Biography:

It all started in Norrtalje, Sweden, in 1995 when three old friends; Pierre, Jonas and Svenne, got the idea of starting a metal band. They all thought that the most important thing with this new project was to play metal as fast and primitive as possible, and the lyrics had to be in Swedish.
To get the band started and to get the sound that they wanted, they only had to find a second guitarist and a drummer of course.

Quite soon they found the guitarist Marten Matsson, who played guitar in a local metal band. He thought the idea sounded interesting and joined the band. Marten also knew a guy who had been playing drums for some months, Erik Grawsio, and brought him along too which completed the line-up...
The first Manegarm line-up was; Svenne Rosendal - vocals, Jonas Almquist and Marten Matsson - guitars, Pierre Wilhelmsson - bass and Erik Grawsio - drums. With the temporary band name, Antikrist, they started to rehearse their very first song "Manljus" in November '95. A month later the name of the band was changed to Manegarm. In May 1996 the band was ready to record some of their first songs and after three days in Studio Underground a four-track demo was finished. The demo tape was named "Vargaresa" and it was an over average demo with good sound and material but unfortunately quite a few labels and zines received it.

In the middle of the summer 1996, a line-up change was done. Two of the members quitted the band due to lack of interest and a new guitarist and vocalist got involved. The Guitarist, Markus Ande, was an old friend of Grawsio's, and Jonny Wranning, the new vocalist, had been singing with both Wilhelmsson and Almquist in previous bands. With some fresh blood and with new ideas Manegarm started to rehearse for their next demo tape.
In February 1997, Manegarm entered Sunlight Studios to record their second demo; "Ur Nattvindar". The demo contained three songs plus intro/outro and for the first time violins and female vocals could be heard in the music. The use of the violin and female vocals gave the whole thing a Nordic touch and it was really the perfect ingredients in Manegarms music. Compared to the first demo, "Ur Nattvindar" was sent out to several labels and magazines and the response was very good. In the summer of 1997 Manegarm signed on to Displeased Records and the work with the first album began...

After the release of the second demo Jonny quitted the band and the hunt for a new vocalist began. Some vocal auditions later they finally found a guy from Stockholm; Viktor Hemgren, who joined the band. The work with the first album started and in the end of October 1997 Manegarms first full-length album, "Nordstjarnans Tidsalder", was finally finished. The album was recorded in Sunlight Studios and it was released in June 1998. They were very satisfied with the result at that time and the response from the listeners and press was quite good. Janne Liljekvist's violin could once again be heard in the music along with the beautiful voice of Umer Mossige-Norheim.

One year later, during the summer of 1999, Manegarm started to record their second album, "Havets Vargar", in a recording studio that belonged to a friend of the band. It all went quite well at first but later on, due to some disagreements between the owner of the recording studio and the record lbel, it all suddenly ended up in a five-month break, right in the middle of the recording..
In December 1999 they took the half way recorded material and went to Studio Underground for two weeks to finish the album. Viktor Hemgren had been fired during the break because of his lack of
interest and it was decided that Erik Grawsio should do the vocals on the album. The band had suddenly become a quartet but this solution actually turned out to be a good one and as everyone can see, the Manegarm line-up is the same since that day...............the only thing that has happened is that Janne Liljekvist now is a real member of the band since a couple of years.
The second album "Havets Vargar" was finally released in the summer of 2000.

After the release of "Havets Vargar" the band decided to take a short break, just to find some motivation and some new ideas. After several months off, the urge for playing Rock N' Roll got to strong and the band decided that it was time to start rehearsing for their next full-length album. With 11 great songs and with some new, fresh ideas for how Viking/Folk metal really should be played, M?anegarm once again went to Studio Underground to record their third full-length album. The album, "Dodsfard", was released in August 2003 and it luckily meant a huge increase of the bands popularity.

In 2004 both demos; "Vargaresa" and "Ur Nattvindar", were released on the album "Vargaresa - The Beginning". Almost ten years had past since the start and this album; with re-mastered songs and with a new great cover art by Kris Verwimp, was released for all and everyone who were interested in hearing how Manegarm sounded like back in the days. In the same period as the release of "Vargaresa - the beginning", Manegarm returned to Studio Underground to record their fourth studio album "Vredens Tid". The Viking/Folk metal that Manegarm had performed the last couple of years was present of course; they had only spiced it with some more heavy metal. The album had the same catchiness as the previous album "Dodsfard" but yet with its own identity. "Vredens Tid" was released in 28th of September 2005 and the album received really great reviews from press and fans all over the world. "Vredens Tid" has been described as Manegarms best album..so far that is!!

Besides the release of "Vredens Tid", 2005 also included several live gigs in Europe for Manegarm.
After ten years of hard work; composing, arranging and rehearsing songs, they finally got the chance to perform on some great European metal festivals, and metal heads in Germany, Belgium, Scotland and Austria got their share of some pure Swedish Viking metal.

In January 2006 it was time to record the next album; the fifth and last Manegarm album for Displeased Records. The album, an acoustic mini-album called "Urminnes Havd - the forest session", was released in 28th of June and it has received great reviews so far. This special acoustic album was something that the band had wanted to do for many, many years and finally this dream was realized. The music that can be heard on "Urminnes Havd" is nothing like the regular Manegarm stuff. This time the music only contained traditional ingredients like cow drums, djembe, Jews harp, flute, violins, acoustic guitars, choirs and clean male & female vocals. This folk album is a tribute to our ancestors, our Swedish mythology and to the heathen flame that burn inside every man, but just as much a try to wake up that heathen flame in those who haven't found it just yet.............

2006 can be seen as the most important year so far in Manegarm's history with a lot of important and memorable moments. After a great two week European tour together with Skyforger and Goddess of Desire and after the release of "Urminnes Havd - the forest sessions", Manegarm ends their collaboration with Displeased Records and enters a new era...

From now on Manegarm will be signed on to the Swedish metallabel Black Lodge and we all think that this collaboration will contribute in making Manegarm an even better and more popular Viking metal band. In October 2006 Manegarm entered the recording studio to record their album for Black Lodge. This sixth studio album promises something very special...

After one album Manegarm decided to sign with Swedish label Regain Records. Their 7th album 'Nattvasen' was released in November 2009 and is clearly a great Manegarm viking metal album. Festival appearances are booked, so check the band out when they play near you!