Dissection (band)
Encyclopedia
Dissection was a black metal
band from Strömstad
, Sweden
. The band was formed in 1989, by Jon Nödtveidt
. The band released its first EP in 1991. They disbanded in 2006, after Nödtveidt's suicide.
band by the name of Siren's Yell was formed in the Swedish town of Strömstad
. Its members were Jon Nödtveidt, Ole Öhman, Peter Palmdahl, and Mattias Johansson. The group recorded a single demo before breaking up in 1989.
Nödveidt and Öhman continued on to play in the band Rabbit's Carrot, in which they claim to have never felt quite at home. Nödveidt was increasingly leaning towards death metal
and other forms of dark extreme music
.
Dissection was officially formed in the autumn of 1989 by Nödveidt, who had left Rabbit's Carrot. Dissection's line-up was not complete until early the next year, when John Zwetsloot
joined the band as lead guitarist.
The Grief Prophecy
In 1990, Dissection played their first live show with death metal act Entombed
. In the same year, they also recorded and released a demo entitled, The Grief Prophecy. It contained three songs and featured illustrations by the artist known as Necrolord
, who later created most Dissection album artworks. A special edition of The Grief Prophecy was later released in memory of Dead, the former vocalist for the notorious Norwegian
black metal group Mayhem
, who committed suicide in 1991. The special release featured album art drawn by Dead himself. Dissection also played a live show in his honour, at which they performed the Mayhem song "Freezing Moon". The Grief Prophecy was soon spread through the underground.
Into Infinite Obscurity
The French
record label
Corpsegrinder Records offered Dissection a deal to record an EP. Later that year, Dissection accepted the deal and recorded Into Infinite Obscurity. The band continued to tour.
The Somberlain
In 1992, Dissection began work on a full-length album, The Somberlain. In summer 1993, due to coordination problems among members, the entire band moved to Gothenburg
, Sweden, where they shared a rehearsal space with At the Gates
). The album was finished and released the following December. It was formally dedicated to Euronymous, the then-guitarist of Mayhem
, who had been murdered earlier that year. The group also appeared on a Peaceville Records' compilation CD.
Storm Of The Light's Bane
In November 1994, the band signed a record deal with the German
record label Nuclear Blast
. The following year, the band's second full-length album, called Storm Of The Light's Bane, was released.
Where Dead Angels Lie
In 1996, Dissection also released a short EP
entitled Where Dead Angels Lie. It was compiled from previous rare and import releases, and contained only cover songs and demo tracks.
Nödtveidt formed a new band line-up for Dissection, replacing all the former members of the band with new individuals. Dissection recorded one, two-track EP entitled Maha Kali and toured heavily with the The Rebirth of Dissection tour.
In 2006, Dissection released their third full-length album Reinkaos
through their own label, in association with The End Records
. Some members of the band followed the teachings of the Swedish organisation known as the Misanthropic Luciferian Order (MLO), now known as Temple of the Black Light. The lyrics in the Reinkaos album contain magical formulae from the Misanthropic Luciferian Order book, and are based on the organisation's teachings.
to the country, due to his previous incarceration. The band played its final European concert in Stockholm on Midsummer
, 24 June 2006. Some former members of Dissection have gone on to form other bands, also influenced by their beliefs based on the MLO.
. It was later confirmed by band member Set Teitan to in fact be a Satanic grimoire, which is believed to be copy of the Liber Azerate written by Frater Nemidal, leader of the MLO.
A posting on the Sound Pollution website stated: "RIP Jon Nödtveidt 1975-2006. Condolences from Sound Pollution & Black Lodge." The band also made an official statement upon Dissection's official website.
Some members of Dissection were very involved in the Misanthropic Luciferian Order. Former bassist, Haakon Forwald of Disiplin, pulled out of Dissection, saying it was partly in order to concentrate on his esoteric studies.
