Johnny and Conny started a band called ”Memorium” back in 1992, and made 2 demos. The first one is called ”Aeons In Slumber” (92), and the other one is called ”At The Doors Of Insanity” (93). Both ended up in flames. No deals...
In 1994 Johnny Wranning left ”Memorium” for a band from Västerås, Sweden. The band was known as ”Miscreant”. ”Miscreant” got a deal with ”Wrong Again Records” and in 1995 their debut album was released. A couple of months after the release of ”Miscreant”´s album Johnny left the band to search for new paths. At the same time Conny left ”Memorium” and started playing with some local bands in his hometown, Norrtälje. But he didn´t feel satisfied with those bands so he went over to M.I. in L.A. to get even better at playing the guitar.
A year passed and while Johnny was playing with some local bands in Stockholm, they finally met during a big party in the autumn of 1996. They started to talk about putting together a band. The band was to be called ”Ebony Tears” and for this they needed more band members. The advertising for members gave nothing, but Johnny knew a very good drummer known as Iman.
Iman´s drumming technic fitted just like a glove. In the early nineties Iman played with a death metal band called ”Quarterizer”. The band didn´t have any success so Iman left the band. Then he started to play in a Ska band called ”Stiffbreeze”, the band released one record on a label called ”Bröl Records”. After that Iman left the band to play in ”Ebony Tears” where he beat the hell out of the drums. The bassplayer Thomas Thun joined ”Ebony Tears” after Iman had talked him into the band. Thun played with a hard rock band called ”Saturnine” from 1994 to 1995. He left the band to play with ”Ebony Tears”. Fuck yeah, the lineup was complete for a demo recording. In November 1996 ”Ebony Tears” went into the studio to record their debut demo called ”Demo 96”! One week after the recording the answers from interested record labels started to drop in. The labels were ”Wrong Again Records”, ”Listenable Records”, ”Black Sun Records”, ”Displeased Records”, ”Black Mark Records” and ”Hellion Records”. ”Ebony Tears” chose ”Black Sun Records”, a Swedish label. In May 1997 they entered ”Sunlight Studios” to record their debut album, ”Tortura Insomniae”. Short after the recording of the record Thomas left the band (to spend some time with his own mind and body?) No one knows... R.I.P Thun. But that was no problem!
Conny saw an advertisment written by a bassplayer who was looking for a new band to play with. ”Ebony Tears” was the answer. The bassplayer´s name was Peter Tuthill. Peter had played in another band called ”Bulldozer” for about six years. During those six years he also played with a band called ”Dementia” for a short while. Bulldozer recorded three demo tapes called ”The Dawn”, ”Reflections Of Reality” and ”Elimination”. The band never got signed. In 1994 Peter went to a music school called RYTMUS, Stockholms Musik Konservatorium, to get a little better at playing the bass. In 1997 he graduated.
Shortly after the release of "Tortura" both Iman and Peter left the band. Johnny and Conny spent most of their time with their new project "Dog Faced Gods". "DFG" plays a more technical, complicated and faster music than "Ebony Tears. More built on rythm rather than melody! See more about "DFG" at: Gothenburg Noise Works (GNW). When the time came for "Ebony Tears" to record their follow-up to "Tortura" they borrowed Richard Evensand from "Dog Faced Gods" to play the drums. The second album was called "A Handful of Nothing" and is thrashier, faster and more brutal than their debut. Although the band had changed their style quite a bit, the reception from fans and critics were overwhelming! As the band only consisted of two permanent members they couldn't follow up their success with touring...
Since the interest for the band still is huge Johnny and Conny decided to get a full band together and start the recording of album number three!The new members are their former session drummer,Richard Evensand and the bass player Peter Kahm, both also members of "Dog Faced Gods". The third album will be recorded in the same studio as "A Handful...", Studio Underground, and will be fast and thrashy but with lots of melodies and more use of the violin like on "Tortura".
Line up: Johnny Whranning - Vocals Thomas Thun - Bass Iman Zolgharnian - Drums Conny Jonsson - Guitars
Source: http://www.swedishmetal.net/s_m/bands/ebony_tears/ebony_tears.html
