The Bitter Selfcaged Man

Biography

The embryo that soon would grow to be known as today's lineup saw the light of day in Kramfors, Sweden in 1997 after the split of another band, and the main reason was that Micke and Stefan had grown tired of the musical direction their current band CROMLECH had taken, and felt that they were in need of some changes. They decided to form DIVINE SOULS - and Kramfors is still their homebase. The original lineup was: Mikael Lindgren-drums, Stefan Högberg-guitar, Peter Näslund- guitar, Mattias Lilj...

The embryo that soon would grow to be known as today's lineup saw the light of day in Kramfors, Sweden in 1997 after the split of another band, and the main reason was that Micke and Stefan had grown tired of the musical direction their current band CROMLECH had taken, and felt that they were in need of some changes. They decided to form DIVINE SOULS - and Kramfors is still their homebase.

The original lineup was:
Mikael Lindgren-drums, Stefan Högberg-guitar,
Peter Näslund- guitar, Mattias Lilja-vocals/bass

The recording of their first demo "Demo-97" began in their own studio "The Forbidden Tombs of Horror". All work - including the mixing - were done by themselves. At that time their music was more in the vein of blackmetal.

6 months later they recorded the "Astraea" demo in Studio Samsound. That one didn´t turned out so good - the mixer had never worked with a metalband before. After a while Peter started to show lack of interest so they decided that they were better off without him, and in came the new guitarist Patrik Eriksson.

After that they recorded their third demo "Devils Fortress", which was also recorded in Studio Samsound by Mårten. This demo resulted in a record deal on Voices of Death. DIVINE SOULS were to be a part of a compilation CD with a track called "Eye of the serpent". At that time they were also searching for a new bass player, so that Mattias could concentrate more on the vocals. Finding one that was good enough was hard, but they soon found a solution to that.

Mikael got tired on playing the drums and felt that he had had enough of that, and they got a new drummer - Daniel Sjölund. Micke took over the leadguitar instead, and Patrik took over the bass. This way Mattias could concentrate on the vocals.

After the switch they recorded the "Perished" demo. It were recorded in the same studio - Samsound. Fredrik Eliasson and Mikael Jonsson mixed the demo and it was mastered by Per Ryberg at Studio Soundcreation.

With the Perished demo they got 4 recorddealproposals from labels such as: Black Mark, Cold Blood, Mighty Music, Loud n´ Proud. But they didn`t agree on the terms - they wanted a larger budget to record their debut cd so they´d make a good first impression.

After a while Patriks interest in the band started to fade away. So they took on a new bassist - Daniel Lindgren, with whom Micke had played togehter with in CARNAL AGONY. They recorded the "Erase the burden" demo at Studio Soundcreation in Bollnäs, and that one was mixed and mastered by Per Ryberg. This is according to the band by far the best demo they have recorded.

The lineup at this time was now:

Mikael Lindgren - guitar
Stefan Högberg - guitar
Mattias Lilja - vocals
Daniel Lindgren - bass
Daniel Sjölund - drums...............and still is in writing moment.

After having sent that demo to the same recordcompanies as before, they only got offered the same deals as before - except from one label which they for the first time had sent the demo to this time: Scarlet Records. The people at Scarlet Records offered them a deal they couldn't resist accepting. The right time and opportunity for signing up for a deal was here. A contract for 3 albums was signed, and the work on the debut began in the presummer 2001.

DIVINE SOULS have from the beginnig ‘til now played as a openingact on lots of shows with big names like Entombed, Dismember, Meshuggah, Therion, Tiamat, Merciless and Naglfar and has - as stated in several reviews :"proved themselves to be a real killer live-act".

The 14th of July 2001 they released their debut album "Embodiment" on Scarlet Records.

After Embodiment in 2002 came out "The Bitter Selfcaged Man".

The band has split up in August 2004 after Mikael Lindgren decided to leave the band

The reason given is that it takes up to much time for him as hes the only song/lyrics writer in the band, he says it's simply not as fun anymore and not worth the effort to continue with this band. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.