Hellsingland Underground

Hailing from the backwoods of northern Sweden, Hellsingland Underground are an old-fashioned hard rock band with an earthy style who made their critically acclaimed album debut in 2008 and broke into the Top Ten a couple years later with their follow-up effort. Founded by singer/songwriter Charlie Granberg, who comes from the small town of Ljusdal in the northern county of Hälsingland, the band is also comprised of Mats Olsson (guitar), Peter Henriksson (guitar), Martin Karlsson (bass), Patrik Jansson (drums), and Mathias Stenson (piano). Influenced by classic rock acts such as Neil Young, Bob Dylan, AC/DC, and Appetite for Destruction-era Guns N' Roses, Granberg left Ljusdal for Stockholm at age 18 in hopes of finding success as a rocker and lived there in the capital for several years before returning to his hometown in 2006 to start a family and resign himself to a tranquil life in the countryside. During his time in Stockholm, Granberg never found success as a rocker but was deeply involved in the rock scene all the same and came to know Olsson and Jansson, who for nearly a decade were members of the hard rock band Maryslim. The guitarist and drummer eventually split from Maryslim to team up with Granberg, who had written a bunch of songs and was looking to start a band, and it wasn't long before Hellsingland Underground took shape as a quintet. Upon founding their own label, Killed by Records, Hellsingland Underground made their eponymous album debut in 2008. The album garnered critical acclaim and spawned a couple hit singles, "Slipping Through the Hands of Time" and "Northern Country Boy." Released a couple years after the band's debut album, the follow-up effort, Madness & Grace (2010), was a blockbuster commercial success, reaching number six on the Swedish albums chart.