Blood, Fire, Death: The Swedish Metal Story

by Ika Johannesson, Jon Jefferson Klingberg

In the early 1990s, Swedish death metal revolutionized the international music scene. Suddenly, the mild-mannered Scandinavian country found itself at the forefront of a new movement with worldwide impact thanks to bands such as Entombed, Dismember, and At the Gates. The birth of black metal drove the culture to even greater extremes, featuring a rawer, darker sound and non-ironic death-worship. Soon churches in both Norway and Sweden were aflame, and be- fore long Satanism emerged as more than just an image. But how did it all start? Why did Sweden become a hotbed for such aggressive, nihilistic music? And who are the people and bands that brought it all about?


Blood, Fire, Death: A Swedish Metal Story recounts the evolution of the genre from the massive amplifier walls of 1970s rock, through the church-burning Satanic 1990s, to the diverse and paradoxical manifestations of the scene today. This book focuses on the phenomena that have propelled the scene forward in an evolution that has not only been musical, but aesthetic and ideological as well. This is a story about grotesque logos and icons that invoke death and darkness, but also a story of dedication, friendship, community, and a profound love for music.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, History, Swedish Literature, Sweden

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2011

About the author

Ika (Fredrika) Anna Kristina Johannesson is a journalist, publicist, and author.

Reviews

[Brahm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome read. Well written and page-turning deep dive into the Swedish metal scene.

It is not obvious from the title that this book focuses on the more extreme bands, stories, and genres within metal (though it does touch on the lighter stuff).

I found the details of the violence and self-harm in some of the stories (very) disturbing. I'm squeamish. I love metal, and lots of the darker subgenres, but never for anything more than the music!

Lots of bands added to my list to check out.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Bathory so much my friends nicknamed me Blood, Fire and Death, one of the two I’ve carried with me for the last 15 years or so.. And when I saw the book with the same title with Nifelheim on the cover, I just had to have it. My love for Swedish Metal may not pass the love for Norwegian Metal but boy, Sweds are bloody damn good at what they’re doing.

Swedish Metal is not an area I’ve explored in depth, not the music but the backgrounds of the bands. To be honest, Sweden’s ratio of 70% death metal, 25% black metal & 5% of all the other metal didn’t really interest me. Only Bathory, Dissection and Watain were the bands I actually dug in. I was aware of the bitter hatred between Norwegian Black Metal scene and the Swedish Death Metal Scene but I never actually went into the rest. This book gave me a total different experience on Swedish Scene. The book is so informative, it took me a good 15 days to finish reading it. I never realized the Swedish Metal scene back in the day was pretty much brutal and dark; quite close to the Norwegian scene. I think what lacked was the church burnings; the rest was all there.

Blood, Fire, Death was written in a very different style. After getting used to Dayal Patterson’s and Mick Wall’s writing, it took me a day or two to get used to Ika Johanneson’s style. But I really really liked it. She has covered everything from A-Z about the Swedish metal starting from bands I have never even heard of. The book has that powerful and grasping writing style that really makes you feel the emotions of the moment. The struggles, the cheating, the rip offs, the murders, the suicides, the disputes, the blood and the tears that went into making some goddamn Good music with a capital G is absolutely fascinating. It covers everything from the lives of the musicians, the beginning, and sometimes the end. It also covers an area many have failed to cover. The rip off of artists by the record labels. How their own music was stolen and used to fatten those who lives in glass rooms while the musicians struggled to scrape the bottom isn’t a new thing. But the way these bands were cheated was really disgusting.

The book almost felt like a motion picture. 95% was written in present tense. The breaks and jump backs to the past was quite captivating. It has such a flow to it, the reader really lives at the moment. I’ve watched Watain live and got drenched in quite a good amount of pig blood, got a strand of my hair burnt and I could say I re-lived that moment all over again in between the pages of this book (that was so fucking awesome).

