Introduction
It all started in early 1984, when Kari
Hokkanen and Petter Bryneson met Ingemar
Henning. Kari and Petter were about to form a band, and
they needed a guitarist to get started. Henning, who had been
playing the guitar for only a year, accepted the offer to be in
the band.
.....They
made one obscure gig under the name The Cranium,
before they realised that they needed a second guitarist. They
met Erik Sandqvist at the legendary
Einstürzende Neubauten concert in Gothenburg 1984, and since he
owned a Fender Twin Reverb, he could consider himself hired.
.....They
made a lot of local gigs, some in Denmark as well, during
1985-86, and released their tape Tounge the thong
(yes, it's misspelled) in 1985. It was made in 100 numbered
copies, and became rare immediately. Petter left the band in
1986, and Peter Asp took his place as the
drummer.
.....Soon
they started to record what would become their debut Necrospirituals (released 1989), they didn't have a contract yet, but a
deal was signed with Radium in 1988. Necrospirituals
divided the critics in two halves; either they loved it, or they
hated it. Nowadays, Necrospirituals have
become a real cult-record. Songs from
it have been covered by
Paradise Lost and Entombed, amongst
others.
.....Stillborn
did a concert at the Hultsfred Festival in 1989, but soon after
that the lead-singer Kari left the band. To replace Kari booth as
a singer and as a bass-player, Henrick Karlsson
and Sami Miari joined the band. The new line-up
did a concert at the Berlin Independence Days festival in 1989,
but soon after that Erik also left the band.
.....When
Kim replaced Erik, the final line-up were complete,
and the record company (Radium) they were signed to, was sold to
MNW Record Group. They released The permanent solution
1991, and State of
disconnection 1992, both recorded
in Silence Studio, located in the deep Swedish forest.
.....The
band did a lot of concerts, such as Popkomm, Cologne 1991 and
Roskilde Festival 1992. They also did a couple of European tours.
.....In
1994 when the plans were to make a fourth record, things didn't
worked out as expected, and Stillborn were history. But the
members weren't history: Sami, Kim and Henning formed Colossus,
together with Messiah Marcolin (Candlemass,
Memento Mori), and Peter continued with Mary Beats
Jane.
Ingemar Henning, 1998