Opeth, In Flames

Peter and Mike sat in a sauna, naked. They were very drunk, and therefore decided to form a band named Opeth.
They left the sauna and stumbled home, while on the way met up with others who said they'd join the band. However, Mike lost their phone numbers so they had to settle with Axe, Per, and Mendez (they all served as alter-boys at church every sunday). Peter, suffering from post-maddrunk amnesia, forgot they formed a band, and didn't believe Mike, so Mike found Frederik, mistaking him for a waiter at Applebee's.

In Flames was formed by Jesper Strömblad back in 1990. The band as it was at the time consisted of Jesper, Johan Larsson and Glenn Ljungström. A demo was recorded and soon after the band got a record deal and released "Lunar Strain" and it did not take long before the album was a classic in the fast growing Scandinavian death metal scene.

With a new line up consisting of Jesper, Johan & Glenn along with two new additions: Anders Fridén on vocals and Björn Gelotte on drums, In Flames signed a license deal with Nuclear Blast Records and soon started recording the follow up: "The Jester Race".

"The Jester Race" quickly became a big hit all across Europe and Japan. After the recording of "Whoracle" in 1997 Johan and Glenn decided to leave the band and Peter Iwers (bass) joined. Niklas Engelin (Gardenian, Engel) was temporarily in the band filling in on guitars.

With a fresh line up the band set sails and headed out on tour. Short after a very successful European tour Niklas had to focus on his other projects, and Björn switched from drums to guitar and Daniel Svensson joined the band, and this is the In Flames as we know it today. With the completion of the line up "Colony" was recorded and released in 1999.

"Colony" took In Flames to a new level and the band sold out venues across Europe, USA and Japan and quickly became one of the biggest and most popular Melodic Death Metal acts around.

"Clayman" which was released in 2000 even topped its predecessor and the awards started pouring in and the band kept growing in popularity. In 2001 "The Tokyo Showdown", In Flames first live album was released, and gave the public and insight to the band's live competence.

Modern and more mature "Reroute To Remain" (2002) again confirmed the status of In Flames and marked another milestone in their career. Two years later and it was time to take In Flames to a new level. "Soundtrack To Your Escape" did just that and was the logical continuation after "Reroute To Remain". In Flames continued to tour the world and documented these escapades, which resulted in the release of the phenomenal DVD/CD package "Used And Abused – In Live We Trust" in 2005.

With an incredibly successful world tour behind them, In Flames recorded the masterpiece "Come Clarity" which was released in March 2006. "Come Clarity" got an amazing reception in the media and has today sold over 400.000 copies worldwide. The song "Take This Life" from the album is featured on the new "Guitar Hero III" game. A game which has been deemed the bestselling video game of all times and has today sold six million copies.

In Flames have sold over 2 million albums worldwide to date!!!

In January 2010, Jesper Srömblad quit the band.
Today the band consists of Anders,Björn,Peter and Daniel.

To be continued..