Johan Liiva | |
|---|---|
 Liiva in 2006 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Johan Patrik Mattias Liiva |
| Born | 18 November 1970 |
| Genres | Death metal, melodic death metal |
| Occupation(s) | Vocalist |
| Years active | 1988–present |
Johan Patrik Mattias Liiva (born 18 November 1970) is a Swedish extreme metal vocalist, most widely recognized as the founding vocalist of melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, as well as a former member of Carnage, Furbowl and NonExist. He is currently working as vocalist with Hearse.
Johan Liiva is married to Alexandra Adler, who is of Ukrainian origin. The wedding ceremony was held in Ukraine on 14 October 2015.
Johan Liiva formed Carnage with his friend Michael Amott in 1988, and appeared on two demo tapes "The Day Man Lost" and "Infestation Of Evil", but left the band before their debut album was recorded in 1990. He went on to form Furbowl as a guitarist/vocalist, with Max Thornell on drums. The band released their debut album Those Shredded Dreams as a two piece on Step One Records in 1992. The album also featured guest solos on two songs by Michael Amott (who also produced the recording). Furbowl would add a guitarist, Nicklas Stenemo, and release their second full-length The Autumn Years in 1994 on Black Mark Production, but the project folded soon after.
After the demise of Furbowl in the mid 1990s, Liiva once again teamed up with Michael Amott to form the band Arch Enemy in 1996. After releasing their first album Black Earth in Japan that same year, the album became a success, receiving airplay on Japan's MTV Rocks! and in 1998 Arch Enemy were invited to tour Japan, and sign a new deal with Toy's Factory records. Arch Enemy released Stigmata worldwide in 1998, and the band toured for the first time. In 1999, the band released Burning Bridges , and Burning Japan Live 1999 , the latter proved to be Liiva's last album with Arch Enemy.
After parting ways with Arch Enemy in November 2000, Liiva went on to form the band NonExist with guitarist Johan Reinholdz (Andromeda), and drummer Matte Modin (Dark Funeral, Defleshed). The band only released one album, Deus Deceptor, in 2002 before parting ways.
Liiva soon formed the band Hearse, with Mattias Ljung on guitar and ex-Furbowl bandmate Max Thornell on drums. The band have been very active ever since, releasing Dominion Reptilian in 2003 on Hammerheart Records, Armageddon, Mon Amour in 2004 on Candlelight Records, The Last Ordeal in 2005 on Karmageddon Records, and In These Veins on Dental Records in 2006.
Johan Liiva also was featured as guest vocalist on the Canadian Industrial Death Metal act Synastry's debut full length 'Blind Eyes Bleed' on the track 'Visions Of Anger' recorded in 2007 and to be released in 2008.
On 10 October 2015 in Japan Johan Liiva along with former Arch Enemy guitarist Christopher Amott were special guests and performed in Arch Enemy as the original band lineup. They played three songs such as "Bury Me an Angel", "The Immortal" and "Fields of Desolation". "Fields of Desolation" was performed by both original and newest lineup.
| Authority control databases: Artists |
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Arch Enemy is a Swedish melodic death metal band, originally a supergroup from Halmstad, formed in 1995. Its members were in bands such as Carcass, Armageddon, Carnage, Mercyful Fate, Spiritual Beggars, The Agonist, Nevermore, and Eucharist. It was founded by Carcass guitarist Michael Amott along with Johan Liiva, who were both originally from the death metal band Carnage. The band has released eleven studio albums, three live albums, three video albums and four EPs. The band was originally fronted by Johan Liiva, who was replaced by German vocalist Angela Gossow in 2000. Gossow left the band in March 2014 to become the group's manager and was replaced by Canadian vocalist Alissa White-Gluz.
Michael Amott is a Swedish guitarist, founding member of the metal bands Arch Enemy, Spiritual Beggars and Carnage, as well as a former member of Carcass. He is the older brother of Christopher Amott.
Stigmata is the second studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. The album was Arch Enemy's first to see worldwide release, in Europe and North America on Century Media Records, and in Japan again on Toy's Factory records. Stigmata features session drummer Peter Wildoer, who had also appeared in Christopher Amott's solo project Armageddon on the 1997 album Crossing the Rubicon, shortly before the recording of the album. The album was reissued on 25 May 2009, featuring a new layout, packaging, and bonus tracks. Stigmata not only contains a title track, but a track named after their previous album as well. The Sri Lankan metal band Stigmata named themselves after this album. The album was reissued again on 28 April 2023 in various formats, along with a visualiser for “Bridge of Destiny”.
Black Earth is the debut studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. The album was reissued on 24 April 2007 on Regain Records, featuring "Losing Faith", two Iron Maiden covers and the video for "Bury Me an Angel". The album was reissued again on 28 April 2023 in various formats, along with a visualiser for “Dark Insanity”.
