Withering Surface

Danish death metal band Withering Surface was formed in 1994 by vocalist Michael H. Andersen, guitarist/keyboardist Allan Tvedebrink, guitarist Jimmy Christensen, bassist Kasper Boye-Larsen and drummer Jakob Gundel, and initially took their cues from the melodic death metal issuing out of the Swedish city of Gothenburg at the time. So much so that their first two albums, 1997's Scarlet Silhouettes and 1998's The Nude Ballet (featuring new drummer Nikolaj Borg) were recorded at Gothenburg's Studio Fredman with everyone's favorite melodic death metal producer, Fredrik Nordström. Both met with alternately muted and enthusiastic responses in underground circles, resulting in occasional touring whenever the band could hold on to a second guitarist long enough, but leading to a longer lay-off following the departure of six-stringer Marcel Lech, in 2000. Finally, one Jacob Krogholt was hired as replacement and the group duly delivered 2001's Walking on Phantom Ice album through obscure record label Copro. 2003's Ichor EP was entirely self-financed, and 2004's Force the Pace LP resulted from a new deal with Italy's Scarlet Records. This last effort, especially, found the band moving with the times, shifting away from melodic death and into the neo- death-thrash gaining popularity in the mid-'00s.