Scheitan return after 24 years with “Songs for the Gothic People”

New video for “The Last Time” premiered via Rock Hard

The band’s first album “Songs for the Gothic People” following 24-year hiatus is out now!

Grab your LP or CD copy via The Circle Music

Swedish gothic rockers Scheitan are officially back following a 24 year hiatus with a brand new album “Songs for the Gothic People”. The band’s first full-length album since their 1999 release “Nemesis” is out now via The Circle Music.

To celebrate the new album, the band prepared a music video to the opening track “The Last Time” which premiered today via the legendary Rock Hard magazine’s website: https://www.rockhard.de/news/scheitan-the-last-time-video-feiert-premiere

Grab the LP and CD version of “Songs for the Gothic People” via The Circle Music: https://thecirclemusic.gr/product-category/the-circle-releases/?filter_artist-name=scheitan

“Songs for the Gothic People” is also available on all digital platforms:
Spotify | Apple Music | Amazon Music | Deezer

Guitarist, multiinstrumentalist & vocalist Pierre Törnkvist comments on the new album and video:

“After releasing “Nemesis” on Century Media in 1999 and then playing WGT in 2000 we wrote new music for Scheitan but felt it was going in the wrong direction, thus Helltrain was formed instead and Scheitan went into a long period of hiatus.

“Scheitan in 2024 is of course not the same as Scheitan in 1999 but these new songs I wrote felt like they sounded like a perfect continuation of the project, so the more I thought about it the more natural it felt to bring it back to life instead of doing something completely new. Musically it’s close to where we left off, and the vocals are now the way I would have wanted them to be already on “Nemesis”.

“We are now back for real. We already have shows booked in Athens and in our hometown Luleå, and we will look for some more opportunities to play live. I will also start writing on the next album as soon as possible, there is no stopping me now. So hopefully we can have another album out in the spring of 2025 and play live even more during that year.

“We did yet another video for the opening track “The Last Time”, nothing fancy, just some black-and-white footage together with me doing the vocals. I think it turned out decent, we are still very much a DIY band, working closely together with The Circle Music where both parts take responsibility in pushing things forward. So it’s not a million-dollar budget production, but I love underground stuff, and so does our label.”

In the lead up to the album’s release, Scheitan published the following singles: “Believe”, “Fire at Dawn”, “Lost in Time” and the Billy Idol Cover “White Wedding”.

Scheitan was formed in 1996 by Pierre Törnkvist (guitar/bass/vocals) together with Oscar Karlsson (drums). The duo started out as a black metal band but transformed during the musical journey into the fields of gothic/ambient rock. Both members had previous musical experience mainly from death and black metal such as The Moaning, Defleshed, The Everdawn and Gates of Ishtar to name a few. They established themselves as respected musicians in the 90s underground scene.

Scheitan released its first album “Travelling in Ancient Times” on Invasion Records in 1996. The album was an 8-track blast of intense black metal except for the last track Portals of Might which was the first indication of Scheitan wanting to explore other musical realms. The second album “Berzerk 2000”, also released on Invasion Records in 1998, was divided into different styles, to say the least. The first four tracks show a gothic/ambient Scheitan while the last three saw Scheitan bid a final farewell to its black metal roots. The first four tracks of “Berzerk 2000” saw a digital re-release in 2021 as the “Deathgoth” EP.

Century Media signed the band after the contract with Invasion was finished and in 1999 the band recorded and released “Nemesis”. The musical style was now completely devoted to the gothic/ambient/dark domain except for the vocals of Pierre Törnkvist who were still kept in the harsh style present on earlier albums. The “Nemesis” album has in later days been hailed as a hidden gem and predecessor to many bands today with a similar style. When it was time to write new Scheitan material after “Nemesis” both Pierre and Oscar felt that it did not fit into the project and therefore Helltrain was started, which is a completely different story.

Scheitan went on a 24-year hiatus but was brought back to life in 2023 with the single “Lost In Time”, a gothic rock masterpiece in the veins of Sisters of Mercy, Fields of The Nephilim and The 69 Eyes. A few weeks prior to the release of the single “Lost in Time” Scheitan signed to Greek label The Circle Music and is set to release a full-length album in 2024.

Upcoming Scheitan shows:
15 June – Temple, Athens, Greece [Event Page]
24 August – Vitå Rockfest, Luleå, Sweden [Event Page]