To make a short story long.
Fredrik Nordström once had a dream, a dream of forming a Heavy Metal band and to write songs and release albums of his own. So, while he was on vacation with his girlfriend in Greece in the summer of 1999 he stumbled upon a young promising guitar player who went under the name Gus G. Fredrik told Gus G about his dream and they immediately agreed that this dream had to be realized. Later that year Gus G visited Sweden in other affairs and then planned a visit to Gothenburg, Studio Fredman, where Fredrik and Gus G started to work on new song ideas. A demo was recorded without vocals and bass with Gus drum machine. The world is a small place, at least Gothenburg...
CHAPTER 2
So here comes the story how Niklas and Peter joined the band.
In 1996 Peter and Joacim Cans co-wrote the song "I believe" which later appeared on Hammerfall's debute album Glory To The Brave. When HammerFall were in Studio Fredman recording their debut album, Peter was asked by Joacim to bring along his friend Niklas to the studio for some backing vocals. Niklas and Peter knew each other since they played in the same cover band, The Jerico Brothers. This is how Peter, Niklas and Fredrik met for the first time.
CHAPTER 3
Ok, to get on with the Dream Evil story.
In 1999 when Fredrik and Gus G were looking for a singer, Fredrik remembered Niklas from the recordings with HammerFall in 1996 and contacted him for a try out. Immediately Fredrik and Gus G knew that Niklas was the right man for the job. Still there were two members missing in the band. Niklas immediately suggested Peter for the bass player spot and asked him to come down to the studio to try out for the same songs as well...and there were no questions about it and Peter became member number four. These four guys completed the song ideas and recorded a new demo with three songs that were sent to a couple of record labels. This was in the spring of 2000. After almost one year and a lot of song writing the guys felt it was time to record a full album. When Century Media Records had a deal ready the recordings began in the spring of 2001. But there was a problem; there was no drummer in the band. Fredrik knew this phenomenal drummer, Snowy Shaw. He was asked to record the drums for the album as a session musician and he agreed. The album 'DragonSlayer' was born.
Still the band hadn't presented a band name for Century Media.
A lot of strange suggestions came up like Dragon Tail, Dragon Arm, Dragon Wings, Metal Spine etc. It wasn't until Fredrik picked up a compilation cd with Dio, which was lying on a desk in the studio, they all agreed...
Fredrik said "How about Dream Evil?" The album was released in April 2002 and the band had their first live performance at the release party at Metall Terassen in Gothenburg. After a couple of live performances Snowy changed his member status from session member to full Dream Evil member. Now the band was complete with five members.
CHAPTER 4
Evil music in the making.
After touring Japan in the autumn of 2002 the guys agreed it was time to enter the studio once again to record the follow-up album. 'Evilized' was recorded in just three weeks in November 2002.
2003 there was a lot of touring around the world and the live video of 'Children Of The Night' was recorded at Lisebergshallen in Gothenburg while DE supported Hammerfall on their European tour. 'The book of Heavy Metal' was recorded during almost two months in 2004.
The video for the title song was recorded in March the same year. At this time the long distance relationship between Gus G and the rest of Dream Evil became difficult. Gus G who also had his own band on the side, Firewind, decided to leave Dream Evil to put his full energy into Firewind instead.
CHAPTER 5
The new guys.
A short search for a new guitarist began. Mark Black was found when he was performing with his King Diamond cover band, Kung Diamant. Getting him into the band and rehearsing the songs went very fast. Touring and supporting Saxon on their European tour and touring Japan again in February 2005. The time had come to record album number four but at this time Snowy felt it was time to move on with projects of his own and decided to leave the band in January 2006. The search for a replacement drummer began, but was very short. Pat Power, the man, the machine, was asked to join the band... He was well known to the band as he engineered and co produced all Dream Evil albums. He had been working in Studio Fredman since the band was formed. His skills as a great drummer had no need to be tested. The schedule for the recording was set to April 2006 and began right on time. The album 'United' was completed after one and a half months and was released in October 2006.