As usual, the hardest parts to read when it comes to metal is the depressing side of it. Blood, Fire, Death gave a clear cut description of many of them. The final interview given by Jon Nödtveid ten days before he shot himself, Dead’s walk towards the complete insanity and solitude until he blew his brains off, Niklas’s continuous struggle between mental health and amphetamine were a bit hard to digest, made me feel sad. It’s a miracle how these people made such good music that lasts forever. After all, as Erik sings, “They never sleep. They never rest”.

Book #26 of 2021..
Around the year in 52 books: “A book with six or more words in the title”

[Nick Spacek · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s beginning to get cold and dark outside, so what better time of year for a reissue of Blood, Fire, Death: A Swedish Metal Story by Ika Johannesson and Jon Jefferson Klingberg? Originally released in 2011 as Blod, Eld, Död: En Svensk Metalhistoria by Alfabeta Bokförlag / Pocketförlaget, the Feral House edition, released early last month by Feral House, marks the English-language debut of this tome.

It’s perfect that Feral House released this, actually, as Blood, Fire, Death rounds out a trilogy of books from the publisher on extreme music. First would be the seminal 1998 book, Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind, and second is 2013’s massive tome, Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, by Dayal Patterson.

When I say “rounds out,” I mean it, too. There’s a lot of speculation and spurious facts in Lords of Chaos, with a lot of the information and stories within seeming to be a bit more legend than fact, and it pretty much spins out about halfway through. On the other side of the coin is Black Metal, which is insanely informative, but there’s just so much there to get through. It’s an excellent read, but definitely for the advanced fan.

This means that Blood, Fire, Death works excellently as both an introduction to extreme Scandinavian metal, as well as setting straight some stories which have been circulating for decades now. As Johannesson says in the book’s introduction, “This is not the definitive history of Swedish metal. Instead, we’ve focused on bands, individuals, and phenomena which to various extents have propelled the scene forward.”

It’s basically a primer for the genre, introducing the reader to the main players and founders of black metal, the roots from which it grew, and the newer branches which still flower. The book’s been updated since its original publication, with new interviews and updates about the people interviewed previously, and Blood, Fire, Death ends up being a fascinating, involving read.

A few issues regarding changes from past tense to present tense and back again get a little confusing, but translation is as much art as it is a science, so it’s forgivable in the grander context. The same thing goes for a chapter on right-wing nationalism and Nazi ideology in the genre, which is rather short and perfunctory, despite having become a major point of contention over the last few years. Case in point: Talib Kweli canceled a concert near me because the club he was going to perform at had also booked Taake.

Because nobody’s really willing to speak on the record about it, it leads to a lot of folks kind of justifying it as just being another shocking things these musicians do or did, rather than any of the musicians involved in use of swastikas or Sieg Heil-ing saying specifically as to why they did what they did. Its absence would’ve been notable, obviously, but the inclusion as it is doesn’t definitively answer any questions.

That said, Johannesson and Klingberg do manage to get quite a few people to speak on the record for Blood, Fire Death, and the interviews with otherwise recalcitrant subjects -- especially the friends and family members of such legendary characters as Pelle “Dead” Ohlin and Bathory’s Quorthon -- give the reader far clearer and more full pictures of these people, turning them from two-dimensional characters into humanized individuals.

[Evilynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jag är alltid orolig när jag ska läsa en bok om någon av mina favoritartister eller genres, fantastiskt ofta har författarna ytlig koll på ämnet och slutprodukten blir sensionaliserat svammel, eller bara fånigt. Johannesson och Klingberg är båda metalfans och det märks, ämnet behandlas alltid respektfullt, även när frestelsen att förlöjliga måste varit stor. Det är första utgåvan, och några språkliga fel kvarstår här och där, men boken är generellt sett välskriven. Somliga kapitel är mer intressanta än andra (jag har aldrig varit ett större fan av heavy metal och än mindre av power metal), men alla var läsvärda.

