Alf Svensson is a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 heavy metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

. He initially played in Oral from 1984 to 1989. He temporarily entered Grotesque

Grotesque (band)

Grotesque was a Swedish death metal band formed in Gothenburg, Sweden in September 1988 from the remains of Conquest by Wåhlin and Nordgren with the addition of Lindberg . The band was however short-lived and recorded a few demos and an EP...

 and Liers in Wait

Liers in Wait

Liers in Wait were a Gothenburg, Sweden-based death metal band active between 1990 and 1995.The group was formed by Kristian Wåhlin after the dissolution of Grotesque, a precursor to At the Gates, and for a very brief time featured the band's core members...

 before joining At the Gates

At the Gates

At the Gates is an extreme metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden, and a major progenitor of the Gothenburg death-metal sound. Their early albums lean towards a death metal sound, but later albums sound more like melodic death metal.Initially active from 1990 to 1996, the band reformed in 2007 for a...

 in 1990. He was their guitarist until 1993. In 1994, he reformed Oral to record an EP. He then formed Oxiplegatz, and went on to release three albums with them. He currently works as art director in First Planet Company (MMO Entropia Universe

Entropia Universe

Entropia Universe is a massively multiplayer online virtual universe designed by the Swedish software company MindArk, based in Gothenburg. Entropia uses a micropayment business model, in which players may buy in-game currency with real money that can be redeemed back into real world funds at a...

).

At the Gates (1990-1993)

Bandmember Anders Björler accredits Svensson as a "major songwriter" for At the Gates' first three albums, saying he believes that "he is a great musician", and expressed admiration for Svensson's music. One of the unique composition techniques he used was recording himself playing a part and then playing it back to himself backwards and using the parts which appealed to him. This technique, according to Tomas "Tompa" Lindberg, vocalist for At the Gates, Grotesque, Disfear, and other bands, was probably used for parts of their songs Neverwhere (The Red in the Sky is Ours), The Break of Autumn (With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness) and Through Gardens of Grief (The Red in the Sky is Ours). In terms of Svensson's contribution to At the Gates, Björler feels that the guitarist "definitely brought the dark and epic segments" to At the Gates' "overall sound".

Björler commented that some of Svensson's ideas for At The Gates' debut album The Red in the Sky Is Ours

The Red in the Sky Is Ours

-Credits:At The Gates*Tony – bass *Tomas – vocals*Anders – guitars*Adrian – drums*Jonas - bass *Jesper – violin & session musician*Alf - guitars-References:...

"were over the top", and went on to say "that it was very strange music".
Svensson parted ways with the group during 1993. According to Anders Björler, Svensson left as he was "tired of the whole thing" and wished to focus efforts on his tattoo studio. In later years, Svensson quit his tattoo studio so that he could pursue a career in 3D modelling on behalf of a computer game company. Svensson believed he could better express himself through visual art than through music, as he stated in an interview of him for Oxiplegatz.

With At the Gates

• Gardens of Grief
  Gardens of Grief
  Gardens of Grief is an EP by Swedish melodic death metal band At the Gates. This EP was later re-released as a split CD with Grotesque's In the Embrace of Evil album.On the inlay of the rerelease you can find this line: "Tomas wants to dedicate...
  
  - EP (1991)
• The Red in the Sky Is Ours
  The Red in the Sky Is Ours
  -Credits:At The Gates*Tony – bass *Tomas – vocals*Anders – guitars*Adrian – drums*Jonas - bass *Jesper – violin & session musician*Alf - guitars-References:...
  
  (1992)
• With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness
  With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness
  The final track contains a hidden cover of "The Nightmare Continues" by Discharge.-Band members:*Anders Björler - guitar*Jonas Björler - bass*Adrian Erlandsson - drums*Alf Svensson - guitar*Tomas Lindberg - vocals...
  
  (1993)

With Grotesque

• Incantation EP (1990)
• In the Embrace of Evil
  In the Embrace of Evil
  In the Embrace of Evil is a compilation album by the Swedish death metal band Grotesque. The album was re-released as a split CD with At the Gates' Gardens of Grief EP by Century Media in 2001.-Track listing:# "Thirteen Bells of Doom"...
  
  (recorded in 1989,1990 and 1996;released in 1996)

With Oxiplegatz

• Fairytales (1994)
• Worlds and Worlds (1996)
• Sidereal Journey (1998)

External links

• Old website (Archived 2009-10-25)