Biography
Sweden's Silver Mountain ranks among the premier Scandinavian cult acts of the 1980s, though their role in shaping what later became neo-classical heavy metal has received scant notice. The band took its name from a well-known Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow composition and first came together in 1978 when vocalist/guitarist Jonas Hansson joined forces with guitarist Morgan Alm, bassist Ingemar Stenquist and drummer Marten Hedener. That configuration proved fleeting, dissolving after the release of a lone unsuccessful single, "Man of No Present Existence," the following year. A steady stream of local players passed through the ranks in the interim, among them the future guitar hero Yngwie Malmsteen according to some accounts, until a recording contract with the fledgling Dutch independent Roadrunner Records materialized in late 1982. By that point Hansson, bassist Per Stadin, keyboardist Jens Johansson and the latter's brother Anders Johansson on drums had already been performing as a unit for close to two years, a partnership whose spark animated the 1983 album Shakin' Brains, now regarded as an underground classic. The record effectively revived the volatile blend of metal and classical music that Rainbow itself had begun to neglect, earning enthusiastic notices across the heavy-metal press and raising expectations for future work. When Jens and Anders Johansson abruptly left in 1984 to join Malmsteen's fledgling solo project—ironically lending his sound a closer resemblance to Silver Mountain than his more recent efforts had achieved—Hansson and Stadin recalled original drummer Hedener and recruited Christer Mentzer as a dedicated lead vocalist. Together with session keyboardist Erik Björn Nielsen they completed 1984's Universe in short order, an effort that met with noticeably less enthusiasm, widely viewed as hurried rather than merely diminished by the earlier departures, except in Japan where fervent reception prompted the 1985 live album Hibiya -- Live in Japan. Further internal tensions soon resurfaced, and the lineup that delivered the band's final statement, the 1988 album Roses and Champagne, featured yet another rhythm section in vocalist Johan Dahlstrom and drummer Kjell Gustavsson; the record itself leaned heavily toward a drab AOR style. Silver Mountain disbanded soon afterward, while Hansson remained active through the 1990s both as an occasional soundtrack composer and with his own Jonas Hansson Band. In 2001 the four musicians responsible for the classic Shakin' Brains album regrouped to cut Breakin' Chains, though the group has shown no further activity since that release. Its former members continue to pursue separate musical endeavors.