Burning Bridges is the third studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. It is the first Arch Enemy album to feature Sharlee D'Angelo on bass and the last studio recording to feature vocalist Johan Liiva. The music here showcases the band's wide interpretation of the death metal genre to include portions of melodic death metal, progressive metal and grindcore. A music video was released for the song "The Immortal".
Wings of Tomorrow is the second studio album by the Swedish rock band Europe. It was released on 24 February 1984, by Hot Records. Wings of Tomorrow is the last album to feature drummer Tony Reno.
Angela Nathalie Gossow is a German vocalist, best known as the former lead singer for the Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. Her other previous bands include Asmodina and Mistress.
Doomsday Machine is the sixth studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, produced by Rickard Bengtsson and mixed by Andy Sneap. It is the third album to feature the vocals of Angela Gossow. The album had some commercial success, debuting at number 87 on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 12,000 copies. It had sold 65,000 copies in the United States by April 2006. Christopher Amott left the band shortly after recording the album in July 2005 but rejoined 2 years later for the songwriting sessions for Rise of the Tyrant.
Wages of Sin is the fourth studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. It is the first Arch Enemy album to feature the vocals of Angela Gossow. It is also the first album they use Standard-C tuning, which they still use today. It was released on 25 April 2001 in Japan, but the European and American releases were delayed to 18 March 2002.
Burning Japan Live 1999 is a live album by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. Originally released in Japan only, the album was re-released worldwide in 2000 due to fan demand.
Carnage was a Swedish death metal band formed in 1988 by Michael Amott and Johan Liiva. The members of the group would later form Dismember and Arch Enemy. They released only one album before disbanding in 1991.
Christopher Amott is a Swedish guitarist, younger brother of Michael Amott and founding member of the metal bands Arch Enemy and Armageddon. He is most recently the former guitarist for Dark Tranquillity.
Hearse is a Swedish melodic death metal band formed by vocalist Johan Liiva and drummer Max Thornell in 2001. The band have released five albums to date.
Armageddon is a Swedish melodic death metal band, led by Christopher Amott of Arch Enemy.
Burning Angel is the first EP by Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy. It was released on 6 March 2002. It is Arch Enemy's second release with vocalist Angela Gossow, who took Johan Liiva's place in the band. The song Starbreaker is a Judas Priest cover from the album Sin After Sin.
Martin Bengtsson is a Swedish metal musician. He was a key part of the influential Swedish melodic death metal scene. He was a member of the melodic death metal band Arch Enemy between 1997 and 1998, and played bass guitar on their second album, Stigmata. He was also a member of Arch Enemy guitarist Christopher Amott's side project Armageddon in 1997. Bengtsson is currently the vocalist and lead guitarist in the heavy metal band Lechery.
Nonexist is a Swedish melodic death/thrash metal group formed by former Arch Enemy vocalist, Johan Liiva. Liiva, guitarist/bassist Johan Reinholdz and drummer Matte Modin. They began playing together as Nonexist in 2000. In May 2002, they released their debut album, Deus Deceptor, on New Hawen Records in Europe and Century Media in North America. The group attempted to put together a touring lineup in 2002, but this never occurred, in part due to the group members' commitment to other projects. In 2003 Liiva and Modin split from the group, leaving Reinholdz the primary member. In 2004 Liiva confirmed the group's demise.
Max Thornell is a Swedish musician, most widely recognized as the drummer of Swedish death metal band Hearse. Also with Johan Liiva from Hearse, he played drums, keyboards and performed some backing vocals in early 90s death metal band Furbowl. The other Max's band is Swedish thrash metal band Satanarchy.
Johan Reinholdz is a progressive metal artist best known for his work with the Swedish progressive metal band Andromeda, Swedish death metal band NonExist and the melodic death metal band Skyfire. He composed Andromeda's debut album, Extension of the Wish. He has also released four more studio albums with Andromeda and one live-album. In 2004 he joined Skyfire on Esoteric in 2009. Since early 2017 he plays with Dark Tranquillity, going from live member to full time member in 2020, replacing original guitarist Martin Henriksson.
The following is a comprehensive discography of Arch Enemy, a Swedish melodic death metal band that formed in 1996. Its members were in bands such as Carcass, Armageddon, Carnage, Mercyful Fate, Spiritual Beggars, and Eucharist. It was founded by Carcass guitarist Michael Amott along with Johan Liiva, who were both originally from the influential death metal band Carnage. The band has released eleven studio albums, three live albums, three video albums, three compilation albums and three EPs. The band was originally fronted by Johan Liiva, who was replaced by German Angela Gossow as lead vocalist in 2000. Gossow left the band in March 2014 and was replaced by Canadian Alissa White-Gluz, while remaining as the group's manager.
