Origin: Sweden  
Genres: Black Metal
DISBANDED
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Last update/review: September 12, 2004

Diabolical Masquerade

Many a musician from a well-known band has formed a "side project", and the results of such exercises, even discounting the ones that never formally record, are chancy at best. Often the project is too closely tied to the main band, or is simply really not worthwhile in the first place. Thankfully, this is not the case with Diabolical Masquerade, the mostly one-man project led by Katatonia's Anders Nyström and at times featuring guests such as Dan Swanö. Nyström has played doom and now melancholic rock with Katatonia and old-school death metal with Bloodbath, but Diabolical Masquerade is completely unlike either of those two bands, instead being a prime symphonic horror-laced black metal outfit. The album reviewed here, 1998's Nightwork, is a grandiose, accomplished album, clearly black metal in structure but with rich orchestrations and numerous nods to thrash and traditional metal as well, all the more impressive considering that Nyström played virtually all the instruments as well as providing suitably extreme black metal vocals. Truly an excellent release.

While the first three albums are of the more conventional variety, Death's Design is a different beast, a true horror movie soundtrack (though unfortunately the movie itself was never completed), with 20 movements each broken down into several shorter interludes that overall comprise the 61 tracks listed. Certainly one of the most ambitious extreme metal releases in some time.

Death's Design turned out to be the swansong for the band, as Nyström decided to end the project in September of 2004.

Last Lineup

Blackheim (Anders Nyström)

vocals/all instruments (ex-Bewitched, Bloodbath, Katatonia)


Discography


Ravendusk In My Heart  
1995 Adipocere
  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 Sentinal
  6. Blackheim's Forest Kept The Season Forever
  7. The Dark Blue Sea Journeys Of The Sentinal
  8. Blackheim's Hunt For Nocturnal Grace
  9. Ravendusk In My Heart
  • Blackheim


The Phantom Lodge  
1997 Adipocere
  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 Demondrome Of Murmers And Secrecy
  9. Upon The Salty Wall Of The Broody Gargoyle
  • Blackheim


Nightwork  
1998 Avantgarde
  1. Rider On The Bonez
  2. Dreadventurous
  3. The Zkeleton Keyz To The Dead
  4. Thiz Ghoultimate Omen
  5. All Onboard The Perdition Hearse
  6. The Eeerie Obzidian Cirkuz
  7. Haunted By Horror
  • Blackheim


Death's Design  
2001 Avantgarde
  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 Séance
  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 Starts 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 Odditites
  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
  • Blackheim



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