Zonaria

This article is about the Swedish death metal band. For the algal genus, see Zonaria (alga).

Zonaria
Zonaria at Occultfest 2010
Background information
Origin	Umeå, Sweden
Genres	Melodic death metal, melodic black metal, blackened death metal
Years active	2002 – present
Labels	Pivotal Rockordings Swedmetal Records Century Media Records
Website	www.zonaria.com
Members
Simon Berglund Emil Nyström Emanuel Isaksson Caleb Bingham Max Malmer

Zonaria is a melodic death metal band from Umeå, Sweden, formerly known as Seal Precious. The band is currently signed to Century Media Records.

Background

Formed in 2001 by Simon Berglund, Christoffer Vikström, and Mikael Hammarberg, the band originally went under the name Seal Precious. Initially the band's style was power metal, with clean vocals. Several line-up changes prevented the band from recording, but after 2003, with the addition of second guitarist, Emil Nyström, and the band's name changed to Zonaria, they spent two years playing gigs in and around Umeå before recording and releasing, in 2005, what would be Evolution Overdose.

New material and touring

In the spring of 2006, Zonaria recorded the CD single "Rendered in Vain" (and later shot a video for it). After that, Zonaria toured outside of Sweden, opening for Finnish black metal band Impaled Nazarene on a European tour. In October, Zonaria announced they had signed a record deal with Swedmetal Records to release "Rendered in Vain"; later, the song was included in the video game The Darkness.

Record label and debut album

In November 2006, Pivotal Rockordings signed Zonaria, and soon after, the band entered Black Lounge Studios with Per Nilsson and Jonas Kjellgren of Scar Symmetry to begin recording their debut album; Infamy and the Breed which was released September 2007. In late July, bassist Jerry Ekman announced his departure and was replaced by Markus Åkebo. The band shot a video for the lead single, "The Armageddon Anthem," then toured much of Europe in the beginning of 2008 opening up for Marduk.

Century Media and beyond

On 8 June 2008, Zonaria announce that they had signed a deal with Century Media Records. They toured Europe in support of the new album with Satyricon and then joined Vader and Septic Flesh throughout November and December 2008 as part of Vader's 25th anniversary tour. Their new album, The Cancer Empire, was released on 17 October 2008, was produced by Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman. They are currently writing for their new album. On 16 January it was announced that Zonaria would support Dark Funeral on their Decleration of Hate tour through mainland UK and Europe in March/April 2010.

In early 2011, bassist Markus Åkebo left the band, and was replaced by Max Malmer on a sessional basis. Later, an announcement was made that guitarist Caleb Bingham had been hired to allow Simon Berglund to concentrate on singing. In May 2011 the band announced that session bassist Max Malmer will join as permanent band member.

Discography

Zonaria at Occultfest 2010

Singles

Title	Release date	Label
Rendered in Vain	1 June 2006	Swedmetal Records

Albums

Title	Release date	Label
Infamy and the Breed	4 September 2007	Pivotal Rockordings
The Cancer Empire	17 October 2008	Century Media Records

Members

Simon Berglund at Occultfest 2010

Current members

• Simon Berglund – lead vocals (2001 – present) (guitar 2001 – 2011)
• Emil Nyström – guitar, backing vocals (2003 – present)
• Caleb Bingham – guitar (2011–present)
• Emanuel Isaksson – drums (2005 – present)
• Max Malmer – bass, backing vocals (2011–present; session member 2010–2011)

Former members

• Christoffer Vikström – bass (2001–2003)
• Mikael Hammarberg – vocals (2001–2004)
• Claes-Göran Nydahl – drums (2001–2003)
• Niklas Lindroth – drums (2003–2004)
• Johan Aronsson – keyboards (2003–2004)
• Simon Carlén – drums (2004–2005)
• Karl Flodin – bass (2003–2005)
• Jerry Ekman – bass (2005–2007)
• Markus Åkebo – bass (2007–2011)

Session members

Gustav Svensson – keyboards (2004–2005)

External links

• Official website