Opus Eponymous

The songs were written across 2007 and 2008, around two years before the album appeared. Tobias Forge has said it began with the opening riff of "Stand By Him", which struck him as about as heavy metal as a riff could be; its words were in Swedish at first. Early in 2008 he cut demos of "Stand By Him", "Prime Mover" and "Death Knell" with his former Repugnant bandmate Gustaf Lindstrom, and put them on Myspace on 12 March 2010. Forge did not want to sing. He approached Messiah Marcolin, Mats Leven, Christer Goransson of Mindless Sinner and JB Christoffersson, all of whom declined, so he took the job himself. The anonymity -- every player a Nameless Ghoul -- and the papal costume were, by the band's own account, asked for by the material rather than designed around it. The music is 1970s occult rock and NWOBHM with church organ and close-harmony choruses laid over the top, and melodic clarity matters more in it than weight. It was recorded in the band's home town and produced by Gene Walker, and it was nominated for a Swedish Grammis. Metal Blade issued it in North America on 18 January 2011 and Trooper Entertainment in Japan on 6 April, the Japanese edition adding a cover of the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun".