Mortalicum

From the northern parts of Sweden, the heavy doom/metal band Mortalicum was formed early 2006 by Patrick Backlund. The band consists of the tight rhythm section Patrick Backlund (bass), Mikael Engstr?m (guitar) and Andreas H?ggstr?m (drums) and the distinct voice and solos by Henrik H?gl. When rewinding the time a little, we find out that Mortalicum was at first only a studio project. Patrick wrote and recorded several songs during the first two years, songs on which he did all the instrumental tracks.

When rewinding the time a little, we find out that Mortalicum was at first only a studio project. Patrick wrote and recorded several songs during the first two years, songs on which he did all the instrumental tracks. During that time Robert Wiklander joined to handle the vocals for the demos. Though, he actually had done some drumming on the first few jam sessions. Many different songs were recorded and tried out both during the jams and as demos. Musically the styles spread from doom to more up-tempo and aggressive. Demos were never released, but since many songs were shared and welcomed here on MySpace they felt that they were on the right track towards creating their mixed style of metal, doom and classic hardrock.

In the end of 2007 things started to happen as two more members joined the band. The two guitarists Henrik H?gl (lead) and Mikael Engstr?m (rhythm) joined Patrick and Robert, but Mikael had actually been in the background of Mortalicum since the very beginning and was also around during the early jam sessions back in 2006. In the beginning of 2008 the final piece of the puzzle fell in place when the drummer Andreas H?ggstr?m joined and later that year, in September, the live debut was done.

In spring 2009 some changes were done within the band and they parted ways with the vocalist Robert. Instead, Henrik was chosen to do the vocals, mainly because they wanted to focus on the heavier and more melodic side of Mortalicum. After the line-up change they performed a couple of live shows during the summer and autumn. The highlight was the last show when playing together with Grand Magus. In the end of 2009 they started the recording of their debut album "Progress of Doom".

In March 2010 they signed with Metal On Metal Records. "Progress of Doom" was released in April-23-2010 at the Keep It True-festival.