Spawn of Possession

Spawn of Possession was a Swedish technical death metal group, which formed in 1997 in Kalmar. The band have collectively released three studio albums. A fourth album was planned, but in 2017 the band announced their split up.<ref name="splitup">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref><ref name="splitup-2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2024 four of the five members of the final lineup reformed into the band Retromorphosis.<ref name="retromorphosis">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Biography

Spawn of Possession formed in February 1997, consisting of Jonas Bryssling (guitar), Jonas Karlsson (guitar), and Dennis Röndum (drums).<ref name="bio">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

After three years the band recorded their first demo, The Forbidden, and right after found bass guitar player Nick Dewerud to fill the empty bass spot. A year later the band went to the studio to record their second demo, Church of Deviance, and in December 2001 Spawn of Possession signed a deal with Unique Leader Records.

The band worked on new material for the next six months and in June 2002 began recording their debut album, Cabinet. The band ended up in the Pama Studios together with the highly acclaimed producer and engineer Magnus Sedenberg with whom they had worked on previous recordings, and released Cabinet.<ref name="bio" />

To promote the album, they first toured Europe for four weeks, together with Disavowed, Vile, Inhume, and Mangled. Shortly after followed a six-week North American tour together with Unique Leader label mates Severed Savior, Pyaemia, and Gorgasm. Travelling coast to coast including a five gigs ride to Canada, they played no less than 27 shows on this tour.<ref name="bio" /><ref name="live">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

After coming back from the US came another European tour, as part of the annual No Mercy package, with bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Hypocrisy, Kataklysm, Exhumed, Vomitory, and Carpathian Forest.<ref name="bio" /> After this spring-tour summerfestival the band perform at eight festivals, including Fuck the Commerce (Germany), Stonehenge (Netherlands), Grind You Mother (Italy), and Mountains of Death (Switzerland).<ref name="bio" /><ref name="live" />

During this period and the beginning of fall 2004, Spawn of Possession also started to work on new material. In mid-September the band joined Cannibal Corpse as direct support on a 24 show tour throughout Scandinavia and the Baltic/Eastern European states.<ref name="bio" /><ref name="live" /> The successor to the second album is titled Noctambulant and was released in July 2006 by Neurotic Records.

On May 11, 2009, the band posted a small preproduction teaser from their as yet untitled new album, commenting that they wanted "to finally break the silence". There are five finished songs and seven others still in the works. The band also explained that "additional lineup changes will be announced soon".

On June 24, 2009, Jonas Bryssling confirmed on Spawn of Possession's message board that Matthew Chalk (ex-Psycroptic, Mephistopheles) and Christian Muenzner (ex-Obscura, ex-Necrophagist) have joined the band. Bryssling states "Two very talented and competent musicians has recently joined Spawn of Possession. Matthew Chalk (Ex-Psycroptic) is going to handle the vocal and lyric writing. Christian Muenzner (ex-Obscura, ex-Necrophagist) is going to do the Lead Guitar part and unleash his madness into the multicoloured and distorted universe of Spawn of Possession. The Line-up is now complete." In the same year, Norwegian bassist Erlend Caspersen (Blood Red Throne, The Allseeing I), known for his highly technical playing, also joined the band to complete the lineup.

However in September 2010, Dennis Rondum joined back and will handle the vocals instead of Chalky who just joined for a brief period.

In December 2010, Richard Shill has been relieved from drumming duties. The reason cited was that Richard depends very much on actual band practice and with SoP members being scattered all over Sweden, Norway and Germany band practice becomes an impossibility. Henrik Schönström announced as new drummer.

On March 13, 2012, with three new members, Spawn of Possession released their third retail album, Incurso, which was met with very positive reactions from fans and critics alike, being their most technical and heavy record up to date. It is often being dubbedTemplate:Weasel inline as 'one of the most influential modern death metal records, next to Necrophagist's Epitaph and Obscura's Cosmogenesis, all of which Muenzner performed on. However, most of the music was written by Jonas Bryssling with assistance of Erlend Caspersen on certain songs.

