Information

LINE-UP FRIDAY 4th:

18.00-18.30 Deals Death
19.00-19.30 DeathDestruction
20.00-20.45 Snowy Shaw
21.15-22.15 Ceremonial Oath
22.45-00.00 Engel

LINE-UP SATURDAY 5th:

18.00-18.30 Minora
19.00-19.30 The Resistance
20.00-20.45 Nightrage
21.15-22.15 Gardenian
22.45-00.00 Dream Evil

More information about the festival will follow, in the meantime, read on below about the exhibition that will take place during the festival.

Gothenburg Sound: The Exhibition

The events on Stora Teaterns club-scene are free and open for the public.

Schedule

Documentary film: At The Gates – Under a Serpent Sun, Trädgårn, Friday 4/1, 17.30
Gothenburg Sound: The Exhibition, Friday 4/1, 15.00 – 19.00, Saturday 5/1 11.00 – 19.00
Talk Show: Bullseye – The Gothenburg Sound, Saturday 5/1 15.00 – 16.00

Gothenburg Sound: The Exhibition

An exhibition about an underground phenomenon that transformed Gothenburg into a world-renowned metal city. During the festival we will invite you to, Gothenburg Sound: The Exhibition. A truly remarkable exhibition told in pictures and video clips about the influential metal scene in Gothenburg, we cover everything from the beginning in the late 80s up until today. Graphic designer, and album cover artist Kristian Wåhlin, who’ve painted hundreds of album covers during the years will showcase his original paintings, from album covers of which have sold in the hundred thousands.

Stora Teatern, Friday 4/1, 15.00 – 19.00
Stora Teatern, Saturday 5/1 11.00 – 19.00

Talk Show: Bullseye

The Talk Show series Bullseye will move up on Stora Teaterns club-scene during Saturday. We will talk to members from In Flames, Dark Tranquility and At The Gates, as well as producer Fredrik Nordström about the Gothenburg Sound origin and legacy. We’re also joined by journalist Mattias Lindeblad who together with members of the bands and with the help of video clips and images will talk about the mystery of the Gothenburg Sound. Hear stories never told before from the people that were there. You will never be this close again.

Stora Teatern, Saturday 5/1 15.00 – 16.00

Documentary film about At The Gates

At The Gates is the band that showed the way for the Gothenburg Sound, but never had the chance to enjoy the success back then. Watch the documentary film “Under a Serpent Sun” about the bands’ rise, fall and reunion 2008. The film is presented by film maker and At The Gates guitarist Anders Björler. Questions can be asked after the film.

Trädgårn, Friday 4/1, 17.30 NOTE: Requires Ticket to the festival in order to attend!

The Story Behind the Festival

Few cities can boast of having given rise to a new musical genre. Seattle is one of them. So is Liverpool with its Merseybeat. A few others spring to mind, but Gothenburg is definitely a member of a very small and exclusive club. The Gothenburg Sound is a music style that has spread the city’s name around the world. The roots of the Gothenburg Sound were laid over a short period early in the 1990s, and since then it has become one of the most successful hard rock styles ever. Members of the young bands that played at small clubs and rehearsal rooms dotted across Gothenburg are now playing with legendary names such as In Flames, At the gates, Hammerfall, Dark Tranquillity, Evergrey, Dream Evil and Tiamat.

But few people outside the innermost circles realised what was happening at the time. Several of the bands came from the areas around Billdal, south of Gothenburg, but the music also thrived in other places. Gigs were held at the little Valvet club on Första Långgatan, which gradually emerged as the epicentre of the new scene. CDs and demo tapes were bought at Dolores, a record shop on Engelbrektsgatan at the time. Everyone knew everyone else in an underground movement that few people were privy to, but whose devotees were truly passionate about their music. Individual gigs that left strong impressions include the times when Septic Broiler (which later changed name to Dark Tranquillity) and Desecrator (which later became Ceremonial Oath) played together at Valvet in October 1990, and the big gala at Gamlestadens Medborgarhus in autumn, with bands such as Caedes, Dark Tranquillity and Ceremonial Oath.

The Gothenburg Sound is an established genre today, and hard rock bands that come from the city carry a mark of quality that inspires respect. No other city of Gothenburg’s size anywhere in the world is home to so many successful metal bands. Performers from every corner of the world have talked of being inspired by the distinctive music style from Gothenburg. A long string of newer bands in the US and elsewhere in the world point to the Gothenburg Sound as their source of inspiration, and this has helped spread the news of our city’s importance even wider. The Gothenburg Sound festival will be held for the first time in January 2013. The plan is for a two-day festival at the Trädgårn restaurant and nightclub, spread across two stages. The bands playing will all be associated with the Gothenburg Sound in one way or another, while DJs from well-known bands will entertain between performances. The whole city will help to celebrate this special event. Restaurants such as 2112 will be serving Gothenburg Sound specials, the city streets will be decorated with banners, there will be exhibits highlighting the key elements of the of the genre and much more.

The time has come to pay tribute to this genre. Gothenburg Sound will highlight how this music style has inspired many bands that have gone from success to success around the world. It will also be an event for those who were here at the time and remember how it all began.

Bands from Gothenburg

At the Gates

The legendary album “Slaughter of the Soul” was released in 1995 and has been frequently described by leading journalists as the best album of the 90s. The exhausting tours that followed its release became too much for the band, and the following year the band broke up, leaving behind a legacy so powerful that it still has echoes today. In 2008 the original members got back together and have been giving exclusive oneoff performances to ecstatic fans around the world.
Dark Tranquillity

In 1989, five young lads from Valebergsvägen in the Gothenburg suburb of Billdal decided to form a band. Their idea was to take the best of German speed and thrash metal, throw in a splash of progressive rock and make it their own. 700 gigs later, Dark Tranquillity are probably the leading flag-bearer for melodic death metal. Their song titles and icons have been immortalised by thousands of fans, from China to Peru.
The Haunted

In 1996 the Björler brothers and drummer Adrian Erlandsson felt it was time to brush off the dust of the recently disbanded At the Gates and get together with Patrik Jensen and Peter Dolving to form an all-out thrash metal-band. To date, The Haunted has released seven studio albums, won two Grammis awards and got people in every backwater around the globe headbanging in joy. “Who made me do it …? The Haunted!”
Ceremonial Oath

Made up of band members who later came to play with In Flames, Hammerfall and Tiamat, Ceremonial Oath has to be one of the best hard rock nurseries of our age. In just a few short years the band managed to release a handful of discs that are seen as key milestones in the birth of the Gothenburg Sound. In 1993 the original members broke up, but now for the first time in almost 20 years they will be back on stage together.
In Flames

No roundup of the Gothenburg Sound would be complete without a mention of In Flames. They are one of Sweden’s biggest bands of all time, and no other band has played such a key role in spreading the music of Gothenburg around the world. In addition to performing several world tours and selling millions of CDs they have won the Swedish Export Award and no less than three Grammis awards. Despite their enormous success, In Flames have never forgotten their roots in the early Gothenburg music scene.