Bass
Drums
Live, EP, and compilation releases
Demos
Videography
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
band from Strömstad
Strömstad
Strömstad is a locality and the seat of Strömstad Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 6,110 inhabitants in 2005.Strömstad is, despite its small population, for historical reasons normally still referred to as a city.- History :...
, Sweden
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....
. The band was formed in 1989, by Jon Nödtveidt
Jon Nödtveidt
Jon Andreas Nödtveidt was a lead guitarist and vocalist of the Swedish black metal band Dissection, which he founded in 1989....
. The band released its first EP in 1991. They disbanded in 2006, after Nödtveidt's suicide.
Band overview
In 1988, a thrash metalThrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
band by the name of Siren's Yell was formed in the Swedish town of Strömstad
Strömstad
Strömstad is a locality and the seat of Strömstad Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 6,110 inhabitants in 2005.Strömstad is, despite its small population, for historical reasons normally still referred to as a city.- History :...
. Its members were Jon Nödtveidt, Ole Öhman, Peter Palmdahl, and Mattias Johansson. The group recorded a single demo before breaking up in 1989.
Nödveidt and Öhman continued on to play in the band Rabbit's Carrot, in which they claim to have never felt quite at home. Nödveidt was increasingly leaning towards death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
and other forms of dark extreme music
Extreme metal
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. The term usually refers to a more abrasive, harsher, underground, non-commercialized style or sound nearly always associated with genres like black metal,...
.
Dissection was officially formed in the autumn of 1989 by Nödveidt, who had left Rabbit's Carrot. Dissection's line-up was not complete until early the next year, when John Zwetsloot
John Zwetsloot
John Zwetsloot is a Swedish guitarist who previously played with black metal band Dissection.-Dissection Years:In 1989, Dissection was looking for a final member to make the band a four-piece group. Mattias Johansson, their current rhythm guitarist was just a session player at the time and wasn't...
joined the band as lead guitarist.
The Grief Prophecy
In 1990, Dissection played their first live show with death metal act Entombed
Entombed (band)
Entombed is a Swedish death metal band which formed in 1987 under the name of Nihilist. Though Entombed began their career as an early pioneer of Scandinavian death metal which initially differed itself from its American counterpart with its distinct guitar tone, by the early 1990s their sound had...
. In the same year, they also recorded and released a demo entitled, The Grief Prophecy. It contained three songs and featured illustrations by the artist known as Necrolord
Kristian Wåhlin
Kristian Wåhlin is a Swedish musician, graphic designer, and album cover artist for many bands in the extreme metal scene worldwide. He is often credited under his pseudonym, Necrolord....
, who later created most Dissection album artworks. A special edition of The Grief Prophecy was later released in memory of Dead, the former vocalist for the notorious Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
black metal group Mayhem
Mayhem (band)
Mayhem is a Norwegian black metal band formed in 1984 in Oslo, Norway and regarded as one of the pioneers of the influential Norwegian black metal scene...
, who committed suicide in 1991. The special release featured album art drawn by Dead himself. Dissection also played a live show in his honour, at which they performed the Mayhem song "Freezing Moon". The Grief Prophecy was soon spread through the underground.
Into Infinite Obscurity
The French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
Corpsegrinder Records offered Dissection a deal to record an EP. Later that year, Dissection accepted the deal and recorded Into Infinite Obscurity. The band continued to tour.
The Somberlain
In 1992, Dissection began work on a full-length album, The Somberlain. In summer 1993, due to coordination problems among members, the entire band moved to Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden, where they shared a rehearsal space with 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...
). The album was finished and released the following December. It was formally dedicated to Euronymous, the then-guitarist of Mayhem
Mayhem (band)
Mayhem is a Norwegian black metal band formed in 1984 in Oslo, Norway and regarded as one of the pioneers of the influential Norwegian black metal scene...
, who had been murdered earlier that year. The group also appeared on a Peaceville Records' compilation CD.
Storm Of The Light's Bane
In November 1994, the band signed a record deal with the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
record label Nuclear Blast
Nuclear Blast
Nuclear Blast is an independent record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The record label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label moved on to releasing albums by melodic...
