Pär Anders Fridén (born 25 March 1973) is a Swedish vocalist, best known as the lead singer of heavy metal band

In Flames In Flames is a Swedish heavy metal band, formed by guitarist Jesper Strömblad in Gothenburg in 1990. Alongside At the Gates and Dark Tranquillity, In Flames pioneered the genres known as Swedish death metal and melodic death metal. During t ...

. He was also the vocalist of

Dark Tranquillity Dark Tranquillity is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Gothenburg. They are considered one of the pioneering acts of the Gothenburg metal scene, which also includes bands such as In Flames and At the Gates. Dark Tranquillity is regarded a ...

and

Passenger A passenger (also abbreviated as pax) is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The ...

, a side project.

Career

Early career

Fridén was originally the vocalist for

. He performed on their debut album, Skydancer, but left the band soon after. Two years later he joined In Flames. Coincidentally

Mikael Stanne Bengt Mikael Stanne (born 20 May 1974) is a Swedish musician, best known as the vocalist and one of the lyricists (as well as a former rhythm guitarist) for the Swedish melodic death metal band Dark Tranquillity. Since the departure of origina ...

had left In Flames (being only a session player) and switched from

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

to lead vocals in Dark Tranquillity, so the two effectively traded places. Fridén was also the lead vocalist for another band known as Ceremonial Oath with In Flames founder

Jesper Strömblad Clas Håkan Jesper Strömblad (born 28 November 1972) is a Swedish musician who is the guitarist of the bands The Halo Effect, Dimension Zero and Cyhra, and formerly of In Flames and The Resistance. He is best known as the founder and former ...

1995–present: In Flames

Fridén started with In Flames on the 1996 album ''

The Jester Race ''The Jester Race'' is the second studio album by Swedish heavy metal band In Flames, released in February 1996. It is the first album to feature Anders Fridén as the band's vocalist, Björn Gelotte as the drummer, and Jester Head as the ban ...

''. On the album ''

Whoracle ''Whoracle'' is the third studio album by Swedish heavy metal band In Flames, released on 18 November 1997. The title of the album is a portmanteau of the English words "whore" and " oracle". Apart from "Everything Counts", which is a cover o ...

'',

Niklas Sundin Niklas Sundin (born 13 August 1974 in Gothenburg, Sweden) is a musician of the band Mitochondrial Sun, but was best known as the founding lead guitarist of band Dark Tranquillity (1989–2020). He was also one of the guitarists in the band Laethora ...

(of

) wrote the lyrics following the original synopsis by Fridén. On the 1999 album ''

Colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...

'', Fridén composed the lyrics himself, though Sundin still assisted by translating his lyrics from Swedish to English. He is also the vocalist for the band

as a side project. Fridén also has done guest vocals on the album ''The Phantom Novels'', by the metal band ''Grievance''. He is the lead vocalist on the tracks'' Atrocity Upon Deceptions'', ''A Devil's Rhyme'' and ''The Mask of Sin.'' In 2007 Fridén appeared as a guest vocalist on the Japanese bonus track "See the Falling Sky" on Caliban's 2007 album " The Awakening". As well as providing vocals for the track "Dysfunctional Hours" for the 20th anniversary Nuclear Blast Allstars compilation album, ''

Out of the Dark Out of the Dark may refer to: Films * ''Out of the Dark'' (1989 film), a comedy/horror film starring Karen Witter * ''Out of the Dark'' (1995 film), a comedy/horror film by Jeffery Lau and starring Stephen Chow * ''Out in the Dark'', a 2012 Israe ...

''.

His look changed dramatically following the release of

2002 release ''

Reroute to Remain ''Reroute to Remain'' (subtitled: ''Fourteen Songs of Conscious Insanity'', and on reissue: ''Fourteen Songs of Conscious Madness'') is the sixth studio album by Swedish heavy metal band In Flames, released in September 2002. The album saw a ma ...

''. His previously clean-shaven look was replaced with a beard, and his long hair was put into

dreadlocks Dreadlocks, also known as locs or dreads, are rope-like strands of hair formed by locking or braiding hair. Origins Some of the earliest depictions of dreadlocks date back as far as 1600–1500 BCE in the Minoan Civilization, one of Europe' ...

. His vocal style has also changed, especially on the past three records. His low-tone, harsh death growl has evolved into a higher pitched scream, which is now supplemented by clean vocals and layers of backing vocals. In addition to being a vocalist, Fridén is also a producer, with his most recent efforts being the albums: ''The Undying Darkness'' by Caliban in 2006 and ''Absolute Design'' by the band Engel in 2007. He also co-wrote and performed scream vocals on the song "Self vs Self", which appears on the third album of UK/Australian

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

band

Pendulum A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the ...

alongside his bandmates Björn Gelotte and

Peter Iwers Peter Iwers (born on 15 May 1975) is a Swedish musician and the current bass player of The Halo Effect. He was a member of Swedish heavy metal band In Flames from their 1999 album ''Colony'', up until their 2016 album ''Battles'', originally ...

. In the summer of 2010, Fridén changed his appearance again by cutting off his dreadlocks, which he had grown since the release of ''

''. Fridén founded the ambient/electronic project If Anything, Suspicious in 2021. The project's debut album, ''Lullabies for the Damned'', was released in collaboration with OFFAIR in December 2021.

Discography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Friden, Anders 1973 births Death metal musicians Swedish heavy metal drummers People from Gothenburg Swedish heavy metal singers Swedish drummers Male drummers Living people English-language singers from Sweden 21st-century Swedish singers 21st-century drummers 21st-century Swedish male singers In Flames members Passenger (Swedish band) members Dark Tranquillity members Ceremonial Oath members