David Isberg

David Isberg (born February 23, 1975) is a Swedish musician, most famous for having founded seminal Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth.^[2][3] David Isberg is also known as DJ Dake, having a successful DJ career with independent and electronic music, often influenced by the Madchester scene. He also DJs old school heavy, thrash, speed and death metal from the 1980s at Club Rocks in Stockholm on a monthly basis.

Before Opeth

David was in the Swedish black metal band Procreation (1989–1991). In Procreation, he used the alias of Unholy Emperor. Alongside David was Christofer Johnsson, the man most known for being the frontman of the band Therion, using the name Necro. Procreation made two demo tapes ("Enter the Land of the Dark Forgotten Souls of Eternity" 1991 and "Procreation of the Antichrist" 1990, along with two live shows (both at Hunddagis, Handen 1 held in 1989 or 1990 (the year is not confirmed) and the second show being held on February 23, 1991 (to celebrate David's 16th birthday) with various Therion members filling in on the empty slots.

Opeth

David formed Opeth with some friends from Täby in the Spring of 1990.^[4] Long-time friend Mikael Åkerfeldt was in a band called Eruption, but was considering a departure from this group. David invited him to play bass for Opeth and Åkerfeldt accepted the offer. When he came to the rehearsal, however, none of the other members of the band knew Mikael was coming and they did not want to kick out the bass player they already had. The ensuing argument played out with all the members of Opeth (aside from David) leaving. They renamed themselves Crowley and released a demo tape called "The Gate" in 1991.

David remained with Opeth until 1992, when he left citing creative differences. His duties as lead singer were taken up by Åkerfeldt.

After Opeth

David Isberg continued his musical career with electronic project Grooveza (later Grooveza/Fuzz), death metal band Mynjun and today to be found in experimental David Isberg & The Stockholm War Ensemble as well as Stockholm Death Metal band Tutorial together with Adam Skogvards of Mynjun.

David was also active in extreme blues maniacs Dubplate Connection, which released their debut album "Plays and sings the blues" in 2009. They did shows in Sweden and U.S.A. to support the album. The other three members of Dubplate Connection are Mårten Tiljander, Linus Dielemans and the mysterious Southside Slim. David left the band ahead of the North American tour and once again started to play with his old colleagues from Mynjun.

As known today, David is active in at least two extreme metal bands Braathum^[5] (named after an ancient mansion in David's possession) and the restarted version of Mynjun. There are also rumours that he is about to finish lyrical works that he has been writing on since about 7 or 8 years.

References