Biography of the swedish metal band Embracing.

Composed by: Mattias 2007 (Last revision: 2009-07-07)

In the fall of 1992 five friends wanted to start a band and play brutal music like: Unleashed, Hypocrisy,
My dying bride, Dismember & Bolt Thrower. They named the band BEYOND and the line-up of members was:
Vocals: Henrik Nygren, Guitar: André Nylund, Guitar: Johan Westerlund, Bass: Peter Lundberg, Drums: Mattias Holmgren.

About two years after the creation of BEYOND they changed their name to MISHRAK
and recorded their first demo called "Of beauty found in deep caverns". The music was a great mix
between heavy parts and more brutal deathmetal with alot of double-bass drumming.
And Henriks deep vocals added a horrifying ambience to the overall chaos.

"...After we had recorded the demo we decided not to release it officially,
because we didn't get the specific sound we was after at the time..."

So the demo was never released, even though some of the songs were of great quality.
The following months after the demo recording MISHRAK made some local live gigs while
trying to figure out how to evolve the sound and break into new grounds.

In the year of 1994 NAGLFAR wanted Mattias to join their band as a drummer, and so he did.
After Mattias had been into the studio with NAGLFAR and recording "Vittra" he realised that he
wasn't allowed to contribute with alot of music for NAGLFAR and thereby decided to leave them and
continute work with the debute album of his own band MISHRAK instead.

When things started to get serious with the band Peter Lundberg left MISHRAK because he wasn't really into rehearsing.
Johan Westerlund also quit the band to play with OBERON. André knew a guitar player called Rickard Magnusson and
so he joined the band.
The new line-up was now: Vocals: Henrik Nygren, Guitar & bass: André Nylund, Guitar & bass: Rickard Magnusson,
Drums & back.voc: Mattias Holmgren

They made some songs and raced into a studio nearby. The music was now leaning towards the obvious
death/blackmetal with an original touch. Meanwhile in the studio Mattias came up with a new band name, EMBRACING.
The demo was named "Winterburn" and was recorded in the studio of Jan Andersson (brother to the original drummer of Nocturnal Rites).


They sent the demo to a couple of record labels and got answers from many of them,
but chose INVASION because of the deal. After a little time in the rehearsing room 10 songs
were finished and it was time to enter a studio called Dunkers. Mattias was sick during the drum
recording, but still manage to perform well. Jens Kidman from the famous MESHUGGAH was behind the
recording buttons most of the time. He did some of the producing on the album while the other engineer (Stefan),
for the most part had wicked (read stupid) ideas. Like at the mixing stage when he came up with the "brilliant"
idea that we should have a fader going up and down several times during a scream at the beginning of a song.
He must have been into acid or some other kind of shit, coming up with those fucked up ideas.

After putting down all our main instruments we wanted to add some cold atmosphere to the production,
so I found an old synth (can't remember the brand...maybe a shitty Casio...) at the corner of the studio and
just improvised some simple melodies and chords throughout the album.
And the final result was great! This was the sound that we had been looking for.
The album was named "I bear the burden of time" and got great respons from distributors and other labels.
For example it got 8,5 out of 10 in ROCK HARD. Pretty well for a debut album.

After the record was released, the guitar player Rickard quit the band because he had other things to do. The bass player Ola changed from bass to guitar, and an old friend called Mikael Widlöf came to take over the bass.



One year later after their first release they once again entered the studio XL, and recorded a new album with 11 tracks called "Dreams left behind". Just a few days before the recording the singer Henrik had to leave the band because he never showed up on the importent rehearsals. The music was now very variated with alot of changing vocal styles and spookie riffs. Unique mixtures of rock, prog, metal and gothic vibes. The music was turning into a nice blend of styles. After the release of "Dreams Left behind" the band played some gigs in Stockholm and Umeå and recorded one more promo called "Inside you", where the music turned more towards the technical metal area and less black/deathmetal. A few months after this recording session most of the members left the band. Everyone except Mattias and Mikael...




Due to the fact that Mikael also moved away to another part of sweden (Malmö), Mattias was forced to continue and write some new songs all by himself. Stranger, Chased by a shadow, Precious Discovery and Rift was written and he found some new members to add to the lineup before entering the studio and record the new stuff under the demo title "Rift".
The lineup ("Rift") looked like this:
Vocals, drums & keyboards: Mattias Holmgren
Lead guitar: Ulph Johansson
Rhythm guitar: Markus Lindström
Bass: Mikael Widlöf

Some years later Markus quit the band and Ronnie Björnström took his place as the rhythm guitarist of Embracing. Mikael also left the band due to some personal problems. Mikaels replacement was found in the bassist Peter Uvén who was an old friend of Ronnie and Mattias from the music acadamy.

The new lineup looked like this:
Vocals, drums & keyboards: Mattias Holmgren
Lead guitar: Ulph Johansson
Rhythm guitar: Ronnie Björnström
Bass: Peter Uvén

In 2002 Mattias brother Nicklas joined forces with Embracing for a small tour in the north of sweden.
Mattias was able to front the band as keyboardist / vocalist for those gigs where his brother Nicklas
took care of the drums.


Two years later (2004), Embracing was asked to re-issue "I bear the burden of time" & "Dreams left behind". The labels of interest was Khaosmaster records and Thrashcorner who offered a great deal. Ronnie remastered the old albums and Embracing also included a few bonus tracks from "Rift" and "Inside You". Mattias also made brand new layouts for both re-issues, and rearranged the old song "My Dragon banner" as a bonus.

During 2007 Mattias also joined forces with Supreme Majesty as a keyboardplayer and played with them at Sweden Rock, Tivolirock and some other gigs in sweden.

2008 Embracing transforms into a trio: Mattias, Ronnie and Peter Uvén.

In 2009 Mattias brother Nicklas joins the band as a drummer, and Mattias switches to the frontline for the lead guitar and vocals. Ilmo joins on guitar and Mikael Bauer also steps in behind the bass.

Currently Embracing is rehearsing for some upcoming gigs, and Mattias is writing the new songs for the next album "Neptune".

Discography:

2009 - Dreams left behind CD - reissue 2009 - I bear the burden of time CD - reissue 2004 - Dreams left behind CD - reissue 2004 - I bear the burden of time CD - reissue 1997 - Dreams left behind CD 1996 - I bear the burden of time CD