Urminnes Hävd - The Forest Sessions



Månegarm is a Swedish Viking/black metal band from Norrtälje. The band's name comes from Mánagarmr, a wolf in Norse mythology. The band started from the ideas of Svenne Rosendal, Jonas Almquist, and Pierre Wilhelmsson in 1995. After securing another guitarist in Mårten Matsson and a drummer in Erik Grawsiö, they began rehearsing as Antikrist. By 1996, they had changed their name to Månegarm, after the wolf of Norse legend, apt for a band concentrating on Viking metal, and early that year, they began recording first demo Vargaresa (Wolf's Journey) in 1996. After the recording, Rosendal and Matsson left to be replaced by Jonny Wranning (vocals) and Markus Andé (guitar). With the second demo, Ur Nattvindar, folk metal became part of their sound, including violins and female vocals for the first time, and they were signed by Displeased Records. Soon afterwards, Wranning left the band and was replaced by Viktor Hemgren. At the end of the year, they went back into Sunlight studios to record their first full-length album, Nordstjärnans Tidsålder (The Age of the Northstar). In the summer of 1999, they began recording their next album, Havets Vargar. Because of some difficulty with the recording studio, they took some time off from recording the album. During this time off, Viktor Hemgren was fired, but instead of finding a new vocalist, Grawsiö assumed the duties along with his drumming. Also during this time, Janne Liljekvist was added as a full member. With the line up now solidified, they finished recording the album and released it in 2000. The band's two demos were remastered and released as an album in 2004, with fourth studio album Vredens Tid (Age of Wrath) issued in 2005, followed by performances on the European festival circuit that summer. After one further EP on Displeased, a completely acoustic folk music EP, Urminnes Hävd (The Forest Sessions), the band moved to Swedish label Black Lodge, who issued the group's sixth album, Vargstenen (Wolf Stone) in 2007. A new album called Nattväsen was released on October 22, 2009 via Regain Records. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.