In 1989 a thrash metal band called Hymen Imperforatus emerged in the Swedish metal scene. Inspired by bands like Sepultura, Kreator and Slayer they made a demo tape that was spread locally in their home town Karlskoga, Sweden. In 1990 the band changed direction into a more death metal oriented sound. At this point they changed name to Assembly and then to Enshrined. In 1991 the line-up changed radically and the band name became Goddefied.

The radically changed line-up consisted of the two former members of Hymen Imperforatus, Jan Arvidsson (vocals/guitar) and Rickard Eriksson (bass) along with two new guys by the names; Jonas Aneheim (guitar) and Mattias Pettersson (drums). In 1992 the band went to Sunlight Studio in Stockholm, Sweden to record three tracks for a forthcoming demotape. Before releasing the demo tape the tracks were sent to a few record labels including Wild Rags Records in Los Angeles which showed interest and wanted to release a 7” vinyl. However Richard C at Wild Rags wanted a few more tracks recorded to be able to release a MCD instead of a single. So in early 1993 Goddefied went to Sunlight once again to record three additional tracks for their forthcoming 6-track MCD “Abysmal Grief”. The MCD was released in the summer of 1993 and gained loads of positive reactions from around the world.

In the early nineties Sweden wasn’t a very good region for death metal. Very few clubs arranged concerts and almost no radio stations wanted to air this kind of brutal music. Despite that Goddefied performed several live shows in Sweden during this time. At one point a two weeks long American tour was planned and arranged by Wild Rags Records, with a performance at the Milwaukee Metal Fest as the last gig of the tour. This tour was however unfortunately cancelled due to internal problems in the band which led to line-up changes and eventually resulted in the split-up of the band in 1995.

The line-up changes that occurred before the split up made Jan return to the drumming as Mattias left the band. Rickard grabbed Jans guitar and Jonas took the microphone along with his guitar playing. A new bass player called Felipe Queiroz joined the band. This line-up crashed almost immediately. No recordings were ever made with this line-up and after a few months the final split-up was a fact.

After the split-up the former members went on to other projects. Jan became a guitar player in Pouppée Fabrikk, a well-known synth/ebm band from Sweden. Jonas started composing weird electronica and ended after a while up in Pouppée Fabrikk too. Almost at the same time Jan left Pouppée Fabrikk. Mattias and Rickard joined some local punks for a while, but eventually Mattias ended up in the crust combo Mörder and the hardcore band Misconduct. Rickard started the band Kaj i rännstenen together with the "anarchistic hero" Kaj Madsen. After some time Rickard and Jan formed a hardcore band called Lame with a few other fellows and released a demo tape that sucked big time.

Goddefied had finally found eternal peace…

…or so we all thought. But in 2007 a rumour was established that Goddefied was reunited playing some kind of modern death metal in the vein of Hate Eternal/Nile and that they were about to release a new album. Could that be true?

We can assure you that it's not true. We will never destroy our reputation of being "old-school", by playing such modern stuff under the name Goddefied. So we just had to reunite and record some new tracks just for the fun of it. And we got stuck. We're back...

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