[Brett Stevens]

The first two-thirds of the book consist of some good solid information about the Swedish death metal and black metal underground; also, some good background on Swedish hard rock and metal, and a little bit about Sweden. The latter third is nonsense, political correctness, and using up bits of interviews to cover the time after the glory days, namely the late nineties and beyond, despite no one caring about that. In general, this book does a great job but suffers from a few things: it covers only a few interview subjects, so slants in that direction; it does not achieve any broader context in death metal and black metal as artistic movements; it does not get much or coherently into the motivation behind all this, since most musicians are inarticulate; it is poorly edited. On the whole, an informative read but only in the context of other works on related topics.

[Zmora · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10
Some chapters were more engaging than the others, but over all it was an interesting read. I can't really tell if this book is more for fans of the genres described inside, or for not indoctrinated people. I think that if i hadn't already known a lot about this type of music and musicians behind it, this book would be too much for me. Most of the book consists of statements from musicians, their families and fans. The authors provide broader destriptions of history or the setting, without inserting their own opinions, which I wouldn't mind in some parts.
Now strong criticism specifically about the polish edition. My biggest issue was definitely the way people's statemetns were inserted in the text of the book. Every person who speaks polish and picks up this book will immidetaly know what I mean. It actively made the reading worse, harder and more confusing. There are some examples of the dialogue written the right way, which makes all of it more baffeling. While the translation in itself is not the worst, the structure of some sentences was strange and there were many commas missing - interpunction is my weakness, so the fact that I even noticed this should speak volumes. There is no polish editor mentioned anywhere inside, so maybe there literally was none, because it really looks like no one bothered with checking the text for mistakes a second time. As a result of this, a lot is lost.

[Dev Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my absolute favorite reads in recent memory. I think it's going to inspire me to make learning about the music I enjoy a priority for the remainder of the year, which is a good thing!

I'm also unashamed to admit that I learned a lot. While I was reading the book, I kept a 'Keep Notes' list running with names of bands and albums I wanted to check out. It led to me (finally) listening to some great foundational and current black metal bands - Bathory and Watain are two examples that come to mind.

My copy had a couple weird, seemingly random printing errors where an 8-or-10-page section of the book was just repeated, which I found a bit odd? But otherwise, this is an awesome book. I'd strongly recommend it to any of my buddies who are interested to learn more about the history of Scandinavian metal.

[Matti Hämäläinen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised to find that this book actually contained new information about the swedish metal scene in general and it instead of just being a boring list of biographies of the most essential bands, the authors also included parts where metal was examined from various points of views - for instance, topics like "black metal and its links with right-wing politics" and "women in black metal" were covered. Personal highlight for me was the part regarding Dissection, which included the last known interview of Jon Nödtveidt.

[Lauren Arnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a much better book than Lords of Chaos which chronicled the Norwegian black metal scene. This was more straightforward in telling the stories of the bands involved and didn’t sensationalize things.

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is probably of more interest to fans of the specific bands it talks about rather than those generally interested in the genre. I found the style of writing a bit dull to be honest.

[Miguel Sánchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy entretenido e interesante, y no se centra solo en el metal extremo, lo cual es de agradecer.

[Jesse Lammendam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I, never in the 350 pages, felt like i was reading an information book. Couldn’t put this thing down, had fun, learned some more. What else do you want to know?

[John Carlsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Om den svenska metal-scenen, med dominerande fokus på Black och Death Metal-scenen vars unika och säregna sound sätter Sverige på hårdrockskartan på allvar. Naturligtvis finns blickar tillbaka på 80-talet och även för den revival som den klassiska hårdrocken fått den här sidan millenieskiftet. Naturligtvis besöks också grannlandet Norge, vars metalscen i vissa avseende är tätt sammanflätad med den svenska. Men i huvudsak är det ”en svensk metalhistoria” (som undertiteln lyder) som berättas genom ett antal djupintervjuer med några av scenens nyckelpersoner.

