Written by Uwe Altmann
The story of Freternia....begins in the summer of 1998.
The first lineup: Tomas Wäppling - Lead vocals, Patrik Lund - Guitars, Bo Pettersson - Guitars, Peter Wiberg - Bass, Stefan Svantesson - Drums. In October 98 the fourtrack demo "The Blood Of Mortals" was recorded at StudioMega, Sweden. The CD was sent to a couple of labels in Europe and USA without result for the band and the music never became released for public.
Freternia recruited Tommie Johansson, only seventeen years old at the time, to give their sound a push with keyboards. But then some problems occured. Pettersson and Wiberg decided to leave the band to start a project of their own in the early spring of 99. Meanwhile the remaining members continued to work with material for a second demo and struggled to find substitutes.
The solution became Mikael Bakajev replacing Pettersson and Wäppling decided to play the bass himself. The material was finished and Freternia went to StudioMega to record "Somewhere In Nowhere" in April. This demo was also sent to labels all over Europe. A couple of days later the band recieved a call from a small swedish label named Loud N' Proud records.
A deal was made for one fullength album and new songs were written but Tomas felt that someone else should take over the lead vocals. A great singer was found in Pasi Humppi and in August the band were ready to record "Warchants & Fairytales", the full length debut.
A short while after the recording of "W & F" Patrik Lund decided to leave the band for personal reasons. Therefor Andreas Heleander was recruited to fill the gap. In July 2000 "W & F" was released, almost a year after the recording.
The album got some reactions mainly from Germany & France but their label had no opportunity to support a promotion tour. A few gigs were made though and the Paris Club Dunois remains as the most memorable moment. Unfortunately Loud N' Proud went out of business before the recording of their second album.But Freternia had an idea of making a conceptalbum and with three songs in their bag they once again returned to the studio to record a promotion CD in February 01.
The promo CD was only sent to two labels but without result. At this point Tomas felt very uncomfortable with the band and his role as songwriting bassplayer. It led to a split when he one day decided to leave the band. The breakup of Freternia was made official in April 01 when Johansson decided to follow Tomas. This could have been the end, but the story of Freternia goes on...
After some attempts to create a new projectband the trio Wäppling, Johansson, Svantesson decided to complete the lineup with Heleander, Wiberg & Humppi and restart Freternia. The promo CD was sent to a couple of labels and after a few weeks of negotiations Freternia finally decided to sign for the Spanish Metallabel Arise records.
In April 2002 The band went to Studio Underground in Västerås and together with producer Pelle Saether they recorded "A Nightmare Story". One month after the recording Stefan Svantesson announced his breakup from the band and a new drummer was found in Martin Tilander. The Sweden Rock gig would become the last one with Stefan behind the drums.
Source: http://www.freternia.com/
