Expulsion was a death metal band from

Vallentuna Vallentuna is the seat of Vallentuna Municipality in Stockholm County, Sweden, with 33,219 inhabitants in 2018. Vallentuna's cultural landscape is well preserved, and human habitation in the area has been traced back as far as the Stone Age. Arche ...

, Sweden, that existed from 1988 to 1999. The band gained notability for being one of the earliest Swedish death metal bands, and that two of its members also played in the

black metal Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emp ...

band

Treblinka Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The cam ...

(later named

Tiamat In Mesopotamian religion, Tiamat ( akk, or , grc, Θαλάττη, Thaláttē) is a primordial goddess of the sea, mating with Abzû, the god of the groundwater, to produce younger gods. She is the symbol of the chaos of primordial crea ...

History

In 1988, the

thrash metal Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...

band River's Edge split up, when lead vocalist

Johan Edlund Johan * Johan (given name) * ''Johan'' (film), a 1921 Swedish film directed by Mauritz Stiller * Johan (band), a Dutch pop-group ** ''Johan'' (album), a 1996 album by the group * Johan Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada * Jo-Han, a manu ...

left to form the band

. Stefan Lagergren (guitar), Anders Holmberg (bass) and Calle Fransson (drums) continued to play together under the name Expulsion and recorded two demo cassettes, ''Cerebral Cessation'' (1988) and ''Veiled in the Mists of Mystery'' (1989). ''Certain Corpses Never Decay'' liner notes The band went on hold when Holmberg joined Tranquility and was reformed in 1991 by Lagergren and Fransson after leaving

, together with Fredrik Thörnqvist on vocals and Chelsea Krook on bass. Holmberg returned and replaced Krook on the debut CD EP ''A Bitter Twist of Fate'' that was recorded and released by the band themselves (under the record label alias Dödsmetallfirma Expulsion) in 1993. The debut album ''Overflow'' was released in 1994. This album featured guest vocals (on the track ''At The Madness End'') by aforementioned Johan Edlund. The second album ''Man Against'' followed in 1996. Although never on any tour, the band played concerts together with bands as

At The Gates At the Gates is a Swedish death metal band from Gothenburg, formed in 1990. The band was a major progenitor of Gothenburg-style melodic death metal alongside In Flames and Dark Tranquillity. Prior to their first disbandment in 1996, At the Gat ...

Grave A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grav ...

Dismember Dismemberment is the act of cutting, ripping, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise disconnecting the limbs from a living or dead being. It has been practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, especially in connection with ...

and

Nihilist Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by Ivan ...

. After ten years without any success the band split up in 1998. For a brief period, the members switched vocalist from Thörnqvist to Andreas Jansson under the name Judge And Jury, but ultimately split up in 1999.

Musical style

On the first two demos, Expulsion "sounded like a thrashier Treblinka", both bands containing Stefan Lagergren and Anders Holmberg and "sound ngpretty similar". Expulsion have often cited the bands Xecutioner, Athetist and

Sadus Sadus is an American thrash metal band from Antioch, California, active from 1985 to 2015, and reunited in 2017. Originally a quartet, the band's sound fuses thrash metal with death metal, featuring highly technical musicianship. They are kno ...

as prime inspirations to start a death metal band. The combination of these influences, and the slower, doomier, bands such as Candlemass and Paradise Lost formed the basis of Expulsion's sound.

Members

* Stefan Lagergren -

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

(

, Mr. Death, Voldet) * Anders Holmberg - bass (also

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

1988–1991) (

, Tranquillity) * Calle Fransson - drums (Stressfest) * Fredrik Thörnqvst -

1991–1998 * Chris Vowden -

1992–1999 (Stressfest, Mouthpeace)

Discography

Albums

* ''Overflow'' (1994, Godhead) * ''Man Against'' (1996, Godhead)

EPs

* ''A Bitter Twist of Fate'' (1993, Dödsmetallfirma Expulsion)

Demo cassettes

* ''Cerebral Cessation'' (1988) * ''Veiled in the Mists of Mystery'' (1989)

Compilation albums

* ''Certain Corpses Never Decay'' (2014, Vic Records)

References

{{Authority control Swedish death metal musical groups Musical groups established in 1988 Musical groups disestablished in 1999