The Unguided

The Unguided is a five-piece melodic metal band from Sweden, formed by Richard Sjunnesson, after his departure from Sonic Syndicate. Later, he was joined by (also former Sonic Syndicate singer) Roland Johansson, and guitarist Roger Sjunnesson and current Cipher System bassist Henric Carlsson.


The Unguided Complete Biography:

The Fallen Angels Era:

To get a better understanding of who The Unguided actually are, how the band came to be, and what variables were in play behind the project, we have to travel nearly a decade back in time. In the year 2002 the Sjunnesson brothers formed a melodic metal band called Fallen Angels. This band was the result of the brothers not being allowed to act out their musical view in a loosely hanging former project, and therefore, a decision was made to move on. In Fallen Angels the brothers made sure to surround themselves with likeminded people—people who not only shared their musical vision, but also whom they trusted.

Fallen Angels persistently worked their way from their hometown in Falkenberg, on the west coast of Sweden, into the underground of their country with convincingly striking power. During the Fallen Angels era, they toured the underground diligently and also released three demos, which included Fall from Heaven 2003, Black Lotus 2003, and ultimately Extinction 2004. The rumors of Fallen Angels spread outside the boundaries of Sweden quickly. As a result, their effort of Extinction began to dig its vicious hooks into Scandinavia, Europe, and across the Atlantic Ocean. In 2004 The American label, Pivotal Rockordings, inked a deal with Fallen Angels to record their debut album.

The debut album of Fallen Angels was entitled Eden Fire. The framework of the LP consisted of re-recordings of the demos Extinction and Black Lotus. They also introduced three new, steaming fresh songs to the mix. Since Eden Fire summed up a vast time era of different musical styles, it was decided to separate the songs on the album into chapters, in order to not confuse the listener. Eden Fire started off with the three new songs, and progressed faithfully with an accurate time line denoting when each demo was created.

During the recording of the album, Fallen Angels coincidentally encountered a very peculiar figure, which came to be an important force later on in their career. His name was Roland Johansson. He was not only a man with a huge amount of character, and a chronic flow of practical jokes, but also a man with a spectacularly powerful, melodic voice. On the debut album Fallen Angles wanted to introduce clean vocals. This was a bearing concept of four out of ten songs on the album. Roland was called in to shoulder this request.

The Sonic Syndicate Era:

In 2005 Pivotal Rockordings released Eden Fire upon the world. Two weeks before the release of the album, however, it was decided to rename Fallen Angels to Sonic Syndicate for obvious reasons. The most objective reason for the name change was to avoid legal issues. Sonic Syndicate got more gigs than ever before after the debut released, and pierced their way through numerous amounts of shows across Sweden.

In 2006, the globally acknowledged and respected label Nuclear Blast became interested in Sonic Syndicate after hearing Eden Fire, and three pre-production tracks from the debut follow up. Shortly thereafter, a deal was signed, and the immediate work of the successor to Eden Fire commenced within the band. Roland was once again called in to provide the band with his powerful vocal capability. This time, however, he was made a fulltime member making Sonic Syndicate a vocalist duo. This dynamic was to be the trademark sound of the band. In 2007 the album Only Inhuman was released via Nuclear Blast.

Shortly after the release of Only Inhuman, the band set off for their first Europe tour, out of many to come. There, they discovered the world outside Scandinavia and showcased their sonic based weapons on a much bigger scale. The tours almost overlapped each other during these years. It seemed as if the world was the band’s very own playground during this time. The sequel to the Only Inhuman was unleashed into the world in2008 to follow up on the previous success. The band released the new album, Love and other Disasters, once again through Nuclear Blast.

Love and other Disasters was equally well received. And shortly after the release came further touring to siege new ground. The concept of home was transferred from a fixed point to wherever the band had to put down their travel bags. And somewhere in this surrealistic state of constant touring, the band felt a significant change in Roland. The passion for what we had involved ourselves in seemed to die out and fade from him, and during the end of the summer of 2009 Roland left the band.

Roland was a loved man indeed. His own fans, the fans of the band, and the band itself, adored him. With his departure, Sonic Syndicate was to face a very problematic situation. It was suggested to either disband or get a replacement singer. Roland was replaced with a new singer who was already dedicated to his post at the day of his leaving.

In the fall of 2009, two songs were released to showcase the new singer, Burn This City and Rebellion in Nightmareland. This was a paradox in a way, seeing that Burn This City included the most pop-influenced chorus and song structure yet in the band. In contrast, Rebellion in Nightmareland was one of the heaviest tracks the band had ever had created. Nervous fans asked themselves what direction Sonic Syndicate would take next. This was the very same question answered for Richard during the writing of the new album.

The band and its fundamental support sources made a decision to walk down the commercial road for the next album. Richard was not pleased with this outcome, seeing that he started the band with the intention to create music with a heavy musical style. Because of this, he saw no personal gains in performing something that he despised. Early in 2010, Richard voiced his concern to his brother Roger, and also revealed he was going to leave the band when the time was right.

