let there be Sunlight

ENTOMBED GUITARIST UFFE CEDERLUND AND SUNLIGHT STUDIOS’ RECORDING WIZARD TOMAS SKOGSBERG LOOK BACK ON THE BIRTH OF SWEDISH DEATH METAL AND THE SUNLIGHT SOUND

- JOE MATERA

PRIOR TO THE explosion of Swedish death metal onto the international scene in the early Nineties, Sweden had etched its musical heritage onto the world via its most famous export, the sweet pop sounds of ABBA. As the Seventies gave way to the Eighties, new Swedish artists such as Europe and Yngwie Malmsteen would steer the tiny nation’s sonic legacy in a much harder and heavier direction. And with the birth pangs of a darker and extreme sound of metal slowly finding favor with the youth as the decade wore on, Sweden was ripe for the birth of a sound that would go on to become known as the “Sunlight Sound.”

The seed that led to the development of the Sunlight Sound was planted in Stockholm in 1988 when a local teenage band, Nihilist, hired a young up-and-coming engineer and producer named Tomas Skogs-berg to record their second demo cassette, Only Shreds Remain. Skogsberg had first set up his Sunlight Studios as a makeshift facility as early as 1982, and during the next several years — while holding down a day job — he’d spend his nights learning his trade by recording local punk and pop bands. By the time Nihilist enlisted Skogsberg’s services, Sunlight had transformed into a full-blown recording studio with a growing clientele, and Skogsberg had left his day job to concentrate on his studio work.