SORG

Black / Death metal act SORG (translated as "Grief"), founded during 1995 in the Stockholm suburb of Sigtuna, was initially assembled by guitarist Rickard Dahlin and guitarist / singer Viktor Hemgren. A drummer they soon found in Petter ”Karl” Rosqvist who also attended the same school they were in. The bass was first tried out by their friends Lars Göran and Aleksi Larsson, only to finally be handled by Olle Bodin. The SORG line up was now complete.
The music which SORG started out playing was a mixture of Black Metal and Death Metal, plus some eighties influence. It had a very dark and brutal atmosphere, yet was melodic. In 1996 SORG recorded their first demo titled ”Mina Drömmars Dal” in Thunderload Studios. This was the first release by the band and it was well accepted in the Swedish metal underground. The logo was created by Henrik Normark of SCOLL and has many times won SORG the award of most unreadable (but very ”true”!) logo. SORG first played live twice at their own school, one of which was filmed by a friend and attended by the old Horde (later to become the Painkiller Horde). On December 14th, 1996 SORG then played a gig at Apromus with A CANEROUS QUINTET, CRYPTIC ART and ETERNAL OATH.
On February 22nd, 1997 the band once again played live at Apromus with NECROPHOBIC, CRYPTIC ART and VINTERKRIG. By this time, Christ Painkiller (then called Anti-Christ Carlsson) was SORG’s manager and webmaster, and helped the band with flyers, posters, gigs and contributed to the lyrics of SORG’s upcoming second demo. In August 1997 SORG recorded their second demo titled ”Devastated Light” in Studio Subsonic located in Upplands Väsby. Christ Painkiller along with members of the old Horde contributed back up vocals in the form of the ”mighty horde roars” heard on the song ”Religious Blood”. The band then began to spread the demo around worldwide and played a few more gigs. Black T-shirts (logo on the front, ”Mörkret är oändligt”, translated ”Darkness is eternal” on the back) were prited up and distributed too. SORG recieved many good reviews in the metal zines and it was now clear that the band had improved greatly. The second demo had alot of variation including slow riffs, fast brutal riffs, eighties metal screams, sung by drummer Petter ”Karl” Rosqvist.
In the summer of 1997 Viktor Hemgren joined MÅNEGARM as their lead singer while still staying in SORG. MÅNEGARM had just signed to Displeased Records when their previous singer had quit. The work with the first album started and by the end of October 1997 MÅNEGARM’s first full-length album ”Nordstjärnans Tidsålder” was finally finished, to be released in June 1998.
In early January 1998 SORG played at the Face Front Festival in Piteå (North of Sweden). Next was a gig on February 28th at Kafe 44 that was supposed to be headlined by MÅNEGARM, but they couldn’t make it so SORG headlined and played with GUIDANCE OF SIN (members of A CANEROUS QUINTET), SOILS OF FATE and AD INFINITUM. On March 11th, 1998 SORG had their final gig with the original line up at Magasinet with THYRFING and A MIND CONFUSED. Drummer Petter ”Karl” Rosqvist was leaving to Hollywood in USA to attend a music school. He would be gone for two or more years so he had to quit the band. At about the same time, bassist Olle Bodin left SORG due to lack of interest and to focus on his other Doom/Goth metal band OUT OF HAND.
Then in summer of 1998, Micke Nyholm from the band AD INFINITUM joined SORG and began practising on new material. Micke had joined SORG to help out as a drummer until a permanent drummer was found and played on SORG’s third demo, simply titled ”Demo III” which was recorded during September 1998, once again at Studio Subsonic. Since SORG had no bassist at the time, Viktor played the bass on the third demo. The new material had evolved into a more Death / Thrash metal style and was now more brutal than ever.
After the 3rd demo SORG was put on hold for a long time. Viktor had now also gone to Hollywood, USA to attend the same music school that ex-drummer Petter ”Karl” Rosvist was at. After around three months, Viktor returned in December 1998.
In 1999 there was still problems with the line up and SORG could not play live. Micke Nyholm, the current drummer mentioned that he could not dedicate enough time to SORG because of his other bands including AD INFINITUM and VÖRGUS, so he was forced to quit. In the meantime SORG recieved some minor record deals but turned them down. Some larger labels had shown interest too but asked for more material. For a moment it seemed that SORG had finally completed it’s new line up with two ex-members from SOILS OF FATE, Nicke Karlsson on drums and Henrik ”Trevor” Kolbjer on bass. After less than three weeks, Nicke was fired for lacking dedication. Micke Nyholm returned to take on the drums once again and plans were made to record new material for the labels during the summer of 1999, but this failed to transpire. Around this time Viktor also left MÅNEGARM.
In late 1999 or early 2000, the band known as SORG ceased to exist. Bassist Olle Bodin is asumed to have retired from the metal / music scene after his project with OUT OF HAND.
Viktor moved to Örebro for a few years and formed a new band called BRAIN DAMAGE and released a demo in 2000 that included a cover of ”Into The Acid” by CANCER. He then joined another local rocker called Tomas Alriksson and started a rock’n’roll band called SAWED-OFF that became the biggest unsigned band in the district and did some touring. By 2004 Viktor had quit SAWED-OFF and returned to Stockholm and formed LUCIEN, his current rock’n’roll / punk band.
Late 2004 Viktor Hemgren reunited with Rickard Dahlin and both joined Death Thrashers MAZE OF TORMENT. Rickard currently remains there but Viktor left the band in May 2005 due to musical differences. Viktor went on to join CONSTRUCDEAD for a year or so while maintaining his current band LUCIEN.
After his studies at the music school in Hollywood, USA drummer Petter ”Karl” Rosqvist (aka RockFist) went on to play in many different bands including STEEL PROPHET, VINDIKATION and currently in THE CHELSEA SMILES, SON OF SAM and DANZIG.
Written by: Christ Painkiller (Between 1997-2000, edited & updated April 2009)
This myspace page is maintained by Christ Painkiller.
Viktor can today be found playing in LUCIEN.
Rickard can today be found playing in MAZE OF TORMENT.
Petter "Karl" can today be found playing in DANZIG, SON OF SAM & THE CHELSEA SMILES.