Carbonized

In the late 1980s several members of the Swedish death metal band Therion, together with associates from the country's insular extreme music community, launched Carbonized purely as an experimental side project. Seeking relief from the grim seriousness of their principal groups, Therion vocalist/guitarist Jonas Derouche and drummer Piotr Wawrzeniuk enlisted future Serpent, Therion, and Entombed bassist Lars Rosenberg while securing guest vocals from Dismember's Matti Karki for a handful of psychedelic/grindcore experiments. The resulting 1991 album For the Security proved so eccentrically abrasive that it alienated roughly as many listeners as it intrigued. That release nevertheless only foreshadowed the still more unorthodox death jazz of the following year's Disharmonization, an album many regard as the project's creative peak. Professional demands from the musicians' primary bands postponed further activity until 1996, when Carbonized reassembled to record Screaming Machines. Equal parts parody and forward-looking statement, the album pushed deeper into psychedelic and progressive metal territory, invoking the sounds of Pink Floyd, Sonic Youth, Black Flag, and Voivod. Should the group ever reconvene, the extent of their next departures remains an open question.