Peter Dolving

Yes, this man deserves a whole post to himself, even though he has actually been on my radio, in an interview. Hell, he even picked the next song to play. But that was as the lead singer of The Haunted, an excellent band that gets most of the recognition it deserves. None of his other projects have ever been played. I think a musical history of Peter Dolving is required at this point. It will be the most complete one in existence, as he is a very hard character to find anything about, other than what is on his wikipedia page.

The first we hear of Dolving is of him working as a singer-songwriter in cafes in Sweden (Thanks to wikipedia). The first actual recorded music we hear from him comes as he joins Mary Beats Jane, a Gothenburg band named after members squabbling girlfriends. Some sources say the band began in 1991, but all agree that in 1994 an epic piece of music was released upon the world. MBJ released their self titled debut with Dolving on vocals. Even at this early stage Dolving's amazing lyric writing began to show, with references to Nietzsche, Psycho, religion and doing 'that dumb cow, Red Riding Hood'. While his singing was fairly samey throughout the album, none of the incredible dynamic he would later develop, it was still incredible and, as always, just what the music needed. This album scored them a 1994 grammi (the Swedish ones), yet not much mainstream recognition. At about this time Dolving also opened the 'highly successful rock club called "Underground"' apparently (again from wikipedia).

3 years later MBJ released Locust, a masterpiece by any standard. Here Dolving demonstrated the full dynamic of his voice, managing to fit more emotion into his words than any other modern vocalist (except perhaps for Anders Friden, but I am slightly biased on this). Where he had yelled on the first album, here he sang, and sang damn well, with more of his incredible lyrics.
One of his best albums to date I personally believe.

After this he was apparently homeless, living literally out of a dumpster (whatever the hell happened to the club he owned I'll never know). At around the same time he is also reported to be selling fetish art and working as a carpenter, which is all around the time he joined The Haunted as one of the founding members. With the two guitarists from At the Gates the band could not help but succeed, although Dolving had to quit the band due to personal reasons after they released their first album (self titled). The album is good, but out of all of Dolving's work it's the one I enjoy the least.

Now I have no idea exactly what else the man gets up to, but the most I can find out is that he got a bunch of guys together to play some songs that he was writing. And what songs. He released a solo album by the name of 'Just 'cause you can talk, don't mean I have to listen' in 2000 (at least I am fairly sure it was a solo album, some sources say it was released by 'The Peter Dolving Band' which I'll explain now). This album is apparently a mix of spoken word material and some of the most incredible music the world has ever seen. After literally days of searching I only ever found two songs from this album, both were gorgeous, only out matched by what would follow.

Now apparently he forms 'The Peter Dolving Band' (guess who was still doing the songwriting), and releases the albums One of Us (2001) and Bad Blood (2003). During these years he played with The Peter Dolving Band at cafes and clubs, presumably he is not homeless anymore and at some point around here he gets a wife and has kids. The little I have heard from these two albums is incredible, I would give my right arm to get them in whole. Hell, I would probably sacrifice around 4 or 5 babies (or 20-30 unformed fetuses) just to get these things. And if you had heard these songs, so would you. You may sit there with your virgin ears and say 'There is no way I would ever kill 4 or 5 babies, let alone touch 20-30 fetuses just for some music". And I would both laugh at your virgin ears and pity you for not appreciating the magic that is this music. So basically, at this point Dolving releases some of his best work, both lyrically and musically.

He then goes on to rejoin The Haunted, releases some kickass albums (The Deadeye is one of my favourite of all time) and basically gets back into the public eye, which is where I found him. I won't talk much about his career with The Haunted, because that is fairly easy to find out about.

There is talk during this time of him rejoining with Mary Beats Jane and working on new material. Then they change their name to Bring the War Home, after a couple of lineup changes (which pretty much go unnoticed as they are not releasing music). Then BAM 2008, they release the masterpiece that is 'Rejoice!'. Which I bought. With real money. And am grateful I did. While personally I feel it is not quite as good as his work as The Peter Dolving Band, it is still some of the best music I have heard in a long time. I will put up more about this album in particular later on, I can because I have actually heard the thing in full, unlike those irritatingly lost albums I mentioned above.

At around this time as well, there is talk of him forming another side project simply called O. Only mentioned in some interviews and once on his blog, it is apparently heavy sounding, but that is all I know. Which makes it quite mysterious, which I like. What I don't like is not having the music. I only hope the guys he does this project with can afford to actually release a CD, rather than just a digital album (as they had to do with Bring the War Home).

I have an epic collection of 16 Peter Dolving Band songs, which I think I could almost say is the most out of anyone in Australia. Seeing as the albums are impossible to buy anywhere I would have no problem sharing this joy, unless Peter Dolving himself tells me not to. So just comment and ask for it, and you shall receive, that is generally how this site will work (mainly because I am too lazy to upload stuff unless I know someone wants it). I also am the proud owner of Rejoice! by Bring the War Home, which I also may be able to assist some others in acquiring.