Sparzanza | METALSITES.net

Biography

”THE BEGINNING”
Since 1996, Sparzanza have been around to deliver heavy music to the people. The band started out with the four friends, Calle Johannesson, his brother David, Peter Eriksson and Anders Åberg. With influences from Kyuss, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and lots of other heavy acts, the band started to write songs and recorded the demo "In between" before Peter decided to leave the bassplaying to Andreas Kloss, and concentrate on the singing.

With Jesper Karlsson, (drummer in Diamond Dogs) producing, the band recorded their first 7"ep, "Wheeler Dealer", which was released by the band themselves. Until that moment, Kloss was satisfied in the band, but he got tired of it, and wanted to give 100% to his other band, Hermaphrodites, and decided to leave Sparzanza.

”NEW BASSPLAYER”
Enter Johan Carlsson (former Dawn of Decay), who turned out to be a great find as his playing and songwriting skills became a big part of the Sparzanza sound - with the rest of the band, of course!

Around Christmas -97, a new Speedball Recording session led to 3 new tracks which were all released on several projects. "Burning Boots" on a split 7" with fellows Lowrider, "Liquid Thoughts" on the now legendary "Welcome to Meteorcity" compilation, "Black Jack Vegas" on the "A Fist Full of Freebird" comp. Sparzanza toured Sweden in the summer of -98 and actually got to open for Dee Snider (Twisted Sister).
In the end of -98 they recorded another 2 songs, "Thirteen" & "Death Trippin" to be released as a picture disc. The ep was mixed by Anders Fridén (In Flames) and the artwork was made by Peter Wallgren (Vomitory, Gehennah, …)

”NEW SINGER”
During -99 the band played a lot of live gigs, among others at Arvikafestivalen and the hard rock festival "Dist ’99" (with the freakshow "Cirkör Event" on stage).

Just after "The Sundancer" & "Pavement Princess" promo was finished, musical differences with Peter emerged, and they parted ways, just to find Fredrik Weileby. His powerful voice gave Sparzanza the kick they needed.

September 2000, 3 three new songs were recorded, mostly to try out their new frontman. It turned out so well once again that they were all included on different releases, notably the "I Love You... Both" split cd with Swedish Superdice thru Water Dragon Records.

”ANGELS OF VENGEANCE”
After the "I Love You…Both" split cd, Water Dragon Records proposed Sparzanza to release their first full length album featuring "Silverbullet" as an enhanced cd bonus video, shot by a local video producer. "Angels of Vengeance" was unleashed in November 2001.
At the release party, the band did such a great gig and impression that they were invited to play at Arvikafestivalen. This was followed by a Swedish mini tour to promote the tremendously well reviewed album.

The band also got in touch with Peter Dolving (ex The Haunted) who showed interest in producing their next offering. In August -02, Sparzanza entered Speedball Studios to cut 4 songs. But Dolving’s goal was not what the band were looking for, so only 2 tracks were released as a free ep to be downloaded from their website ("Dead Again" and an acoustic version of "Little Red Riding Hood").

”INTO THE SEWERS”
Late 2002, early 2003 was quite a busy time, working on the pre-production of "Into the Sewers", touring with Space Probe Taurus, looking for the adequate studio and producer around Sweden…to finally stay at home to work with Rikard Löfgren at Tigra Music (Löfgren being an old friend of Johan and engineer at the Dolving session).

"Into the sewers" was released in end of 2003 and received great reviews all over the world. The album was also followed by a tour in Germany, February 2004. The band are now writing news songs for a new album.

To be continued...

Source: website

Line-Up:
Fredrik "Fred Washburn" Weileby - Vocals
Calle "City" Johannesson - Guitar
David "Demon Dave" Johannesson - Guitar
Johan "Joey DeJaneiro" Carlsson - Bass
Anders "Evil" Åberg - Drums