Background
8thSin were founded by IT and Michael Bohlin in 1999-2000 when the idea came up to combine several elements in metal/goth and synth/electro to create something fresh and new, not to serve the charts but their own satisfaction. IT intended to transform the seven deadly sins into that one sin which would mould into, and sum up those sins into one. The 8thSin of what he saw and felt happened all around him. Michael had recently returned to his hard rock roots after many years of different musical adventures and IT just came back to Sweden after being traveling in Asia for years. IT was the former of bands like Abruptum, Ophthalamia, War (with Peter “Pain” Tägtgren and David ”Blackmoon” Parland) and Vondur in the 90’s and released 13 albums during his earlier musical career in various constellations. Michael have been doing several different musical projects and were the guitarist and songwriter in the cult band Brejndedd together with IT and Dan Swanö among others between 1988 and 1991 (that never planted a record deal, but made a few classical demos). Michael also produced the Vondur debut album ”Stridsyfirlysing” back in 1995, were involved in the production of the second Vondur album “The Galactic Rock n’ Roll Empire” in 1996 and were remastering the original tapes for the Abruptum album “Evil Genius” released in 1995. IT also wrote lyrics for both Marduk and Dissection. Michael also led a band called Attention that he formed in 1985 and who released their first record 1988. He has also attended Rock SM, been doing TV and commercial spots, and been producing lots of different music such as Entranced. Above that, he has been playing thrash metal, hardrock, pop music, instrumental music and also musicals.
In the beginning
After a few years of songwriting and preparations, It and Michael put a band together with musicians who were ready to take 8thSin to the live level, including great bass player Johan from Plague Divine who immediately filled the stage with his presence. The live performance was an immediate success and set the pace for the future level of 8thSin. The debut album ”Sinners Inc” (Sound Pollution / Black Lodge BLODCD015) produced by Michael Bohlin and mastered by Henrik Jonson at Polar Studios, was released in October 2004, and contained a very aggressive electro/synth orientated style combined with riffing guitars and IT’s strong and theatrical voice. The song ”Dreamqueen” were featured as soundtrack in the roadmovie ”Getaway in Stockholm 5” and also the first 8thSin video, ”Sometimes & Othertimes”, were produced in the end of 2004. The band were featured in many radio shows and also played live in one radio show in Sweden. The band immediately started to do several live shows, like supporting PAIN in Stockholm on the ”Dancing with the dead” tour in February 2005. 8thSin also entered an endorsement deal with Shure microphones, resulting in them to use the Shure systems (in-ear and wireless) exclusively on all shows.
Developing and growing
The second and awaited album ”Angelseed & Demonmilk” (Sound Pollution / Black Lodge BLODCD033) produced by Michael Bohlin and mastered by Peter In De Betou at Tailor Maid, was released in October 2005. That album nailed the 8thSin-sound totally and when recorded with the full band it was a completely different atmosphere. The red line through all songs and the production made this album the perfect template of what 8thSin are. Peter Tägtgren were one of the guests on the album, and were doing a great duet with IT on the song ”Liars” (the first time IT and Peter co-operated since the WAR album). That song also ended up on several compilation albums in late 2005. ”Angelseed & Demonmilk” gathered great reviews in most European countries, and the band continued doing live shows but gained less shows than expected, and changed the management twice during 2005-2006. The ”Angelseed & Demonmilk” album got more airplay on radioshows than ”Sinners Inc” specially in other regions than Scandinavia.
Presenting Cosmogenesis
The third album ”Cosmogenesis” (Soulseller records SSR057) closed the trilogy revealing all the sins and also contains the third and last part of the song ”The eight sins” as they all together reveal all the sins in different parts. The two other parts were featured on the other two albums. With new drummer Zack, and more raw material, ”Cosmogenesis” is close to ”Angelseed & Demonmilk” but developed several steps further. The work on "Cosmogenesis" started in October 2005 and ended up with about 20 songs. About half of them were recorded in 2005-2006 and the plan was to release the album in 2007. IT decided to travel the world again and Michael and Johan joined the band PAIN so 8thSin disbanded and the album was never finalized and never came out as planned. After 5 years of heavy touring around the world with PAIN, the work with Cosmogenesis finally picked up again by Michael in mid 2011 between two Pain tours. The busy touringschedule in PAIN made it another year until the album could be finished. Michael contacted some of his friends to join in as guest appearances and ended up with a impressive list of attendees; Joacim Cans (HammerFall), Ponus Norgren (HammerFall), Eric Rivers (H.E.A.T), Joacim Lundberg (Amaranthe/Kamelot), Martin Boman (Librah), Peter Tägtgren (Pain/Hypocrisy), but also Michaels daughter Kimmy. Just to mention a few. Of the 15 songs on the album there's two covers in "Black Metal" by Venom (again a duet with IT and Peter Tägtgren) and "Walking in my shoes" by Depeche Mode. The Depeche song features 7 guitar solos by 7 guitarists... Michael got the idea from the Hear'n Aid project "Stars" from 1985 and turned out very interesting.