Spiritual Beggars is a Swedish

stoner metal Stoner rock, also known as stoner metal or stoner doom, is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of doom metal with psychedelic rock and acid rock. The genre emerged during the early 1990s and was pioneered foremost by Kyuss and Slee ...

band from

Halmstad Halmstad () is a port, university, industrial and recreational urban areas of Sweden, city at the mouth of the Nissan (river), Nissan river, in the provinces of Sweden, province of Halland on the Sweden, Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat ...

, formed by

Michael Amott Michael Amott (born 28 July 1969) is a Swedish guitarist, founding member of the metal bands Arch Enemy, Spiritual Beggars and Carnage (band), Carnage, as well as a former member of Carcass (band), Carcass. He is the older brother of Christoph ...

, who is known for his work with

Arch Enemy Arch Enemy is a Swedish melodic death metal band, originally a Supergroup (music), supergroup from Halmstad, formed in 1995. Its members were in bands such as Carcass (band), Carcass, Armageddon (Swedish band), Armageddon, Carnage (band), Carna ...

Carcass Carcass or Carcase (both pronounced ) may refer to: * Dressed carcass, the body of a livestock animal ready for butchery, after removal of skin, visceral organs, head, feet etc. *Carrion, the decaying dead body of an animal or human being, also c ...

and Carnage. The band is heavily influenced by 1970s

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

and incorporates elements of

psychedelia Psychedelia usually refers to a Aesthetics, style or aesthetic that is resembled in the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience produced by certain psychoactive substances. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic ...

into its music.

History

20160707_Ballenstedt_RockHarz_Spiritual_Beggars_0032_Spiritual_Beggars

Spice era

Spiritual Beggars was formed in 1993 by

. Amott started the band after he left

. Spiritual Beggars debuted with the self-titled ''Spiritual Beggars'' in 1994 and have subsequently released albums as Michael's schedule, which also includes being a full-time member of

, permits. The second album, ''Another Way to Shine'' (1996) was nominated for a Swedish Grammy. The album featured artwork by the legendary artist

Hans Arnold Hans Arnold (22 April 1925 – 25 October 2010) was an artist, born in Switzerland, who lived and worked in Sweden from 1947 until his death in 2010. He illustrated many magazines and books. He is perhaps best known for his illustrations for the ...

, depicting the members of the band in a fairytale world. The third album, ''Mantra III'', saw the band adding Per Wiberg on keyboards. Spiritual Beggars toured Europe with

Fu Manchu Dr. Fu Manchu ( zh, t=傅滿洲/福滿洲, p=Fú Mǎnzhōu) is a supervillain who was introduced in a series of novels by the English author Sax Rohmer beginning shortly before World War I and continuing for another forty years. The character f ...

and made several festival appearances in support of the album. The fourth album, ''Ad Astra'', was released in 2000 and enjoyed strong sales across Europe and in Japan. The band toured heavily on their ''Chasing The Stars'' tour that followed, supporting bands such as

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...

Monster Magnet Monster Magnet is an American rock music, rock band formed in Red Bank, New Jersey, in 1989 by Dave Wyndorf (vocals and guitar), John McBain (musician), John McBain (guitar), and Tim Cronin (vocals and drums). The band has since undergone severa ...

, and

Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age (commonly abbreviated as QOTSA or QotSA) is an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1996. The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme shortly before he returned to his native Palm Desert, California. ...

, as well as playing festivals and headlining shows in Europe and Japan.

JB era

2002 saw the release of the band's fifth studio recording, ''On Fire''. This album featured a new line-up following the departure of original singer Christian "Spice" Sjöstrand. The replacements were Janne "JB" Christoffersson of

Grand Magus Grand Magus are a three-piece Heavy metal music, heavy metal band from Stockholm, Sweden that draws influence from classic heavy metal bands and elements of doom metal. Career The band was formed in 1996 under the name ''Smack'' by former Ca ...

, who had been recommended to Amott by a mutual friend, while Roger Nilsson joined to handle the bass. ''On Fire'' album was musically and vocally more melodic and saw the band delving deeper into 1970s hard rock for inspiration. A 2003 European tour featured Spiritual Beggars alongside Clutch, Spiritu and Dozer was completed in support of the album, which was followed by a tour of Japan with

Clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that allows an output shaft to be disconnected from a rotating input shaft. The clutch's input shaft is typically attached to a motor, while the clutch's output shaft is connected to the mechanism that does th ...

as the opening act. Spiritual Beggars' sixth album, ''

Demons A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore, mythology, religion, occultism, and literature; these beliefs are reflected in media including fiction, comics, film, t ...

'', was released in Japan in March 2005 and in Europe on 20 June 2005. ''Demons'' was released in two versions – a single CD version and a two-CD version, which includes live material recorded in Japan during 2003. The touring on this record was limited to a three-date Japanese tour with Dio and a headline performance in London.

Apollo era

In early March 2010, it was announced that Spiritual Beggars had entered the studio to record their first studio album in five years. The album featured new singer

Apollo Papathanasio Apostolos "Apollo" Papathanasiou (; born 15 March 1969) is a Swedish heavy metal vocalist of Greek descent, who is currently with the band Spiritual Beggars. He has also sung for Firewind, Meduza, Evil Masquerade, Gardenian, and Richard And ...

Firewind Firewind is a Greek power metal band formed in Thessaloniki in 1998. The group is currently signed to AFM records and was originally a small project created by guitarist Gus G. to showcase his demo, '' Nocturnal Symphony'', in 1998. Firewind ...

and

Evil Masquerade Evil Masquerade is a Scandinavian band formed in 2003. Their wide range of musical influences make them difficult to categorize. Evil Masquerade themselves claim to be playing 'Devilish Rock'n'Roll'. But since that is a self-invented genre they ar ...