Jag läste den här boken med stort intresse när den släpptes. Mycket information som delgavs var vid tillfället ny och i många fall exklusiv. Man märker att skribenterna gillar musiken och tar musikerna på allvar, men att de inte okritiskt köper allt som sägs av intervjuoffren och gärna gräver lite djupare. Något som kan vara en bra egenskap om man ska skildra en scen som gärna omger sig med myter. Framför allt blir det en bok som kan engagera läsare som inte har ett genuint metalintresse. Självklart kan det vara intressant med böcker som skrivits ”av fans för fans” men bokens styrka är just att försöka förklara vad det är som lockar med den här stilen och dess attribut som av många uppfattas som frånstötande och motbjudande.

Det här är fortfarande det bästa du kan läsa om du vill läsa om svensk metal.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Efter att snabbt ha konstaterat att boken inte handlade om det jag trodde att den handlade om (vådan av att välja bok på omslaget och inte ens läsa baksidestexten) valde jag ändå att fortsätta läsa. Varken death eller black metal är min kopp te, men det här är ändå en så gedigen, lite charmig och mycket välgjord bok om framväxten av just dessa genrer i Sverige (och lite Norge också). Andra genrer skymtar förbi i periferin, däribland sådant som jag gillar.

Emellanåt blir beskrivningarna av ruttnande blod och stanken av ben lite för mycket - jag har aldrig sett mig som känslig, men att äta frukost och samtidigt få en detaljerad föreställning av lukten som författarna upplever vid ett möte med ett band i deras replokal får magen att börja vrida sig.

Nevertheless, värt att läsa, även för mig.

[Nalle Österman · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best – if not the best – books capturing the Swedish (and to a certain extent Scandinavian) extreme metal scene from the 1990's up to this day, including the suicides of Pelle Dead (MAYHEM) and Jon Nödtveidt (DISSECTION). A must read for those into Scandinavian extreme metal in all its forms.

[Olof · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're interested in the history of metal music in general, and that of Swedish metal music in particular, this is an essential read. Everything from the early days of heavy metal in the Stockholm suburbs, to the death and black metal movements of the 80s and 90s and onward (including all the controversial stuff, if that's what interests you) is covered in brilliant writing by these two authors. What makes this a great read is that the authors do not shy away from laying bare the naked facts of what happened in those days, while simultaneously taking care not to ruin the mythology that makes the history of Nordic metal so very special. In my view the authors have done a great job of keeping the balance between fact and fiction. By far, my favourite part is the chapter covering Dissection, including the final interview with Jon Nödtveidt, bound to be a gut-wrenching read if you know anything of his life and times. But there are also other very interesting passages here, covering topics such as the DSBM boom and the sometimes very dubious connections between metal and right-wing extremism. As said; if you have any interest whatsoever in metal music and have not read this, it is a highly recommended read.

[Andreas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of the history of Swedish metal, a lot of new information for me (and I have read a lot about it previously). Good interviews with at times humorous description of encounters with the people behind the music.

[Einar E. Ottosson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastisk reportagebok. Rekommenderar starkt, speciellt om man är intresserad av musikgenren.

[Rasmus Karlström · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jag tycker att boken var bra eftersom det var mycket detaljer om varje band och genre det skrevs om i boken. Jag lärde mig en hel del efter att ha läst boken.

[Jeanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastisk journalistik.

[Coco Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting.

[Andrew Garvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

First published in Swedish in 2011, this revised and greatly expanded English edition is from 2018. Structurally, the book takes a thematic, rather than a chronological approach in telling the story of Sweden's heaviest metal scenes across fifteen chapters. While that was probably a good idea, its execution is a little messy at times and I found myself flipping backwards and forwards to find out what was going on when.

But that's a minor complaint about an essential book for anyone wanting to understand or learn more about some (see the final paragraph of this review) Swedish death and black metal. That said, there are things I still don't really get. For one thing, the final chapter focuses on Watain and, while an excellent closing chapter, I still finished the book baffled at how a band with such an outlandish, utterly straight-faced stage show rammed full of rotting blood and animal carcasses and with such an uncompromising attitude could have achieved their (relative) mainstream success and acceptance. Personally, I've never paid much attention to them. But I will now. Though I think I'd skip any live shows. They don't seem very vegan to me.

