ENTOMBED To Reunite For 'Special' Concert At Sweden's GEFLE METAL FESTIVAL

Legendary Swedish death metallers ENTOMBED will play "one exclusive show" at next year's edition of the Gefle Metal Festival, set to take place July 14-16, 2022 in Gävle, Sweden. The band says: "It will be quite special. See you there!"

ENTOMBED's lineup for the performance will include original members Alex Hellid (guitar),Uffe Cederlund (guitar) and Nicke Andersson (drums) plus former ENTOMBED bassist Jörgen Sandström, who previously played with the band between 1995 and 2004. There will also be guest appearances by other former ENTOMBED members and various well-known musicians.

Gefle Metal Festival festival general manager Chris Rotenius said in a statement: "Next year, it will be six years since the last time ENTOMBED was on a stage. Now we have managed to gather the core with Uffe, Alex, Nicke and Jörgen to create the perfect opportunity to perform a concert beyond the ordinary. At Gefle Metal Festival next summer you can expect a unique ENTOMBED gig. This is going to be a death metal evening you don't want to miss."

ENTOMBED's performance at Gefle Metal Festival will mark the band's first appearance since singer Lars-Göran "LG" Petrov died on March 7 after a battle with bile duct cancer. He was 49 years old.

"LG was a central figure in Swedish metal who left a huge void behind," Gefle Metal Festival CEO Edward Janson said. "When we started Gefle Metal Festival 2016, FIRESPAWN with LG was the very first band to play and at the last festival in 2019, he was on stage with his ENTOMBED A.D. In between, he was in attendance as an enthusiastic fan. It feels good to be able to pay tribute to LG and his contributions to metal with this concert."

Hellid, Cederlund and Andersson played the band's groundbreaking 1991 album, "Clandestine", in its entirety at Malmö Live in Malmö, Sweden in November 2016. Joining them at the show were Robert Andersson (vocals) and Nicke's half brother Edvin Aftonfalk (bass),both formerly of the Swedish death metal band MORBUS CHRON. Two weeks earlier, the most recent Hellid-led lineup of ENTOMBED made its live debut on the Close-Up Båten cruise.

Hellid and Petrov had been embroiled in a legal battle over the ENTOMBED name for several years. In 2014, Petrov was reportedly awarded the right to use the band name in connection with future recording and touring activities, a decision which Hellid appealed without success. The guitarist then went on to register a trademark for spirits production under the "Entombed" name. This move did not sit well with Hellid's former bandmate, who filed a letter of protest against Alex's registration of the name, claiming that it could be confused with band activities. He also said that Hellid acted in "bad faith" when he registered name and that there was a desire to "deceive the public." Petrov's protest, however, found no favor with the Swedish Patent And Registration Office, which rejected his claims on the issue in a March 2016 ruling.

In an interview with Revolution-Music.dk, Petrov defended his group's decision to release albums and tour under the name ENTOMBED A.D. in order to avoid a legal battle with Hellid who didn't want his former bandmates to use the ENTOMBED moniker: "It had to be done, because without an album you can't tour," he explained. "I mean, you can tour, but if there's seven years between albums, it's ridiculously long. So we did the right thing, and we did what bands should do, and still do — release an album and go on tour and headbang and have a good time with friends, and that's what it's all about."