The Fallen Angels Era:

To get a better understanding of who The Unguided actually are, how the band came to be, and what variables were in play behind the project, we have to travel nearly a decade back in time. In the year 2002 the Sjunnesson brothers formed a melodic metal band called Fallen Angels. This band was the result of the brothers not being allowed to act out their musical view in a loosely hanging former project, and therefore, a decision was made to move on. In Fallen Angels the brothers made sure to surround themselves with likeminded people—people who not only shared their musical vision, but also whom they trusted.

Fallen Angels persistently worked their way from their hometown in Falkenberg, on the west coast of Sweden, into the underground of their country with convincingly striking power. During the Fallen Angels era, they toured the underground diligently and also released three demos, which included Fall from Heaven 2003, Black Lotus 2003, and ultimately Extinction 2004. The rumors of Fallen Angels spread outside the boundaries of Sweden quickly. As a result, their effort of Extinction began to dig its vicious hooks into Scandinavia, Europe, and across the Atlantic Ocean. In 2004 The American label, Pivotal Rockordings, inked a deal with Fallen Angels to record their debut album.

The debut album of Fallen Angels was entitled Eden Fire. The framework of the LP consisted of re-recordings of the demos Extinction and Black Lotus. They also introduced three new, steaming fresh songs to the mix. Since Eden Fire summed up a vast time era of different musical styles, it was decided to separate the songs on the album into chapters, in order to not confuse the listener. Eden Fire started off with the three new songs, and progressed faithfully with an accurate time line denoting when each demo was created.

During the recording of the album, Fallen Angels coincidentally encountered a very peculiar figure, which came to be an important force later on in their career. His name was Roland Johansson. He was not only a man with a huge amount of character, and a chronic flow of practical jokes, but also a man with a spectacularly powerful, melodic voice. On the debut album Fallen Angles wanted to introduce clean vocals. This was a bearing concept of four out of ten songs on the album. Roland was called in to shoulder this request.

The Sonic Syndicate Era:

In 2005 Pivotal Rockordings released Eden Fire upon the world. Two weeks before the release of the album, however, it was decided to rename Fallen Angels to Sonic Syndicate for obvious reasons. The most objective reason for the name change was to avoid legal issues. Sonic Syndicate got more gigs than ever before after the debut released, and pierced their way through numerous amounts of shows across Sweden.

In 2006, the globally acknowledged and respected label Nuclear Blast became interested in Sonic Syndicate after hearing Eden Fire, and three pre-production tracks from the debut follow up. Shortly thereafter, a deal was signed, and the immediate work of the successor to Eden Fire commenced within the band. Roland was once again called in to provide the band with his powerful vocal capability. This time, however, he was made a fulltime member making Sonic Syndicate a vocalist duo. This dynamic was to be the trademark sound of the band. In 2007 the album Only Inhuman was released via Nuclear Blast.

Shortly after the release of Only Inhuman, the band set off for their first Europe tour, out of many to come. There, they discovered the world outside Scandinavia and showcased their sonic based weapons on a much bigger scale. The tours almost overlapped each other during these years. It seemed as if the world was the band’s very own playground during this time. The sequel to the Only Inhuman was unleashed into the world in2008 to follow up on the previous success. The band released the new album, Love and other Disasters, once again through Nuclear Blast.

Love and other Disasters was equally well received. And shortly after the release came further touring to siege new ground. The concept of home was transferred from a fixed point to wherever the band had to put down their travel bags. And somewhere in this surrealistic state of constant touring, the band felt a significant change in Roland. The passion for what we had involved ourselves in seemed to die out and fade from him, and during the end of the summer of 2009 Roland left the band.

Roland was a loved man indeed. His own fans, the fans of the band, and the band itself, adored him. With his departure, Sonic Syndicate was to face a very problematic situation. It was suggested to either disband or get a replacement singer. Roland was replaced with a new singer who was already dedicated to his post at the day of his leaving.

In the fall of 2009, two songs were released to showcase the new singer, Burn This City and Rebellion in Nightmareland. This was a paradox in a way, seeing that Burn This City included the most pop-influenced chorus and song structure yet in the band. In contrast, Rebellion in Nightmareland was one of the heaviest tracks the band had ever had created. Nervous fans asked themselves what direction Sonic Syndicate would take next. This was the very same question answered for Richard during the writing of the new album.

The band and its fundamental support sources made a decision to walk down the commercial road for the next album. Richard was not pleased with this outcome, seeing that he started the band with the intention to create music with a heavy musical style. Because of this, he saw no personal gains in performing something that he despised. Early in 2010, Richard voiced his concern to his brother Roger, and also revealed he was going to leave the band when the time was right.

In March 2010, Richard registered the domain WWW.THE-UNGUIDED.COM. Symbolically, The Unguided was to be the project name for both Richard and Roger’s upcoming musical endeavor. The Unguided formed because of one main intention—to enforce the classic song writing of Sonic Syndicate. Soon after, the song writing process commenced in secret, behind closed doors from the rest of the world.

