Mats Levén (born in Gothenburg, Sweden) is a prolific singer who has worked during the years with big names of the Swedish musical industry. His most notable recent collaborations have been with symphonic metallers
Therion and doom metallers
Krux. He is preparing a solo album that should be released some time in the next couple of years.
Mats Levén started his career back in 1986 with a small band of friends, called
Capricorn. Three years later, he joined chart-toppers Swedish Erotica, releasing an album and several singles.
The year 1992, found him collaborating with another Swedish well-known band,
Treat with which he also released an album as lead vocalist and a single. In the mid 1990's he worked with
Abstrakt Algebra (project band of
Candlemass' bassist and composer Leif Edling) and did backing vocals for the band
Lion's Share. He also joined an AC/DC cover band, called AB/CD, with which he keeps performing up to the present. In 1997, he teamed up with Swedish guitarist
Yngwie Malmsteen, recording the album Facing the Animal and doing the promotional world tour for the named album, world tour which led to the release in 1998 of the album and DVD
Live!!, featuring recordings from the shows. 1998 also found Levén collaborating with the project band
Southpaw.
In 1999 came out yet another collaboration, this time with Pontus Norgren. A year later followed another project band called Dogface with which he released two albums. 2002 teamed him up again with Edling for a doom metal project entitled
Krux. Another prominent collaboration came the following year when German guitarist Olaf Lenk asked Levén to join his band
At Vance, as lead vocalist. He released two successful albums with
At Vance, The Evil in You (2003) and
Chained (2005). He also found time for recording an album with yet another project band,
Sabbtail. The end of 2003 brought Mats Levén his most challenging offer ever, when Europe's biggest symphonic metal act,
Therion, asked him to join them for the recording of their double album,
Lemuria /
Sirius B and also the one-year-and-a-half world tour to follow. Due to the successful collaboration between him and
Therion the band has asked him to do lead vocals on their next album and world tour as well. The second half of 2005 has seen Levén working on a collaboration with drummer Snowy Shaw (
Dream Evil,
King Diamond,
Mercyful Fate,
Notre Dame) entitled S&M, which is most likely to be released sometime in 2008, and doing backing vocals for the new album of Swedish neo-classical metallers
Narnia.
The first months of 2006 brought new perspectives for Levén: a special 5-song appearance on the Reflections of the
Obscure album by
Essence of Sorrow (new project band of guitarist Jani Stefanovic of
Divinefire), lead vocals in another new project entitled
Fatal Force (featuring Danish guitarist
Torben Enevoldsen and drummer Daniel Flores) with whom he released a self-titled album in
April 2006, and backing vocals for Swedish hard rock band
The Poodles on their "Night of Passion" song, with which they won 4th place in the Swedish final qualifying round for the Eurovision song contest. He has also finished recording for the new
Krux album which was released on October 18th 2006 and the new
Therion album, entitled
Gothic Kabbalah which was released on January 12th 2007. On
December 9th 2006, Levén joined
Therion in a special concert in Bucharest, Romania. It featured a full orchestra and choir as well as classical stars from Europe. The setlist included both
Therion songs and famous classical pieces in
Therion manner.
Starting from 2007, Mats shared vocal duties in
Therion with Snowy Shaw and two female vocalists. One of them is Katarina Lilja who has also done vocals for the new album. The other one is Lori Lewis, vocalist of American band
Aesma Daeva. After Graspop and Hellfest in
June 2007, Mats ceased his collaboration with
Therion to focus on his new projects. His place in the band was taken by Thomas Vikström. Mats recorded backing vocals for
Apocalyptica's Worlds
Collide album. He also appears on the Nuclear Blast 20-year anniversary compilation Into the Light, singing on the track Death is Alive. Currently Levén has involved himself in yet another project: lead vocals for the upcoming trilogy based on the Holy Book by Israeli metal band Amaseffer.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mats_Levén