On August 4, 2017 the band announced on Facebook they were breaking up, stating:<ref name="splitup"/><ref name="splitup-2"/>

Influences

Spawn of Possession have been influenced by many different artists from various subgenres, mainly from death metal and classical music. They have been influenced by artists such as Death, Monstrosity, Nocturnus, Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse, Gorguts, Dismember, Edge of Sanity, and Carcass as well as art music composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Sylvius Leopold Weiss and Dmitri Shostakovich.<ref>Spawn of Possession page on MySpace (retrieved 2007-07-06)</ref>

Members

Final line-up

• Dennis Röndum − drums (1997−2006), vocals (1997−2006, 2010−2017)
• Jonas Bryssling − guitar (1997–2017)
• Christian Münzner − guitar (2009–2017)
• Erlend Caspersen − bass (2008–2017)
• Henrik Schönström − drums (2010–2017)

Live musicians

• Mikael Petersson − vocals (2001)
• Ben Lawless − guitar (2010)
• Danny Tunker − guitar (2012)

Former members

• Jonas Hagström − bass (1997−2000)
• Jonas Karlsson − guitar (1997−2009)
• Niklas Dewerud − bass (2000−2008)
• Kelly Izquierdo − vocals (2002−2003)
• Jonas Renvaktar − vocals (2003−2009)
• Richard Schill − drums (2008−2010)
• Matthew "Chalky" Chalk − vocals (2009−2010)

Timeline

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id:vocals  value:red         legend:Vocals
id:lead    value:teal        legend:Lead_guitar
id:rhythm  value:brightgreen legend:Rhythm_guitar
id:bass    value:blue        legend:Bass
id:drums   value:orange      legend:Drums
id:studio  value:black       legend:Studio_album
id:other   value:gray(0.5)   legend:Demo
id:bars    value:gray(0.95)

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at:01/14/2003 color:studio layer:back
at:07/04/2006 color:studio layer:back
at:03/13/2012 color:studio layer:back

BarData =

bar:Jonas    text:"Jonas Renvaktar"
bar:Matt     text:"Matthew Chalk"
bar:Jonas2   text:"Jonas Karlsson"
bar:Chris    text:"Christian Muenzner"
bar:Jonas3   text:"Jonas Bryssling"
bar:Niklas   text:"Niklas Dewerud"
bar:Erlend   text:"Erlend Caspersen"
bar:Dennis   text:"Dennis Röndum"
bar:Richard  text:"Richard Schill"
bar:Henrik   text:"Henrik Schönström"

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 bar:Jonas    from:01/01/2004 till:01/01/2009  color:vocals
 bar:Matt     from:01/01/2009 till:01/01/2010  color:vocals
 bar:Jonas2   from:start      till:01/01/2009  color:lead
 bar:Chris    from:01/01/2009 till:end         color:lead
 bar:Jonas3   from:start      till:end         color:rhythm
 bar:Niklas   from:01/01/2000 till:01/01/2008  color:bass
 bar:Erlend   from:01/01/2008 till:end         color:bass
 bar:Dennis   from:start      till:01/01/2006  color:drums 
 bar:Dennis   from:01/01/1997 till:01/01/2006  color:vocals width:3
 bar:Dennis   from:01/01/2010 till:end         color:vocals
 bar:Richard  from:01/01/2008 till:01/01/2010  color:drums
 bar:Henrik   from:01/01/2010 till:end         color:drums
width:3
 bar:Jonas2   from:start      till:01/01/2001  color:bass
 bar:Jonas3   from:start      till:01/01/2001  color:bass

</timeline>

Discography

Studio albums

• Cabinet (2003)
• Noctambulant (2006)
• Incurso (2012)

Demos

• The Forbidden (demo, 2000)
• Church of Deviance (demo, 2001)