Early chapters on Nifelheim, Bathory and Pelle Ohlin (Mayhem's much-written about former frontman, 'Dead') are all excellent. That Bathory's Quorthon and Dead have both, well, died means the bulk of these chapters are based on others' recollections, including Quorthon's dad and Dead's brother. These are both compelling and sensitively handled, acting as fine but even-handed tributes to them both.

The death metal chapter does as good a job as it's possible to do in under twenty pages. It feels a bit rushed but this is a book with a LOT to say. The following chapter, on the fanzines and magazines like OKEJ is excellent. And then we come to black metal. The Swedish scene has always been less celebrated/reviled than the Norwegian one (for obvious, slightly less stabby/arson-y reasons) so this is a great summary and does a good job of telling the story to include the intertwined Norwegian scene, without getting overwhelmed by it.

Centered on the band Dark Funeral's willfully, heroically stubborn legal fight with their former record label, 'Chapter VIII: Metal and Money' is a useful, wide-ranging reminder that for all its entrenched success, even in Sweden, making real money from metal just isn't that easy. The longest chapter of the book focuses on the band, Dissection and the late Jon Nodtveidt's life, crimes, release from prison and brief 'glorious' return. It's an interesting story but it's also the only chapter that feels too long.

Chapters ten and twelve cover the role of women in metal and the role of Nazism and fascism in black/death metal. Both are interesting but feel a little short and unfocused. Though it's very funny reading quotes from black/death metal figures denying they're Nazis or fascists and then saying something really racist that... Nazis and fascists believe in the very next sentence. So much self-awareness.

Sandwiched between the two is an account of the Entombed/Entombed AD legal fiasco and the falling out that led to it. Entombed were the first heavy Swedish band I ever heard and I have a soft spot for them and their amazing first three albums. Reading this chapter, and seeing them so diminished, petty and fractured was surprisingly saddening; a feeling made much worse by LG Petrov's untimely death, aged just 49 in 2021.

Chapter XIII: A Lesson in Suicide tackles self-harm and suicide through the lens of the band Shining and the deeply unpleasant and mentally ill (it's possible to be both at the same time) Niklas Kvarforth. Packaging CDs with razor blades and slicing up fans onstage is certainly extreme but it also suggests the Swedish mental health system has failed a lot of greasy-looking people in black clothes and corpse paint. As with the chapter on Jon Nodtveidt, this one feels like it devotes too many words to an attention-seeking outlier and arsehole.

A much-needed dose of levity comes with Chapter XIV: Heavy Metal, a look at the roots and revival of Swedish metal as something that's fun. Ridiculous, yes, but fun. The Muskelrock festival seems to be wildly cheesy but it also seems like a cracking good time.

Cramming a history of Swedish metal from the mid-1980s to the late 2010s into 330 or so pages is, quite honestly, an impossible task. The authors of this book almost managed it. As long as you pretend the Gothenburg scene wasn't really that important and the nobody's heard of Opeth. The end result is a flawed, cherry-picked account but a hugely compelling and highly readable one. And, as much as I disliked Kvarforth, the photo section includes a stunning shot where he returns to the band as 'Ghoul' after half-heartedly, sort of faking his own death and it's utterly horrifying. Which is, after all, the entire point.

[Siamese Twin Cobra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think you'll ever get a fully comprehensive picture of metal (or any subgenre within) in one book. Swedish Death Metal by Daniel Ekeroth and Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries are thorough and massively essential volumes, but even they don't cover everything. So, I see Blood Fire Death as another installment of genre history for those interested rather than a definitive encyclopedia full of iron-clad objectivity. This is a subjective (albeit credible and grassroots) slice of metal culture, as one could expect from Feral House, focusing primarily on Shining, Dissection, Watain, Entombed and Bathory. I read many chapters multiple times, such as Jon Nödtveidt, Quorthon and Entombed, purely out of enjoyment and personal interest. Almost like revisiting full length albums, but fixating largely on your favorite tracks. I've been listening to a few of these bands almost my entire life, so it was good to get more insight on these guys. Yeah, there's always some degree of sensationalism when you're reading about people like Tony Särkkä and Varg Vikernes. That's what they were going for. Meanwhile, I found the biographical elements of this book to be the most rewarding. Quorthon, at the end of the day, was just a guy who wrote great metal records with the unwavering support of his father, The Boss. Alex Hellid just couldn't picture himself living a "normal" life, so he focused all his energy on Entombed. Stuff like that is interesting to me because these guys were larger than life to a suburban 12-year old getting into metal during the mid-90's. Blood Fire Death humanizes them back to something more relatable, which was refreshing in my opinion.

