Sonic Syndicate

Embodying music's freewheeling global flow, the Falkenburg, Sweden outfit Sonic Syndicate fuse a commercial strain of metal with hardcore, a hybrid most common in America yet grounded in deep stylistic debts to the melodic death metal acts that Scandinavia generated a decade prior. The group came together in 2004 with double vocalists Richard Sjunnesson and Roland Johasson, guitarists Roger Sjunnesson and Robin Sjunnesson, bassist Karin Axlesson, and drummer John "Runken" Bengtsson; the following year they issued their debut CD, Eden Fire, before inking a deal with Nuclear Blast that yielded their sophomore release, Only Inhuman, in 2007.