Diabolical Masquerade was a Swedish one-man black metal band.^[1] All music is written and played by Katatonia guitarist Anders “Blakkheim” Nyström, who wanted to have a band where he could compose more extreme music while Katatonia was exploring more mellow moods.^[2] The music leans heavily on avant-gardemelodic black metal with some death metal and thrash metal influences. Blakkheim wanted to experiment more with song structure, theme and composition.^[2] This is most notably seen on the last Diabolical Masquerade album, Death’s Design. This album is conceived as the soundtrack to a nonexistent Swedish horror movie, with 61 tracks broken up into 20 movements, each with a unique feel and theme.^[2]Death’s Design includes many passages featuring various genres and styles, experimenting with progressive rock, progressive metal, ambient, classical music, and rhythmicpercussion-based passages. Nyström worked together on the album with Dan Swanö. In early September 2004, Nyström announced that he had put the project to rest, after not having found the necessary inspiration while working on a fifth album.^[2]

Discography:

Promo 1993	Demo	1993
Ravendusk in My Heart	Full-length	1996
The Phantom Lodge	Full-length	1997
Nightwork	Full-length	1998
Death’s Design – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack	Full-length	2001

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