In March 2010, Richard registered the domain WWW.THE-UNGUIDED.COM. Symbolically, The Unguided was to be the project name for both Richard and Roger’s upcoming musical endeavor. The Unguided formed because of one main intention—to enforce the classic song writing of Sonic Syndicate. Soon after, the song writing process commenced in secret, behind closed doors from the rest of the world.

During the fall of 2010, Sonic Syndicate’s fourth album We Rule the Night was released after numerous delays. It was received with mixed feelings among the fans. Both a singer change and genre change were a bit too much for the majority. To make matters more complicated, they were completely unaware of a new challenge they were about to face—the departure of a founding member. Almost exactly two months after the release of We Rule the Night, Richard announced his exit from Sonic Syndicate.

Strategically, Richard secured ground before his leave. In a newly created blog, he announced immediately that he was planning to forge a new musical project with his brother Roger, and a mysterious old friend most people would were quite familiar with. Shortly after, the speculations flooded in, and some were closer to the truth than others.

The Unguided Era Pt.1 - Nightmareland:

In November 2010, Richard announced the name of his new band, The Unguided, along with a new logo design. He did not reveal the secret familiar individual, however. Roland was not introduced as the mysterious, secret band member until the end of November. His newly announced presence in the band was cleverly featured in the format of a nostalgic video, showing Richard and him working together once again for the first time since Roland parted from Sonic Syndicate.

Early in January 2011, the debut release from The Unguided was announced with a cover artwork entitled, Nightmareland. This EP included two songs to showcase the sound of the band. In the cover artwork of Nightmareland, fans could spot the iron banners from the Eden Fire release. Consequently, this ignited new hope in fans who missed the old days of Sonic Syndicate.

Close to the end of January 2011, news was announced via Richards’s blog that The Unguided would head into The Abyss recording studio in Pärlby – Sweden to record Nightmareland. Jonas Kjellgren would record, produce, and mix the EP. Jonas had previously worked on former Sonic Syndicate albums, such as Only Inhuman, Love and Other Disasters, and Burn This City EP. It was important to work with Jonas because he was a very big contributor to the classic sound of Sonic Syndicate.

The titles for the two new songs, Green Eyed Demon and Pathfinder, were also introduced in the same blog entry.

Early in February 2011, The Unguided released a 40 second sound preview of the two songs recorded. This was the first public studio recording since 2008 of the vocalist duo Richard and Roland. It was also revealed that they inked a deal with the Swedish label, Despotz Records, to release Nightmareland. They also announced their premiere gig at Getaway Rock Festival in Gävle – Sweden to commence on July 7th.

The Unguided hosted a fan tattoo competition where fans all over the world where to ink out The Unguided symbol and win fine awards. Among the prizes were extremely rare Fallen Angels demos and iconic shirts from previous band’s music video recording. Three Swedes won the contest as they was first to tattoo the crest. But skin decoration of unguided related content is still coming in on a regular basis even through the competition is over.

Early in March 2011, The Unguided and Despotz records introduced a strictly limited edition package for the fans. It consisted of a special jakebox EP edition of Nightmareland limited and numbered to 616 copies. The package also included an exclusive The Unguided shirt and a signed poster. Two weeks before the release day on April 1st, the package sold out.

Along with the wishes of the fans, The Unguided and Despotz decided to print a standard jewel case copy of Nightmareland, since there was still such a high demand for the sold out edition. The lost and found graphic artist, J.A.Aranguren, was used to make the layout design for the jewel case. Coincidently, Aranguren was also the man behind the cover artwork of Eden Fire.

Nightmareland was well received and a good preview of things to come. It sold the most in Sweden, Germany, USA, UK, Holland, Australia, Norway and Finland (in that order).

The Unguided signed a follow up contract with Despotz to release the debut album. The writing and pre-production of this particular album began immediately.

The Unguided Era Pt.2 – Hell Frost:

Yet another fan contest was thrown, this time a photograph related one. Where people who had bought the special 616 edition of Nightmareland where to take photos of themselves in cool locations, wearing the “I’m one of the 616” shirt. The winner, hailing from Finland got awarded with the benefit of making up a lyrical theme for the upcoming album (Later resulting in the song My Own Death).

In the middle of May 2011, it was announced via Richard’s blog that a secret unguided event would take place the symbolic date 20110616. Nothing more specified than just the date, was included in the post.

June 1, 2011, a statement from The Unguided was released that they were not allowed to perform Sonic Syndicate material on their live shows (the very songs they wrote themselves). Hence of Robin (Richard and Roger’s younger cousin) not agreeing to sign a license granting Roland to once again be involved with the material without a contract breach. This results in even more bad blood between family relations and made way for a lot of disappointed fans that saw their last chance to listen to Sonic Syndicate material with the original vocal duo via The Unguided.

Upon the anticipated date June 16, 2011 a digital single of an old re-recorded and re-vamped Fallen Angels song; Betrayer of the code was released. Artwork once again made by the legendary J.A.Aranguren. A statement was also announced that the recording of The Unguided debut album have started.

An official statement was found on the promotion site www.sixonesix.se tied to the single release:

So this anticipated day finally arrived!

