Swedish Death Metal est. 1989
Vomitory was formed in 1989 by guitarist Urban Gustafsson during the birth of the globally well-known Brutal Swedish Death Metal scene. Ever since, they have constantly and brutally delivered straightforward grinding Death Metal. While being a part of the phenomenon that was the Swedish Death Metal scene, the early and most important influences were spelled Sodom, Slayer, Entombed, Bolt Thrower, Napalm Death, Grave and Carcass. During the first years, Vomitory spread their name in the worldwide underground Death Metal scene by releasing a few demo tapes and a vinyl 7" single.
When the Death Metal scene was getting saturated and began to stagnate in the mid 90's, a lot of the "brutal" bands disbanded or changed their style drastically to something commercially more marketable. Vomitory refused to go in that direction, but released their debut full-length album instead, "Raped In Their Own Blood", in November 1996 (Fadeless Records). It was greeted with great respect within the underground scene and gained a lot of fans, which of many to this day have stayed loyal to Vomitory.
Their second album, "Redemption" (1999, Fadeless Records), showed a pretty big musical progress from the debut. The increase of brutality and intensity in their music was obvious. Now, they were well on their way to find their own formula. After two albums and one 10" mini-LP on Fadeless Records and some smaller European tours, Vomitory teamed up with well-renowned Metal Blade Records. Now the band had been reduced from five to four members - bass player Erik Rundqvist took over the vocal duties as well from then on. A successful European tour as support for Cannibal Corpse and the No Mercy Festival in 2000, passed and in November the same year Vomitory released their third album - their first for Metal Blade - "Revelation Nausea". It was with this album Vomitory cemented their style and sound of which they have become known for.
Since Vomitory signed to Metal Blade Records in late 1999, they have toured with the likes of Cannibal Corpse, Vader, Marduk, Nile, Malevolent Creation, Hypocrisy, Deicide, Krisiun, Dark Funeral, Amon Amarth, Kataklysm, Immortal - to name a few - and played many of the major metal festivals in Europe.
The fourth album, "Blood Rapture" (2002), and the fifth, "Primal Massacre" (2004), gained more excellent reviews in the metal media, more European tours and festival shows and Vomitory strengthened their position in the scene even further. "Blood Rapture" has proved to be a fan favorite, featuring live classics such as "Chaos Fury", "Blessed And Forsaken", "Rotting Hill" and the title track "Blood Rapture".
By the end of 2005, the newest member of Vomitory was added to the ranks - lead guitarist Peter Östlund. He brought well-needed new blood and energy into the band that have had a downward period during most of 2005. The writing process for album number six literally exploded and by the end of 2006, the sonic monster entitled "Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize" was recorded at Leon Music Studios with producer Rikard Löfgren - a co-operation that proved to be very successful. "Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize", which was released in April 2007, showed a refreshed Death Metal band with new-found energy that never had sounded better. With Östlund now in the band, new musical ideas could be worked out, and that clearly showed on "Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize". The photos and graphics for this album - created by Henrik Hedlund of Chaos Media - is by far the most explicit graphic material Vomitory has ever had, and eventually it got banned in Germany.
In 2009, Vomitory celebrated 20 years as a band and released their seventh album, "Carnage Euphoria". A special anniversary party was held in Karlstad/Sweden, to celebrate not only the two decades of Death fucking Metal, but also the release of "Carnage Euphoria" - an album that held their most varied and dynamic material to date. Once again the production bore the mark of Rikard Löfgren and Leon Music Studios.
Right after a 30-date long European tour together with U.S. death metal veterans Malevolent Creation in September 2009, Vomitory started writing new material for the next album. Roughly one year later, they entered Leon Music Studios for the third time to record their eighth and latest album, "Opus Mortis VIII". Producer Rikard Löfgren outdid himself once again in getting a heavy, brutal, powerful yet very clear production. The new material takes another few steps forward from the predecessor, and it offers diversity and dynamics that you haven't quite heard from Vomitory before. Still, this is a very intense and aggressive album in the true Vomitory tradition - the essential signature details are all there. The limited edition of "Opus Mortis VIII" also features four bonus tracks, which are re-recorded Vomitory classics from their first two albums.
In February 2013, after 24 years, 8 albums and hundreds of live shows across 30 countries, Vomitory made a collective decision to partway by the end of 2013 to start a new chapter in their lives. The final farewell show, held in Karlstad, Sweden on December 27, 2013 featured many special guests, God Macabre and General Surgery as openers, and Tompa Lindberg, Johan Hegg, LG Petrov and Thomas Bergkvist performing together on stage.
However, the band’s retirement turned out to be short lived, returning to stages in 2019 to celebrate the band's 30th anniversary, and now they drop their first new full-length in twelve years, the monstrous "All Heads Are Gonna Roll" in 2023.
Boasting the classic Vomitory sound with a few new twists and turns, it is everything their faithful could have hoped for, the band having taken their time before committing to it rather than rushing in. "All Heads Are Gonna Roll" is best described as “fast, grinding, D-beat, fist-in-your-face death metal”, it features fresh aspects that are uncommon to Vomitory records.
The instruments for the record were tracked in the band’s rehearsal space, on a mobile studio setup engineered by Mats Lindström, and was self-produced. This allowed them to work at their own pace in the hours that worked for them, rather than having this dictated to them as would be the case if they had rented a studio. For vocals, they went to Leon Music Studios and engineer Rikard Löfgren, which was where they recorded their last three albums. The album was then mixed and mastered by Lawrence Mackrory at Rorysound Studios and in addition, a good friend Christian Fredriksson (Vulkan) was brought in to play some guitar solos to add an extra touch to their final work.
With vivid horror movie-inspired artwork - with a hint of anti-religion thrown in for good measure - "All Heads Are Gonna Roll" really is the whole package for death metal fans, and a stunning return to form after so many years between releases.
Erik Rundqvist
Bass, Vocals
1997-Present
Urban Gustafsson
Guitar
1989-Present
Peter Östlund
Lead Guitar
2005-Present
Tobias Gustafsson
Drums
1989-Present