Jerusalem (Swedish band)
Jerusalem is a Christian hard rock band that was formed in 1975 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The band's name refers to the city of Jerusalem.
Band History
In 1975, Ulf Christiansson (guitar, vocals), the band in Gothenburg. By his own account he had received the vision to start a Christian hard rock band from God. The goal is to tell young people of God His mission. Jerusalem became the first Swedish Christian hard rock band and had a particularly difficult time, as the band garnered strong criticism from religious institutions and individual Christians, the Hard Rock associated with drug use and Satanism. In 1978, the self-titled debut album, which stated they sold 20,000 times in the first six months.
In 1980 the second album, simply titled Volume 2. Pat Boone gave up the two albums on his record label Lamb and Lion in the United States. By the third album Warrior ( in Sweden: Krigsman ) was a line- up changes and accompanied Peter Carl son ( bass), and Michael Ulvsgärd (drums) were part of the band. In 1983 Vi Kan Inte STOPPAS. After successful tours between 1983 and 1985, including in the U.S., Jerusalem decided to pause. In parting, appeared a live album of the band with recordings of their U.S. tours. 1987, in response to the burgeoning ( textual ) Satanism in metal, the band released with Reidar Ingvald Paulsen on keyboards, the album Dancing on the Head of the Serpent, which because of its cover art ( an army boot, which occurs a demon ) of parts of the Christian rock scene was rejected. After another pause, released in 1992 the album Prophet.
After the publication of several live albums and compilations released the album She, a concept album about Babylon 2010.
Music style
Jerusalem played at the beginning Hard Rock in the usual style of the 1970s with Christian texts, which both in Sweden and in the rest of the world was relatively unusual at that time. At the beginning, they released their albums mostly in two versions: one in Swedish and one for the English-speaking market. From the 1980s played a Jerusalem based on the hair metal style with various pop influences. With the comeback album Dancing on the Head of the Serpent only English-language songs were published. From the 1990s they took on a reminiscent of U2 guitar sound with echo effects.