Former CANDLEMASS Singer MATS LEVÉN's SKYBLOOD: 'The Not Forgotten' Music Video

October 17, 2019

The official music video for the song "The Not Forgotten" from SKYBLOOD, the solo project of acclaimed Swedish hard rock singer Mats Levén, can be seen below.

His name belongs to the most influential and illustrious ones in Swedish metal. Levén's distinctive and colorful voice has graced albums by CANDLEMASS, THERION, KRUX, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN and AT VANCE. Now, after lending his voice to others for decades, fans can finally witness the charismatic singer's solo album. Under the new flag of SKYBLOOD, it will see the light of day on November 22 via Napalm Records.

Dark and hypnotic anthems meet exotic trips into emotional soundspheres on tracks such as "The Voice", which triumphs in musical finesse and timeless elegance.

This debut is an unchained and exciting affair feeding off of epic and classic metal influences, doom and melodic hard rock — an unpredictable mixture soaring to glorious height.

Mats has been working on his solo project for several years. Most instruments were recorded by Mats himself at his own studio, the Uzi G Studio in Stockholm. According to Mats, SKYBLOOD is "who I am. This is SKYBLOOD. SKYBLOOD equals pride, empathy and rage. 'The Voice' carries that flag. A fight for the cause of truth."

Among the guest musicians who are expected to appear on SKYBLOOD's debut album are Martin "Axe" Axenrot (BLOODBATH, OPETH, WITCHERY),Nalley Påhlsson (TREAT, THERION),Snowy Shaw (ex-KING DIAMOND) and Petter Karlsson (ex-THERION, DIABLO SWING ORCHESTRA).

Track listing:

01. Skyblood Manifesto
02. The Voice
03. The Not Forgotten
04. Wake Up To The Truth
05. Once Invisible
06. One Eye For An Eye
07. Out Of The Hollow
08. For Or Against
09. Le Venimeux

"Skyblood" will be coming on vinyl, CD and in digital formats.

Mats, who was in CANDLEMASS for six years, began his professional musical life with SWEDISH EROTICA from Gothenburg, Sweden in 1989. In 1990, Mats got an offer from TREAT and moved to Stockholm where he still lives with his wife and two kids.

After recording albums with ABSTRAKT ALGEBRA and AB/CD, Mats as approached by Yngwie Malmsteen to join the guitarist's band in 1997-98 and to lay down his vocal tracks on the "Facing The Animal" LP.

Over the past couple of decades, Levén has been involved with a number of different bands and projects, including SOUTHPAW, DOGFACE, ESSENCE OF SORROW, AT VANCE and KRUX.

In 2004, Mats supplied lead vocals for THERION's two albums "Sirius B" and "Lemuria". This led to some 150 shows with the band over the course of the next four years. THERION's 2007 album "Gothic Kabbalah" saw Mats co-writing six of the tracks, including the epic "Son Of The Staves Of Time". In 2010-2011, Mats toured with ADAGIO and FIREWIND before joining CANDLEMASS as the replacement for Robert Lowe.

Since 2016, Mats has been touring with rock theater sensation TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, whose 20th-anniversary trek visited 65 cities across North America, for 100-plus performances, before concluding on December 30.

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).