Biography
In the Swedish village of Hälleforsnäs, located roughly 100 kilometers south of Stockholm, vocalist Torben Freytag formed the band that would be identified as Dorian Gray. Because another group using the identical name already existed in the United States, the Swedish act was obliged to insert a parenthetical reference to its country of origin whenever it operated in North America. John Freytag and Lars Carlsson were recruited on guitar, Vesa Saarelainen played bass, and Tero Larson sat behind the drums. Torben Freytag’s tastes encompassed the punk and new-wave currents of the 1970s as well as additional Anglo-American rock idioms. An appearance at the Poptopia Festival in Southern California during 1998 resulted in a contract with the independent American imprint Zip Records. After issuing a pair of EPs, the group unveiled its first album, The Sounds of Dorian Gray, on May 15, 2000, in Sweden and on June 30, 2000, in the United States.
Albums