Canopy, a swedish death-metal band from Stockholm.

Official website: http://www.entercanopy.com



History:

Timeline:
2002 - Jonatan and Erik Jams occasionally
Early 2003 - Jonatan meets Peter through harvest
Mid 2003 - Peter joins in for some ATG-jamming
Fall 2003 - Daniel joins, rehearsels at Studiefrämjandet begin
February/March 2004 - Fredriks joins in. Complete line-up
May 2004 - First live gig, 5 Canopy songs, one EoS song, 40mins
Summer 2004 - We record the first demo ourselves
Fall 2004 - Realease 200 copies of the first demo. More livedates. Began more frequent rehearsals at Pinebar.
Early 2005 - Qualified for the semi-finals of emergenza, played a song from the upcomming "will and perception" live for the first time-
February 2005 - The recording of Will and Perception began
April 2005 - Canopy live @ Klubben fryshuset
Summer 2005 - A writing break, finished with a great gig

I. The Björkman-Hedlin period
During the year 2002 me and Erik decided to jam some good ol' melodic death, which was by then mostly influnced by early-mid In Flames and At the Gates during TSD-SotS. If I recall correctly we played about six or seven times with just our guitars, the songs we came up with back then aren't really in use right now, but some riffs might appear in upcoming songs.

Of course we wanted a full line-up, but that was a hard thing, especially back in those days. Some people where contacted, but nothing happened. Sadly, I grew tired of In Flames and also moderately tired of At the Gates, and the project was kind of left behind. This little lack of interest in the more melodic side of deathmetal from my side had a couple of solutions coming up later though, during late 2002, both Opeth and Edge of Sanity was introduced to me, and the flame of melodic death metal was lit once again, in a bit different way maybe.

II. ATG-jamming and drums
I was involved in Tobbes band "harvest" for awhile (allthough I did a kind of crappy effort, had some problems with my flow and tightness in fast music back then). Harvest was currently testing drummers, and one of them was Peter Lindqvist. Well, neither me or Peter actually ended up playing in harvest. But when me and Erik was, yet again, on the lookout for a drummer I decide to contact Pete.

We met up for a jam at my place since I had bought a drumkit (for fun or something like that) and we did som ATG-tunes. So the beginning of the actual Canopy was an ATG-tribute.

The three-piece kept blasting of some ATG-songs for a while longer
Peter was actually on the edge of quitting, since he didn't get that much out of travelling for over two hours to play some ATG-tunes without bass/vocals. Anyway, that was solved by the introduction of some own material, and the band was actually formed.

III. Summers end and complete rhythm-section
After summers end we decided to somewhat "go serious"
Simply by getting a rehearsal space outside of my house and getting a bassplayer. Some candidates appeared online, and Daniel Ahlm was the first one to try out.

The setlist was Twilight from Edge of Sanity and Jonatans song "55", later known as During Day One. It went well and the band was a four-piece.

We rehearsed on a weekly basis now, adding new songs as time progressed. Peter actually did some leadvocals to fill the vocal-less void.

IV. Early 2004, vocalist hunt
A vocalist was really needed. We put up some adds on the net asking for a "growler in style of Mikael Åkerfeldt, Dan Swanö and Dave Vincent". The first one to try out was a guy named Jimmy, he had a great hardcore-screaming vocal style, but unfortunately we weren't looking for hardcore screams really. A month later or something like that, around late February, Fredrik found Peter's add online and tried his vocals in Canopy. It worked out and we kept rehearsing at fridays, now as a five-piece.

We later booked a gig for the 22nd of May, and two weeks before that gig all the songs didn't even have lyrics or vocal-arrangements. Somehow, with a little tricks and some hard work, we managed to (almost entirely) finish the songs for the gig, and the gig went pretty good for being the first.

V. Summer 2004, recording the first demo
Since we knew we would all be dwelling at different places most days of the summer we decided to let our rehearsalspace go for a while. Instead, we began to have recording session when timed popped up. Unlike most demo recordings we didn't work very intense, instead we used a little time when we had time to keep the recording active. First of was the drums, then bass, then rhyrthmguitar, then vocals. then a couple of forgotten guitar overdubs and finally mixing and mastering. We recorded everything by ourselves, and most of the equipment was our own too. As I write this the demo is not yet realeased, but some people have been able to pre-listen and the reactions have, in most cases, been very good. I myself have a hard time judgeing by now, since I tracked and mixed the whole thing with the results of being very tired of our own demo. But I do look forward to another live-delivery and of course another demo!

VI. Fall 2004, a new build-up
A lot of new material in making. We got a new rehearsal space at Pinebar music, giving more time for Canopy. This period was mostly a load up for a lot canopy happenings in early 2005.

VII. Early 2005, more gigs and a new demo
After qualifying for the semi-finals in emergenza and trying out a new song live it was time to go into a serious studio for some serious recording. While writing this the recording is still in progress. To be continued.

IX. Spring 2005, new demo unleashed and klubben-gig
The demo recorded in february, "Will and Perception" med great response. We almost made it past the semi-finals of emergenza into the finals, but where beaten with a margin of only about 5 votes, the gig @ Klubben still slayed though.

X. Summer 2005, a break, and the vila
The summer was mostly about not rehearsing at all. Of course material was being written all the time, and in August we did a gig with Amok from Switzerland and our pals in Subcyde, which was a real blast. The fall will first and foremost be about trying to get as many gigs as possible! In addition to that we will release another demo, but it might end up being recorded by ourselves (since we still think we should get a record-deal with "Will and Perception")


History taken from official website.