. The following year, the band's second full-length album, called Storm Of The Light's Bane, was released.
Where Dead Angels Lie
In 1996, Dissection also released a short EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
entitled Where Dead Angels Lie. It was compiled from previous rare and import releases, and contained only cover songs and demo tracks.
Rebirth
In 1997, lead singer Nödtveidt was arrested and charged with being an accessory to murder for his involvement in the death of the 38-year-old homosexual Algerian Josef Ben Meddour. Nödtveidt spent seven years in prison. Upon his release in 2004, he restarted the band.Nödtveidt formed a new band line-up for Dissection, replacing all the former members of the band with new individuals. Dissection recorded one, two-track EP entitled Maha Kali and toured heavily with the The Rebirth of Dissection tour.
In 2006, Dissection released their third full-length album Reinkaos
Reinkaos
Reinkaos is the third and final studio album by Swedish melodic black/death metal band, Dissection. The album is a drastic change from the band's previous material, leaving the early influences of black metal and heading towards Gothenburg metal...
through their own label, in association with The End Records
The End Records
The End Records is an independent record label, founded in 1998 in San Diego. Founder Andreas Katsambas initially wanted to bring attention to some underground bands he admired. In 2002, The End moved to Salt Lake City, when his wife took a job at the University of Utah. The label moved...
. Some members of the band followed the teachings of the Swedish organisation known as the Misanthropic Luciferian Order (MLO), now known as Temple of the Black Light. The lyrics in the Reinkaos album contain magical formulae from the Misanthropic Luciferian Order book, and are based on the organisation's teachings.
Breakup
In May 2006, shortly after the release of Reinkaos, the band announced plans to split following a short tour. The tour was scheduled to include two appearances in the United States, but these were eventually canceled after Nödtveidt was denied an entry visaVisa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
to the country, due to his previous incarceration. The band played its final European concert in Stockholm on Midsummer
Midsummer
Midsummer may simply refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place on a day between June 21 and June 24, and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different...
, 24 June 2006. Some former members of Dissection have gone on to form other bands, also influenced by their beliefs based on the MLO.
Nödtveidt's death
Sometime between 14 and 16 August 2006, frontman Jon Nödtveidt committed suicide. He was found dead in his apartment on 16 August 2006. Nödtveidt's death was confirmed by the Swedish distributor Sound Pollution, whose staff worked with Dissection throughout the band's career. Media reports reported that the man's body rested next to a copy of The Satanic BibleThe Satanic Bible
The Satanic Bible is a collection of essays, observations, and rituals published by Anton LaVey in 1969. It contains the core principles of LaVeyan Satanism, and is considered the foundation of its philosophy and dogma. It has been described as the most important document to influence contemporary...
. It was later confirmed by band member Set Teitan to in fact be a Satanic grimoire, which is believed to be copy of the Liber Azerate written by Frater Nemidal, leader of the MLO.
A posting on the Sound Pollution website stated: "RIP Jon Nödtveidt 1975-2006. Condolences from Sound Pollution & Black Lodge." The band also made an official statement upon Dissection's official website.
Involvement in MLO
The lead vocalist of Dissection, Jon Nödtveidt, was a member of the Misanthropic Luciferian Order founded in 1995. Nödtveidt was introduced to the organisation by close friends at a quite early stage.Some members of Dissection were very involved in the Misanthropic Luciferian Order. Former bassist, Haakon Forwald of Disiplin, pulled out of Dissection, saying it was partly in order to concentrate on his esoteric studies.
Final line-up
- Jon NödtveidtJon NödtveidtJon Andreas Nödtveidt was a lead guitarist and vocalist of the Swedish black metal band Dissection, which he founded in 1989....
– vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, guitars (1989–2006) - Set TeitanSet TeitanSet Teitan [Sethlans Teitan] as Davide Totaro. He was the guitarist of industrial black metal band Aborym from 1997–2005, lead guitarist for Bloodline 2000-2005, as well as the second guitarist of the Swedish black metal band Dissection. He is also the second guitarist for Watain and performed on...