During the fall of 2010, Sonic Syndicate’s fourth album We Rule the Night was released after numerous delays. It was received with mixed feelings among the fans. Both a singer change and genre change were a bit too much for the majority. To make matters more complicated, they were completely unaware of a new challenge they were about to face—the departure of a founding member. Almost exactly two months after the release of We Rule the Night, Richard announced his exit from Sonic Syndicate.

Strategically, Richard secured ground before his leave. In a newly created blog, he announced immediately that he was planning to forge a new musical project with his brother Roger, and a mysterious old friend most people would were quite familiar with. Shortly after, the speculations flooded in, and some were closer to the truth than others.

The Unguided Era Pt.1 - Nightmareland:

In November 2010, Richard announced the name of his new band, The Unguided, along with a new logo design. He did not reveal the secret familiar individual, however. Roland was not introduced as the mysterious, secret band member until the end of November. His newly announced presence in the band was cleverly featured in the format of a nostalgic video, showing Richard and him working together once again for the first time since Roland parted from Sonic Syndicate.

Early in January 2011, the debut release from The Unguided was announced with a cover artwork entitled, Nightmareland. This EP included two songs to showcase the sound of the band. In the cover artwork of Nightmareland, fans could spot the iron banners from the Eden Fire release. Consequently, this ignited new hope in fans who missed the old days of Sonic Syndicate.

Close to the end of January 2011, news was announced via Richards’s blog that The Unguided would head into The Abyss recording studio in Pärlby – Sweden to record Nightmareland. Jonas Kjellgren would record, produce, and mix the EP. Jonas had previously worked on former Sonic Syndicate albums, such as Only Inhuman, Love and Other Disasters, and Burn This City EP. It was important to work with Jonas because he was a very big contributor to the classic sound of Sonic Syndicate.

The titles for the two new songs, Green Eyed Demon and Pathfinder, were also introduced in the same blog entry.

Early in February 2011, The Unguided released a 40 second sound preview of the two songs recorded. This was the first public studio recording since 2008 of the vocalist duo Richard and Roland. It was also revealed that they inked a deal with the Swedish label, Despotz Records, to release Nightmareland. They also announced their premiere gig at Getaway Rock Festival in Gävle – Sweden to commence on July 7^th.

The Unguided hosted a fan tattoo competition where fans all over the world where to ink out The Unguided symbol and win fine awards. Among the prizes were extremely rare Fallen Angels demos and iconic shirts from previous band’s music video recording. Three Swedes won the contest as they was first to tattoo the crest. But skin decoration of unguided related content is still coming in on a regular basis even through the competition is over.

Early in March 2011, The Unguided and Despotz records introduced a strictly limited edition package for the fans. It consisted of a special jakebox EP edition of Nightmareland limited and numbered to 616 copies. The package also included an exclusive The Unguided shirt and a signed poster. Two weeks before the release day on April 1^st, the package sold out.

Along with the wishes of the fans, The Unguided and Despotz decided to print a standard jewel case copy of Nightmareland, since there was still such a high demand for the sold out edition. The lost and found graphic artist, J.A.Aranguren, was used to make the layout design for the jewel case. Coincidently, Aranguren was also the man behind the cover artwork of Eden Fire.

Nightmareland was well received and a good preview of things to come. It sold the most in Sweden, Germany, USA, UK, Holland, Australia, Norway and Finland (in that order).

The Unguided signed a follow up contract with Despotz to release the debut album. The writing and pre-production of this particular album began immediately.

The Unguided Era Pt.2 – Hell Frost:

Yet another fan contest was thrown, this time a photograph related one. Where people who had bought the special 616 edition of Nightmareland where to take photos of themselves in cool locations, wearing the “I’m one of the 616” shirt. The winner, hailing from Finland got awarded with the benefit of making up a lyrical theme for the upcoming album (Later resulting in the song My Own Death).

In the middle of May 2011, it was announced via Richard’s blog that a secret unguided event would take place the symbolic date 20110616. Nothing more specified than just the date, was included in the post.

June 1, 2011, a statement from The Unguided was released that they were not allowed to perform Sonic Syndicate material on their live shows (the very songs they wrote themselves). Hence of Robin (Richard and Roger’s younger cousin) not agreeing to sign a license granting Roland to once again be involved with the material without a contract breach. This results in even more bad blood between family relations and made way for a lot of disappointed fans that saw their last chance to listen to Sonic Syndicate material with the original vocal duo via The Unguided.

Upon the anticipated date June 16, 2011 a digital single of an old re-recorded and re-vamped Fallen Angels song; Betrayer of the code was released. Artwork once again made by the legendary J.A.Aranguren. A statement was also announced that the recording of The Unguided debut album have started.

An official statement was found on the promotion site www.sixonesix.se tied to the single release.
 

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