Spawn of Possession

2025-06-24T20:10:20Z

4.4.154.26:

{{Short description|Swedish technical death metal band}}
{{Notability|1=Music|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Spawn of Possession
| image =
| caption =
| background = group_or_band
| alias =
| origin = [[Kalmar]], Sweden
| genre = [[Technical death metal]]
| years_active = 1997–2017
| label = [[Relapse Records|Relapse]], [[Neurotic Records|Neurotic]], [[Deeds of Flesh|Unique Leader]]
| past_members = Dennis Röndum Jonas Bryssling [[Christian Muenzner]] [[Erlend Caspersen]] Henrik Schönström Richard Schill Matthew "Chalky" Chalk Ben Lawless Jonas Karlsson Niklas Dewerud
}}

'''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">{{cite web |url=https://www.facebook.com/SpawnofPossession/posts/10154939107395172 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/facebook/39656730171/10154939107395172 |archive-date=2022-02-26 |url-access=limited|title=August 4, 2017 post from official band Facebook page |website=[[Facebook]] |access-date=2017-08-04}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="splitup-2">{{cite web |url=https://metalinjection.net/news/breakups/spawn-of-possession-calls-it-quits-after-20-years |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250118232246/https://metalinjection.net/news/breakups/spawn-of-possession-calls-it-quits-after-20-years |title=Metal Injection "SPAWN OF POSSESSION Calls It Quits After 20 Years" |archive-date=2025-01-18 |access-date=2025-05-10}}</ref> In 2024, four of the five members of the final lineup reformed into the band [[Retromorphosis]].<ref name="retromorphosis">{{cite web |url=https://metalinjection.net/new-music/four-fifths-of-spawn-of-possession-reunites-as-retromorphosis |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250115010224/https://metalinjection.net/new-music/four-fifths-of-spawn-of-possession-reunites-as-retromorphosis |title=Metal Injection "Four-Fifths Of SPAWN OF POSSESSION Reunites As RETROMORPHOSIS" |date=26 November 2024 |archive-date=2025-01-15 |access-date=2025-04-12}}</ref>

==Biography==
Spawn of Possession formed in February 1997, consisting of Jonas Bryssling (guitar), Jonas Karlsson (guitar), and Dennis Röndum (drums).<ref name="bio">{{cite web |url=http://spawnofpossession.se/bio.htm |title=Biography |website=spawnofpossession.se |date=2007-12-10 |access-date=2017-09-03 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211045844/http://spawnofpossession.se/bio.htm |archive-date=2008-12-11}}</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 [[Deeds of Flesh|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 (album)|Cabinet]]''.<ref name="bio" />

To promote the album, they first toured Europe for four weeks, together with Disavowed, [[Vile (band)|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">{{cite web |url=http://spawnofpossession.se/live.html |title=History of concert dates |website=spawnofpossession.se |access-date=2007-07-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110827173515/http://spawnofpossession.se/live.html |archive-date=2011-08-27 }}</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 (band)|Hypocrisy]], [[Kataklysm]], [[Exhumed (band)|Exhumed]], [[Vomitory (band)|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 (band)|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 Münzner|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 dubbed{{weasel inline|date=June 2022}} as 'one of the most influential modern death metal records, next to [[Necrophagist]]'s ''[[Epitaph (Necrophagist album)|Epitaph]]'' and [[Obscura (band)|Obscura]]'s ''[[Cosmogenesis (album)|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"/>

{{quote|Last week we decided to put SoP to rest due to several problems, mostly because we now realise we dont have the time to either finish a beast like a new album properly or do anything else with SoP for a long time. So the band has pretty much just faded away at this point. Anyway! We are very thankful for all the support we had through the years! Cheers!}}

==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 (metal band)|Death]], [[Monstrosity (band)|Monstrosity]], [[Nocturnus]], [[Morbid Angel]], [[Suffocation (band)|Suffocation]], [[Cannibal Corpse]], [[Gorguts]], [[Dismember (band)|Dismember]], [[Edge of Sanity]], and [[Carcass (band)|Carcass]] as well as [[art music]] composers such as [[Johann Sebastian Bach]], [[Sylvius Leopold Weiss]] and [[Dmitri Shostakovich]].<ref>[http://www.myspace.com/spawnofpossession Spawn of Possession page] on [[Myspace|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
{{#tag:timeline|
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:18
PlotArea = left:170 bottom:80 top:5 right:10
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1997 till:08/05/2017
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1997
ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1998
Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4

Colors =
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)

BackgroundColors = bars:bars

LineData =
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"

PlotData =
width:11
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
}}

==Discography==
;Studio albums
* ''[[Cabinet (album)|Cabinet]]'' (2003)
* ''Noctambulant'' (2006)
* ''[[Incurso]]'' (2012)

;Demos
* ''The Forbidden'' (demo, 2000)
* ''Church of Deviance'' (demo, 2001)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Swedish technical death metal musical groups]]
[[Category:Musical groups established in 1997]]
[[Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2017]]
[[Category:Relapse Records artists]]

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Spawn of Possession