year that they were formed, in August that same year they released their self-titled EP, which was followed by several gigs at various venues and festivals. The following year they unleashed their first full-length album called “Passion Play”, consisting of 9 groovy tracks that was self-released in 2018. As we all know the pandemic struck in 2020, and during this time Six Feet Deeper also had to deal with a parental leave, some members joining the Iron Maiden tribute band “Infinite Maidens”, which forced the band to be put on hold. But now in 2023, they are finally back. The band got back and played live together for the first time in four years earlier in April of this year, and are currently working on new groovy rock n roll material which we hope that we´ll be able to get our hands on as soon as possible!
The four original band members remain in the band ‘til this day, even though they’ve been through rain and sunshine, a pandemic, many live gigs, and becoming a parent… They state “There simply is no Six Feet Deeper without these four individuals”.
We are beyond excited to get to become a part of the Six Feet Deeper family, even if it's for one night only.
STAGETIME: Saturday July 8th 17:45-18:45