Hellsongs

Hellsongs emerged in Sweden during 2004 as a lounge metal ensemble specializing in tongue-in-cheek indie pop renditions of iconic heavy metal tracks. The trio of Harriet Ohlsson, Johan Bringhed, and Kalle Karlsson assembled that autumn and debuted live inside a countryside barn. By 2005 the musicians had cut three demos that Sveriges Riksradio’s P3 began airing on its Rundgång metal program. Their first EP, Lounge, appeared the next year, followed in 2008 by the full-length Hymns in the Key of 666. Ohlsson departed in 2009; Siri Bergnéhr stepped in and recorded her initial sessions for Minor Misdemeanors, issued in 2010. After touring behind that album the group disbanded, closing its run with a 2011 concert alongside the Gothenburg Symphonic Orchestra that surfaced the following year as Long Live Lounge. Karlsson revived the project in 2013, recruiting vocalist My Engström-Renman and pianist Matti Ollikainen for These Are Evil Times, an album split evenly between five covers and five original compositions. Following a ten-year break, the band resurfaced in 2023 with a version of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name.” Now expanded to a five-piece featuring Karlsson alongside Maria-Teres Olsson, Daniel Olsson, Anna Andersson, and Lina Lönnberg, the lineup dropped four additional singles in the first half of 2024; all five tracks later collected on Return of the Hellsingers that October.