Also, some rabbit got me this for my birthday. I love you, pretty bvnny.

[Neill Jameson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily one of the best books on the Swedish scene and overall underground metal genre I've read. Very humanizing for a lot of the legends behind some of the most important music ever recorded for the genre.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have kind of mixed feelings about Blood Fire Death: The Swedish Metal Story.
On one hand, I enjoyed the interviews and the profile-type parts of the book. Of particular note, the Watain chapter and the Lesson in Suicide chapter. Those two were really interesting.

On the other hand, the authors seem to jump around a bit, not really telling a linear history. There’s also a lot of references to the more-than-well-documented Norwegian black metal scene of the early ‘90s. Conversely, there’s very little mention of Tampa / Florida death metal, which, by my understanding would have had just as much an effect on Swedish extreme metal as neighboring Norway.
And it’s hard to argue that Blood Fire Death is only about metal in general because the book is mostly about black and death metal.

One other thing that really bugged me - and it might have been an issue with translation - the way the writing jumped from present to past tense regardless of when the events occurred.

I’m giving Blood Fire Death four stars. I really like the subject matter, I just think the book could have been put together better / differently. As I said, the profile-type sections were really interesting.
There is another book called Swedish Death Metal, by Daniel Ekeroth, that I found approaches the history in a more focused manner. I think that book was published before Blood Death Fire, and, in my opinion, should also be read first. Then fill in the holes with Blood Death Fire.

[Alejo · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book covering all fields regarding Heavy Metal and its offshoots in a country so prolific in this music such as Sweden. You can read all the book in a normal fashion or go through the different chapters in any order you want, because each one covers a different aspect of Swedish Metal, from its origins and failed attempts at a noteworthy Thrash Metal scene, going through the zenith of Sweden's two renowed styles of Death Metal, the effects of the Norwegian Black Metal scene on the svensk metalheads, up to Depressive Suicidal Black Metal and also the cringeworthy Hammerfall pioneering the resurgence of Power Metal. I'm s glad there's finally an english version of this book.

[Electric-guitar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Svenska är min tredje språk och den här boken är min första svenska Paperback metalhistorie bok jag har läst. Det är lätt att läsa och förstå, med undantag av slangord. Denna bok påminde mig om min ungdom.
Boken gör ett bra jobb med att sätta ett ansikte på någon i stället för den person som bara varit en bandmedlem.

Jag har den här boken "Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground"

[Lucifine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dette er klart den bedste bog om metal jeg har læst. Den er skrevet lidt anderledes og har kapitler der er grundige og som ikke er en lang opremsning af historien. Den var ikke til at lægge fra sig, på bekostning af nattesøvnen. Eneste minus er at den kun er udkommet på svensk og det vil desværre nok afholde en del ikke-svenskere fra at læse den.

[jayden · Rating 5 out of 5]

was a pretty cool book! it’s what you expect and a bit more from your typical book about extreme metal, i did like how the author talks more so about the actual scene and a large amount of influential bands, and not just the typical “brooo varg actually killed euronymous… isn’t that dark?”. overall i enjoyed it!

[Andreas Schriefer · Rating 5 out of 5]

great overview about the extreme metal scene in this scandinavian country.

From Abruptum to Watain many bands are shown.

Extraordinary is the fact that Per Yngve Ohlin known as Dead has an own chapter including his complete suicide-note.