As there’s still a long way to go until the completion of The Unguided debut album (and then we’re not even talking about a release). We all thought it would be appropriate to release a little something to keep the wolves at bay! This special song which you are about to hear is one fundamental pillar of what we created our past endeavors on, almost a decade ago. Not to say a vital fragment of history in our carrier. A song brought back into power under the wings of The Unguided, accessible to you digitally via iTunes. We give to you: Betrayer of the code! Disassembled, revamped and put together more powerful than ever before.
The unguided army is mobilizing and growing in numbers day by day. But we are still direct dependent on your generous support in the project. So keep nursing this project open-handed by purchasing our music digitally or merchandise and EP via the web-shop. For this special day we have let ourselves manufacture new merchandise which is available here. Keep supporting, and thanks to everyone that is doing everything in their power to keep the dark heart of this project beating.

// Richard, Roland and Roger

Betrayer of the code made its way to iTunes top 1 on the rock category and bombed in at place 8 on the overall iTunes chart. A “Betrayer” package consisting of a sign poster and t-shirt where also released and sold out promptly.

Also in the beginning of June, The Unguided announces a hometown summer show in Falkenberg. Early June The Unguided official Facebook reaches 5,000 fans. Promo pictures where made off the band and retouched by Linda Åkerberg which have previously worked with the band in the past.

The premiere gig of The Unguided at Getaway Rock Festival in Gävle was a success. Live musicians John Bengtsson (Sonic Syndicate) and Henric Carlsson (Cipher System, Lavett) where introduced as additional musicians. Jonas Kjellgren did FOH on the premiere gig.

Second gig and hometown show of The Unguided in Falkenberg was also well in place, band sounded even more refined with additional experience and rehearsals. Once again the band utilized John and Henric as live musicians. A third and last summer show was announced at Malmöfestivalen right after the gig.

At the third show Per Qvarnström (By Night) jumped in on the drums, since John was busy with wedding plans. The third show was the biggest of the three and very well received. Also Richard’s stand-in harsh vocalist in Sonic Syndicate; Christoffer Andersson (What Tomorrow Brings) was featured on guest vocals on the song “Green Eyed Demon”.

In the beginning of August another show was announced, this time at Bandit Boat 12, going out from Stockholm to Finland. It was also revealed that the recording of the album was complete after several studio sessions in The Abyss studio – Pärlby during the spring and summer. The effort produced by Jonas Kjellgren and The Unguided. The bass on the album was recorded by Jonas Kjellgren (Scar Symmetry) and drums by John Bengtsson (Sonic Syndicate). Roger also produced up the keyboards for the album with Pontus Hjelm (Dead By April) in PH Studio – Gothenburg. The only thing left on the album was the actual mixing which would be handled by Jonas Kjellgren.

Additional specs of the album were announced that a limited edition will consist of 11 songs and the retail version only having 10. Gustavo Sazes will be behind the layout design once again and the actual cover artwork was made by Kuang Hong. Also J.A.Aranguren’s Betrayer of the code artwork was to be featured in the booklet.
Early October the album artwork and title was released. Album entitled to Hell Frost as a direct contrast to Eden Fire. The artwork illustrates a male winged demonic character with green eyes. The character is holding a heart in his left hand and a sword in his right, portrayed in a frozen landscape. Having The Unguided symbol decorating his left shoulder pad and on his right leg armor. Eden Fireish skulls were also placed around the character. It was apparent that the artwork for Nightmareland has been one piece of a bigger artwork and that the Hell Frost was the second piece completing the full illustration.

Few days later a mail went out to all the 616 Nightmareland customers. The 616 got one day head start to pre-order the album. The album presented in two special packages. The big package; The Unguided - Hell Frost - General's Armaments containing not only a jakebox special edition of the album, but also a t-shirt, signed poster and an ammo USB-necklace. While the smaller one; The Unguided - Hell Frost - Lieutenant General's Armaments only included the 11 track jakebox album. Release date was set to November 30, 2011.

24 hours later the promotional site www.sixonesix.se was updated with pre-order links for the both packages and official statement from the band:

Waited long enough already?

At least the triple R’s in THE UNGUIDED believe so! We must admit, that your patience is indeed blameless and possibly only overcome by your own curiosity hehe.

There will be no more waiting however, because the time has FINALLY arrived! THE UNGUIDED’s full length debut album is as of now complete and more than ready to be unleashed upon this wretched world. This album is not only a product generated by blood tears, joy and hard work from the band and many others, but also by YOU! You enormous support in our releases so far, did not only buy us all the way through the studio and made us accessible to the best layout and graphical artists on the market. But it also made us capital strong enough so we could develop and present even cooler products than previously. Products that is now available for your humble pre-order! So please take your time and check the options out, and hope you can choose as carefully and delicate, as we did when we assembled them for you.

The debut album will indeed bring you on a lot of different adventures. Some paths are possibly common ground for both of us. But we can also guarantee that this album will bring you to places where none of us have ventured together before. This is the proudest moment in our career as we are about to release what we consider the best effort we’ve done up to date. For whatever past endeavors we accomplished and for whatever future victories we shall have, it’s with a lot of honor and pride in our hearts we now give to you:

THE UNGUIDED - HELL FROST!

// Richard, Roland, Roger and Henric