The videos 'Fire! Battle! In metal!' and 'Blind Evil' were recorded and a live show at Sticky Fingers was filmed in November 2006. After some touring in Sweden, UK and USA a new phase of the band began...In the summer of 2007 Mark felt that he had problems getting his life together with two children born just 13 months apart. He decided to leave the band to give more time to his family. After some auditioning the guys finally found the excellent axe swinger, Dannee Demon who immediately took the lead guitar spot and was baptised in fire so to speak when doing his first show with Dream Evil at the Bloodstock Open Air festival before 3000 screaming fans.
CHAPTER 6
Gold medal
The recorded shows at Sticky Fingers in November 2006 was put together to a live DVD by phantom producer Patric Ullaeus. This DVD together with a live audio CD and a compilation CD with previously unreleased songs and bonus materials was released as the Gold Medal In Metal box in 2008.
After a mini headline tour in the UK and some festival shows through 2008 and 2009 it was time for the next studio album.
CHAPTER 7
In The Night...
The album In The night was recorded in 2009 and was released in January 29:th 2010.
A release show was held at TuRock in Essen, Germany as a start to the two week tour together with Stratovarius. A lot of festival shows were made and also a UK tour together with Hammerfall in may 2010 where Patric Ullaeus came to London to film the video for the song The ballad.
Chapter 8
Back from the dead...
After playing some more festivals in 2011, 2012 and 2013 the time had come to record a new studio album. But there had became some friction in the band and Daniel left the band in may 2013. A good friend to the band and also an excellent guitar player, Pierre Lysell, helped out as a stand-in guitarist at the Bang Your Head festival in Germany in July 2013. By now Mark Blacks family situation was a lot different from what it was in 2007 as almost seven years passed by... Mark was contacted and he had no hesitations at all, he rejoined the band to the guys exaltation.
Chapter 9
The long wait...
By now it felt it was time to record album number six... But we first had to get together and get a spot booked in Studio Fredman... The days passed by, the weeks passed by, the months passed by and finally the years passed by.. at last in September 2015 all was set for the start of the recordings and Patrik recorded the drums for all songs during two weeks in September. Then it took one year to complete the recordings with guitars, bass and vocals before the mixing, mastering etc..
Chapter 10
The release...
Finally on May 26:th 2017 the album SIX was released and it was followed up by doing some head line shows in Sweden,The Netherlands and some festivals in Switzerland, Denmark.
Chapter 11
Power loss - New ignition
In early 2019 Pat Power decided he wanted to walk his own path as a guitarist and songwriter in his own band Crawl back to zero. Pat had been the drummer in Dream Evil since 2006 - 13 years!!! So that was very sad news for us. At this time a Gothenburg based band (Pagandom) was recording an album in Studio Fredman and Fredrik was amazed by the skills of the drummer. Fredrik asked the drummer (Sir N) if he would like to try out for the vacant drummer spot in Dream Evil. It would show that Sir N isn't only a phenomenal drummer he's an energy boost for the whole band. Sir N's first live show with Dream Evil took place at Denim & Leather Rock club in Jönköping, Sweden on May 4th 2019.
Chapter 12
Metal Gods
After doing some shows together in the new lineup the pandemic hit and everything got into a halt. The decision was made to do a live stream concert on Facebook in June 2020. After the pandemic Dream Evil set out on a headline tour in the UK in march 2023 following that up with some festival shows in Sweden, Denmark and Spain. The time had come for a new album. The new material was put together and recorded in the autumn of 2023. The album Metal Gods was released in July 2024.
Chapter 13
Australia
After the release of Metal Gods it was time for some touring. Having trouble getting the US visas in order earlier years, Dream Evil finally appeared at Progpower USA in Atlanta. Later that autumn Dream Evil set out for a two week tour in Australia doing healine shows in Brisbane, Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. A very special show was performed in Melbourne on November 3 2024 when the album Dragonslayer was performed in its entirety.....