Godgory

Godgory had a contract with Nuclear Blast between 1999 and 2001. During this time, they released the following albums:

• Resurrection (1999, info)
• Way Beyond (2001, info)


Drummer Erik Andersson and vocalist Matte Andersson (who, by the way, aren’t related) formed Godgory in August of ‘92.

In the early days, Godgory exclusively played cover song of bands like Napalm Death, Entombed, Cemetery, Unleashed, and Grave. It wasn’t until April of ‘94 that they entered Dan Swanö’s Unisound studio to record their debut demo, appropriately titled Demo ‘94. After sending the demo to labels and 'zines around the world, they landed a deal. Godgory quickly re entered Unisound in November of ‘94 and recorded “Sea of Dreams”. The agreement with the label unfortunately fell apart, leaving Godgory holding a full-length CD with no label to release it. Without any other options, they shopped the finished CD to labels. Invasion Records from Germany took interest and signed the band for “Sea of Dreams” plus once more album. The deal took time to finalize, and “Sea of Dreams” wasn’t released until January 1996. „Sea of Dreams“ received good press in mags around the world.

Full of ideas on how to improve upon their succesful debut, Godgory once again entered Unisound and recorded „Shadow´s Dance“. This time around they added a sixth member – Thomas Heder on keyboards – and spent three weeks in the studio. They also recorded every instrument individually and not “live” like they did on „Sea of Dreams“. „Shadow´s Dance“ did even better than their previous effort, hitting seventh on Rock Hard’s dynamite list. After „Shadow´s Dance“, Erik and Matte thought it was better to let Mikael Dahlqvist (guitar), Fredric Danielsson (bass), and Thomas go, as they were all involved with other bands. Erik and Matte wanted members that were 100% committed to Godgory. Stefan Grundel (guitar) then left to concentrate on his education.

After the dust settled, Erik and Matte were left with no band and no contract. Things looked bleak until Erik and Matte heard that Nuclear Blast were interested in them. On a whim, they called Nuclear Blast and almost immediately struck a deal.

In May of ‘98 they recorded “Conspiracy of Silence” for the Nuclear Blast compilation Beauty in Darkness Vol. 3. For the first time, they recorded outside Unisound, opting for Studio Fasaden, which is eighty kilometers from their hometown, Karlstad. Since Godgory had no personnel outside of Erik and Matte, they asked former members Mikael and Thomas to help record the song. Everything worked out perfectly, and Godgory decided to use the studio again for their third full-length album.
In October 1998, they entered Studio Fasaden again and spent five weeks crafting „Resurrection“. Along with session musicians Mikael and Thomas, Godgory recruited Fredrik Olsson to handle all the whispering vocals. This was a natural choice since he had written most of the lyrics for the band. Matte still handled all the harsh vocals, and the “experiment” of two vocalists worked out well. „Resurrection“ was released in May 1999, hitting number eight on the Rock Hard dynamite list.

After three albums, the band had garnered quite a loyal following and tours offers came in. The band decided, however, to concentrate on writing new songs, and in late 2000, they entered the famous Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden to record their newest masterpiece, „Way Beyond“. Their original mixture of gothic and death metal is nearly perfect on the new disc, as evident by songs like “Tear It Down,“ “Another Day,“ “Payback“ or the phenomenal “Final Journey.“ With „Way Beyond“, Godgory has established themselves as preeminent players in the world of underground metal.