. This album, ''Return to Zero'', was released in Europe on 30 August 2010, in Japan on 25 August 2010 and in North America on 12 October 2010. Following the release the band played shows in Greece, Japan, Belgium, France and Finland. Their performance at

Loud Park Festival The is a heavy metal festival held annually at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama City or Makuhari Messe in Chiba City, Japan. It's one of the biggest heavy metal festivals in Japan. The festival has featured both Japanese and international perfor ...

in Japan on 17 October 2010 was recorded and released as the ''Return to Live: Loud Park 2010''. Apollo's second album with Spiritual Beggars, ''Earth Blues'', was released on 15 April 2013. The album has been noted for drawing influence from

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...

Members

– guitars (1992–present) * Ludwig Witt – drums (1992–present) *

Per Wiberg Per Jonas Wiberg (born 8 June 1968) is a Swedes, Swedish musician who has been a member of the bands Spiritual Beggars (1998-) as a keyboardist, ''King Hobo'' (2007-) as a keyboardist, guitarist, and vocalist, and Kamchatka (band), Kamchatka (2 ...

– keyboards, vocals (1998–present) *

Sharlee D'Angelo Sharlee D'Angelo (born Charles Petter Andreason, 27 April 1973) is a Swedish musician. He is the bassist for the melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, as well as the classic rock/AOR band the Night Flight Orchestra and the stoner metal band S ...

– bass (2004–present) *

– vocals (2010–present)

Former members

* Christian "Spice" Sjöstrand – vocals, bass (1992–2001) * Janne "JB" Christoffersson – vocals (2002–2010) * Roger Nilsson – bass (2002–2004)

Touring/session members

* Stefan Isebring – percussion,

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-turned crank, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin (or nyckelharpa) bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar ...

(1998, also appeared on ''Mantra III'')

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:18 PlotArea = left:110 bottom:80 top:5 right:10 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1992 till:01/01/2026 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom ScaleMajor = increment:3 start:1992 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1992 Colors = id:vocals value:red legend:Vocals id:guitar value:green legend:Guitar id:bass value:blue legend:Bass id:drums value:orange legend:Drums id:keys value:purple legend:Keyboards id:album value:black legend:Studio_album BarData = bar:Spice text:"Christian Sjöstrand" bar:JB text:"Janne Christofferson" bar:Apollo text:"Apollo Papathanasio" bar:Mike text:"Michael Amott" bar:Roger text:"Roger Nilsson" bar:Sharlee text:"Sharlee D'Angelo" bar:Ludwig text:"Ludwig Witt" bar:Per text:"Per Wiberg" LineData = at:01/06/1994 color:album layer:back at:01/06/1996 color:album layer:back at:01/10/1998 color:album layer:back at:23/03/2000 color:album layer:back at:28/09/2002 color:album layer:back at:20/06/2005 color:album layer:back at:25/08/2010 color:album layer:back at:15/04/2013 color:album layer:back at:18/03/2016 color:album layer:back PlotData = width:11 bar:Spice from:start till:31/12/2001 color:vocals bar:Spice from:start till:31/12/2001 color:bass width:3 bar:JB from:01/01/2002 till:01/02/2010 color:vocals bar:Apollo from:01/02/2010 till:end color:vocals bar:Mike from:start till:end color:guitar bar:Roger from:01/01/2002 till:01/10/2004 color:bass bar:Sharlee from:01/10/2004 till:end color:bass bar:Per from:01/03/1998 till:end color:keys bar:Per from:01/03/1998 till:end color:vocals width:3 bar:Ludwig from:start till:end color:drums

Discography

Albums

*''Spiritual Beggars'' (1994) *''Another Way to Shine'' (1996) *''Mantra III'' (1998) *''Ad Astra'' (2000) *'' On Fire'' (2002) *''

'' (2005) *'' Return to Zero'' (2010) *''Earth Blues'' (2013) *''Sunrise to Sundown'' (2016)

Singles/EPs

* "Violet Karma" 10-inch (Purple Vinyl) (1998, Froghouse Records) * "It's Over" split 7-inch with

(2001,

Southern Lord Records Southern Lord is an American heavy metal record label that was founded in 1998 by Greg Anderson. It initially specialized in experimental metal: particularly doom metal, stoner rock, and drone metal. The label later expanded its line-up to ...

)

Live

* ''Live Fire!'' DVD (2005, SPV) *''Return to Live: Loud Park 2010'' (2011, Trooper Entertainment)

Compilation appearances

* "Magic Spell" on ''Stahlmaster: Volume One'' (1996, Cream/

Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England. It was formed in 1976 by Geoff Travis, who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. It is currently run by co-managing directors Travis and Jeannette Lee and ...

) * "Monster Astronauts" on ''Burn One Up'' (1997, Attic Records Limited/

Roadrunner Records Roadrunner Records is a Dutch–American record label focused on Heavy metal music, heavy metal and hard rock music. Founded in the Netherlands in 1980, it is now a division of Warner Music Group and is based in New York City. Formerly seen as ...

) * "Redwood Blues" on ''Stoned Revolution: The Ultimate Trip'' (1998, Drunken Maria Records/

) * "Mr. White" on ''Bastards Will Pay: A Tribute to

Trouble Trouble may refer to: Film and television * ''Trouble'' (1922 film), an American silent comedy-drama film directed by Albert Austin * ''Trouble'' (1933 film), a British comedy film * ''Trouble'' (1977 film), a Soviet drama film * ''Trouble'' ...

'' (1999, Freedoom Records)

References

External links

Official website
* * {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1992 Swedish stoner rock musical groups Swedish hard rock musical groups Swedish heavy metal musical groups Inside Out Music artists Music for Nations artists Musical groups from Halmstad