Roughly 17 years after disbanding, Swedish melodic death metal group Ceremonial Oath has announced that it will reunite for an appearance at The Gothenburg Sound Festival set to take place in early January 2013. In existence for only 5 years, Ceremonial Oath proved to be a training ground and starting point for many of Sweden’s metal musicians. Throughout its lifespan, Ceremonial Oath’s lineup has contained such names as Anders Friden and Jesper Stromblad of In Flames, Tomas Lindberg of At the Gates, and Oscar Dronjak of Hammerfall.
Forming initially under the name Desecrator, the band changed its name to Ceremonial Oath in 1990 and released an EP and two full-length albums before calling it a day in 1995. Any listener sampling the band’s music will no doubt catch familiar patterns and musical themes that are prominent in the bands that each member of Ceremonial Oath would later go on to create.
The Gothenburg Sound Festival, named for the style of metal that Ceremonial Oath helped to create, will announce more bands for its lineup in the coming months. In an interview with Goteborgs Posten, festival organizer Per Carlsson has stated that his intention for the festival is to celebrate the status of Gothenburg being a breeding ground for many prominent metal musicians, and to make the event larger and larger each year. “There are plenty of ideas about how to handle this whole thing, and many people have already shown great interest and dedication to making it happen,” says Carlsson. “But the festival itself will take place at Trädgår’n for the time being. We like it there and the festival is being held during a weekend when we’re hoping many of the members of this metal family will be home from their tours.”