– guitars (2004–2006) - Tomas Asklund – drums (2004–2006)
Former members
Guitar- Mattias "Mäbe" Johansson – (1990) (session live)
- John ZwetslootJohn ZwetslootJohn Zwetsloot is a Swedish guitarist who previously played with black metal band Dissection.-Dissection Years:In 1989, Dissection was looking for a final member to make the band a four-piece group. Mattias Johansson, their current rhythm guitarist was just a session player at the time and wasn't...
– (1991–1994) - Johan Norman – (1994–1997)
Bass
- Peter Palmdahl – (1989–1997)
- Emil Nödtveidt – (1997) (session live)
- Brice LeClercq – (2004–2005)
- Hakon Forwald – (2005)
- Erik Danielsson – (2005–2006) (session live)
Drums
- Ole ÖhmanOle ÖhmanOle Christian Öhman is a drummer who played in Dissection but left the band after the album Storm of the Light's Bane was released in 1995...
– (1990–1995) - Tobias Kjellgren – (1995–1997)
Discography
Studio albums- The SomberlainThe SomberlainThe Somberlain is the debut album by Dissection, released in 1993. It proved to be a highly influential release for both black metal and melodic death metal. The band dedicated the album to Euronymous, who was murdered the same year....
(1993) - Storm of the Light's BaneStorm of the Light's BaneStorm of the Light's Bane is the 1995 album release by Swedish black/death metal band Dissection. That same year, Nuclear Blast released a Europe exclusive special digipak version of the album limited to 500 copies, which upon unfolding formed the shape of a cross with the song's lyrics printed on...
(1995) - ReinkaosReinkaosReinkaos is the third and final studio album by Swedish melodic black/death metal band, Dissection. The album is a drastic change from the band's previous material, leaving the early influences of black metal and heading towards Gothenburg metal...
(2006)
Live, EP, and compilation releases
- Into Infinite ObscurityInto Infinite ObscurityInto Infinite Obscurity was the first EP recorded by the Swedish blackened death metal band Dissection, first released on September 5, 1991 in a limited edition of 1000 copies by the French record label Corpsegrinder Records. A second edition was released in 1999 by Nuclear Boom Records.-Track...
(EP) (1991) - Where Dead Angels LieWhere Dead Angels LieWhere Dead Angels Lie is an EP by the Swedish black metal band Dissection. It was first released as a shaped CD in the form of the Dissection cross in 1996 by Nuclear Blast Records...
(EP) (1996) - The Past Is Alive (The Early Mischief)The Past Is Alive (The Early Mischief)The Past Is Alive is a compilation album by Dissection. It contains tracks from early EPs and promos. It also includes two tracks by Satanized, the former band of Jon Nödtveidt. Some versions also include two tracks taken from the Where Dead Angels Lie EP...
(1997) - Live LegacyLive LegacyLive Legacy is a live album by the Swedish black metal band Dissection. It was released in 2003 by Nuclear Blast. It was recorded during a show at the Wacken Open Air festival, Germany, 8 August 1997. It was first released as a bootleg called Frozen in Wacken, which featured the art of romantic...
(live) (2003) - Maha KaliMaha KaliMaha Kali is an EP by the Swedish black metal band Dissection. It was the first release after the re-birth of Dissection, shortly after Jon Nödtveidt was released from prison. It represents the bands change from a melodic black metal sound to a more Gothenburg-based sound of melodic death metal....
(EP) (2004) - Live in Stockholm 2004 (live) (2009)
- Live Rebirth (live) 2010
Demos
- The Grief Prophecy (1990)
Videography
- Live & Plugged Vol. 2 (VHS) (1997)
- Rebirth of Dissection (DVD) (2006)
Further reading
- Black Metal Foundations Top 20: The First Wave. (2005). Terrorizer, 128, 42-43.