Diabolical Masquerade

Diabolical Masquerade
STYLE: ORIGIN: SwedenFORMED: 1993LABEL: Avantgarde Music
  • MEMBERS:
  • Anders Nyström-Vocals, Guitar
  • Dan Swanö-Keyboards, Drums, Guitars
BIOGRAPHY

Diabolical Masquerade was a Swedish one-man black metal band with progressive influences. The band was formed in 1993 in Stockholm as side project of Anders Nyström (aka Blakkheim), known for his work as the guitarist of Katatonia.

Diabolical Masquerade was a Swedish one-man black metal band. All music is written and played by Katatonia guitarist Anders “Blakkheim” Nyström, who wanted to have a band where he could compose more extreme music while Katatonia was exploring more mellow moods. The music leans heavily on avant-garde melodic black metal with some death metal and thrash metal influences. Blakkheim wanted to experiment more with song structure, theme and composition. This is most notably seen on the last Diabolical Masquerade album, Death’s Design. This album is conceived as the soundtrack to a nonexistent Swedish horror movie, with 61 tracks broken up into 20 movements, each with a unique feel and theme. Death’s Design includes many passages featuring various genres and styles, experimenting with progressive rock, progressive metal, ambient, classical music, and rhythmic percussion-based passages. Nyström worked together on the album with Dan Swanö. In early September 2004, Nyström announced that he had put the project to rest, after not having found the necessary inspiration while working on a fifth album. 

DISCOGRAPHY

Death's Design / 2001

Diabolical Masquerade-Death's Design
  • Album Info
  • 2001
  • Avantgarde Music

1. Nerves in Rush
2. Death Ascends – The Hunt (Part I)
3. You Can’t Hide Forever
4. Right on Time for Murder – The Hunt (Part II)
5. Conscious in No Materia
6. A Different Plane
7. Invisible to Us
8. The One Who Hides a Face Inside
9. …and Don’t Ever Listen to What It Says
10. Revelation of the Puzzle
11. Human Prophecy
12. Where the Suffering Leads
13. The Remains of Galactic Expulsions
14. With Panic in the Heart
15. Out from the Dark
16. Still Coming at You
17. Out from a Deeper Dark
18. Spinning Back the Clocks
19. Soaring over Dead Rooms
20. The Enemy Is the Earth
21. Recall
22. All Exits Blocked
23. The Memory Is Weak
24. Struck at Random / Outermost Fear
25. Sparks of Childhood Coming Back
26. Old People’s Voodoo Seance
27. Mary-Lee Goes Crazy
28. Something Has Arrived
29. Possession of the Voodoo Party
30. Not of Flesh, Not of Blood
31. Intact with a Human Psyche
32. Keeping Faith
33. Someone Knows What Scares You
34. A Bad Case of Nerves
35. The Inverted Dream / No Sleep in Peace
36. Information
37. Setting the Course
38. Ghost Inhabitants
39. Fleeing from Town
40. Overlooked Parts
41. A New Spark – Victory Theme (Part I)
42. Hope – Victory Theme (Part II)
43. Family Portraits – Victory Theme (Part III)
44. Smokes Start to Churn
45. Hesitant Behaviour
46. A Hurricane of Rotten Air
47. Mastering the Clock
48. They Come, You Go
49. Haarad el Chamon
50. The Egyptian Resort
51. The Pyramid
52. Frenzy Moods and Other Oddities
53. Still Part of the Design – The Hunt (Part III)
54. Definite Departure
55. Returning to Haarad el Chamon
56. Life Eater
57. The Pulze
58. The Defiled Feeds
59. The River in Space
60. A Soulflight Back to Life
61. Instant Rebirth – Alternate Ending

Death’s Design is Blakkheim’s fourth and final album, released under the moniker of Diabolical Masquerade and his most experimental. The album is broken up into 20 movements, the shortest of which is just 6 seconds long. Also the album seems to be without genre, changing directions many times. According to the last update of Blakkheim’s website it was to be an original motion picture soundtrack to a movie that was never made but that turned out to be a prank on everyone by Blakkheim. The European version features 61 tracks while the US release has 36, both have a similar length.

Nightwork / 1998

Diabolical Masquerade-Nightwork
  • Album Info
  • 1998
  • Avantgarde Music

1. Rider on the Bonez
2. Dreadventurouz
3. The Zkeleton Keyz to the Dead
4. Thiz Ghoultimate Omen
5. All Onboard the Perdition Hearze!
6. The Eerie Obzidian Circuz
7. Haunted by Horror

Nightwork is the third studio album by the Swedish black metal band Diabolical Masquerade released in 1998 through Avantgarde Music.

 

The Phantom Lodge / 1997

Diabolical Masquerade-The Phantom Lodge
  • Album Info
  • 1997
  • Adipocere Records

1. Astray Within the Coffinwood Mill
2. The Puzzling Constellation of a Deathrune
3. Ravenclaw
4. The Walk of the Hunchbacked
5. Cloaked by the Moonshine Mist
6. Across the Open Vault and Away…
7. Hater
8. The Blazing Demondome of Murmurs and Secrecy
9. Upon the Salty Wall of the Broody Gargoyle

The Phantom Lodge is the second studio album by the Swedish black metal Diabolical Masquerade.  Dan Swanö played a much smaller part on this album than previously, doing heavy metal vocals on “Hater” only and assisting Blakkheim in producing. However, there were a few guest appearances.

Ravendusk in My Heart / 1996

Diabolical Masquerade-Ravendusk in My Heart
  • Album Info
  • 1996
  • Adipocere Records

1. The Castle of Blackheim
2. Blackheim’s Quest to Bring Back the Stolen Autumn
3. Beyond the Spiritual Moon
4. The Sphere in Blackheim’s Shrine
5. Under the Banner of the Sentinel
6. Blackheim’s Forest Kept the Season Forever
7. The Darkblue Seajourneys of the Sentinel
8. Blackheim’s Hunt for Nocturnal Grace
9. Ravendusk in My Heart

Ravendusk in My Heart is the debut studio album by Swedish black metal band Diabolical Masquerade. It was released in 1996 on Adipocere Records. Anders “Blackheim” Nyström created Diabolical Masquerade as an outlet for more extreme music while Katatonia played more slower, and mellow music. The music leans heavily on avant-garde melodic black metal with some death metal and thrash metal influences. Blakkheim wanted to experiment more with song structure, theme and composition. 

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