Faith (band)
Encyclopedia
History
Faith was founded in 1984 by Roger JohanssonRoger Johansson
Roger Johansson is a former professional Swedish ice hockey player.Roger Johansson joined Swedish Elite League club Färjestads BK in 1986, when he left Troja-Ljungby. He played with Färjestad until 1989, winning one Swedish Championship with them in 1988...
(guitars), Christer Nilsson (bass, vocals) and Peter Svensson (drums), who had always been the stable part of the line-up ever since. But in the beginning the band was a four-piece: another guitarist, named Jörgen Thuresson, was also a member of the group.
The band didn't want to compose fast music, but to make extremely heavy songs. The first composition were very slow, based on chord-changes, and the lyrics were based on 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....
history and folklore. These first songs were recorded in January 1985, and after a tremendous amount of rehearsals the "Faith" demo was recorded and released, even though Jörgen wasn't present on the recording sessions, since he broke his nose at a graduation party the night before the recording day.
During the summer of 1985 Jörgen left the band, and the line-up changed once again since Faith acquired a new singer: Roger Berntsson. With this new line-up the band self-produced its first single: "Hymn of the Sinner", which was released in 1986.
After just a few months Roger Berntsson left the band due to family reasons and was replaced by Zenny Hansson, who unfortunately didn't remain for a long period of time in the line-up since another band, called "Destiny
Destiny (band)
Destiny is a heavy metal / progressive metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden, founded by Stefan Björnshög.-Members:Current*Stefan Björnshög - Bass*Michael Åberg - Guitar*Birger Löfman - DrumsFormer...
", made him a rich offer he couldn't refuse.
So Christer took once again the vocals, along with the bass lines. With the classic line-up, the band produced another demo, called Insanity. Around the beginning of 1987 guitarist Peter Zweiniger joined the band, which prepared some covers and played them live among the band's own pieces in a series of concerts around 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....
. Faith also went east and made a tour in Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. Peter Svensson
Peter Svensson
Anders Peter Svensson is a guitarist with the band, The Cardigans.His role in the group is as a guitarist and composer, but he also plays keyboard, vibraphone, and bass guitar, plus he provides some backing vocals...
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...
, while Roger and Christer stayed in their hometown of Karlshamn
Karlshamn
Karlshamn is a locality and the seat of Karlshamn Municipality in Blekinge County, Sweden with 12,957 inhabitants of the city core and 30 918 in the municipality ....
. So the band was put on hold by all of the three members, who pursued other personal projects. But in 1995, when Peter returned in Karlshamn
Karlshamn
Karlshamn is a locality and the seat of Karlshamn Municipality in Blekinge County, Sweden with 12,957 inhabitants of the city core and 30 918 in the municipality ....
, the three got together once again and recorded another demo, called In the Twelfth Hour. Family and work situation again made the band to put it all on hold shortly after the recording of the new demo. For the second time a long period of time passed before Faith was resurrected. In winter of 2002 the members wanted to quit the project they were in at that point and had a desire of playing together once again, so Faith became once again an active band. So old songs were dusted off, rearranged and during summer 2003 the band entered the Soundpalace Studio for a recording session. The result of this session was the band's first full-length album, Salvation Lies Within
Salvation Lies Within
Salvation Lies Within is the debut album of the Swedish doom metal band Faith. It was originally self-released by the band in 2003 only on vinyl, the first 150 copies coming in yellow vinyl with a promotional 1987 poster...
, which was self-released by the band on vinyl and later re-released on CD in 2005 on Doom Symphony Records. In August 2003 Faith did their first gig in over 16 years at the Rockslagsfestivalen, a local festival. In early 2004 the band signed a deal with the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
label Underground Symphony, which put the band under its subdivision Doom Symphony. After more recording sessions, the band released a new full-length album in 2005: Sorg
Sorg
Sorg is the second album released by the Swedish doom metal band Faith. It was released in 2005 on Doom Symphony Records. Sorg means "grief" in Swedish.-Track listing:*"Emotional Retard" - 08.12*"The Day I Died" - 06.51*"Winter" - 07.28...
. The band is currently working on a new album.
Current members
- Roger JohanssonRoger JohanssonRoger Johansson is a former professional Swedish ice hockey player.Roger Johansson joined Swedish Elite League club Färjestads BK in 1986, when he left Troja-Ljungby. He played with Färjestad until 1989, winning one Swedish Championship with them in 1988...
- Guitars - Christer Nilsson - Bass, Vocals
- Peter Svensson - Drums
Past members
- Jörgen Thuresson - Guitars
- Roger Berntsson - Vocals
- Zenny Hansson - Vocals
- Peter Zweiniger - Guitars