Amaranthe and USF Verftet

Formed by lead singer Jake E and guitarist/keyboardist Olof Mörck in 2008, the project really started to become the band we know today when E and Mörck decided that E wouldn't be the only lead singer in the group. After an extensive auditioning process they recruited a further two lead singers to compliment E, Elize Ryd, who would handle the clean, operatic vocals and Andreas Solveström, who became their extreme metal vocalist. E himself would handle the hard rock style clean vocals and and after they found a rhythm section in the form of Johan Andreassen (bass) and Morten Løwe Sørensen (drums), they took the name Avalanche and began demoing what would later become their debut EP “Leave Everything Behind”. However, due to legal issues, the band were forced to change their name in early 2009 when they signed their first record deal with Spinefarm Records.

Switching to Amaranthe, the band released “Leave Everything Behind” in February of the same year, and began their first headline tour shortly afterwards. 2011 saw the release of their self-titled debut album and ever since then, their esoteric mix of metalcore and dance music has made them a cult band beloved all over the world, and also a huge crossover success in their native Sweden, with two gold records to their name in the form of their 2011 singles “Hunger”, and “Amaranthine”. They've also made some serious headway in the USA, with their 2014 album “Massive Addictive” topping the Billboard Heatseekers Chart in it's first week of release. The band have even managed to weather the departure of Solveström, who left the group in 2013 and was replaced by Henrik Englund soon afterwards. Clearly this is a band with too much momentum to be stopped now, and for that, they come highly recommended.