Onyx (Swe)

Official Biography (from The Complete Recordings compilation booklet)
When I was locked up in Studio Bastun in Stockholm, back in 1983, recording the first album with Overdrive, we had a visitor. It was a bass player by the name Pelle Thambert. He said he played in a band and he also told me about this new guitar player whiz kid I should check out. He came back the day after with a 4-track vinyl EP by his band Onyx and a cassette by a guy named Yngwie Malmsteen. They actually both blew me away!

Onyx was something very unusual at the time, a Swedish full-on metal band with strong hints of Iron Maiden, who sang in Swedish! This was more or less unheard of in this genre at the time! Besides the EP, which is now a very rare collector's item, the band also recorded a demo of the same high class and quality. Now, finally, after all these years these recordings have been made available! So, let's dig into the history of one of the best kept secrets in Swedish metal - Onyx!

Back in 1977, guitarist Björn Holm met drummer Håkan Kjellberg. They soon started playing together and were joined by bass player Marcel Jacob. They played together for about a year, when Marcel met the aforementioned Yngwie Malmsteen and joined his band. Before leaving, he tipped them off about a bass player who played in the band Abel's Gang, named Pelle Thambert. The band also featured a singer named Kai Nurmi. Björn, Håkan and Pelle (now playing in both bands) started rehearsing, now under the name Breakdown. Abel's Gang split and Breakdown were reinforced by singer Mats Melin (who would later join Red Baron). After only a few gigs, Mats quit and Breakdown broke down. Now Håkan joined a band in Orminge, which featured former Abel's Gang singer Kai. Enter Björn. Their bass player quit. Enter Pelle. The band was now called Overkill. The line-up featured Kai, Björn, Håkan, Pelle and guitarist Snoffs. They now decided to change their name to Onyx. They played their biggest show so far, supporting major pop band Dag Vag and they went down a storm. They also arranged shows by themselves or together with other bands, preferably more well-known, in order to draw a bigger crowd.

Now Snoffs had to do his military service and left the band. At the band's last gig with Snoffs, a hard rock festival at Underground, by Sergels Torg in Stockholm (also featuring Stitch and Red Baron), they announced his departure and said they were looking for a replacement. Come Monday, school day, and Björn was immediately jumped by an over energized Krister Bengtsson who said he was the man for the band. Krister had previously played in the band Cygnus, together with drummer Rickard Averdahl (later in M.O.B) and singer Hasse "Bell" Berglund (later in Burn). Björn remembers the band's first show with Krister: - We told Krister that, since we are a metal band he can't just stand still on stage, he has to move around. At the show, he was like Angus Young on steroids!! He was all over the place, entangling all the guitar chords into a mess. We were all just baffled! The band now started playing lots of shows. In 1981, they set up a show at Nacka Ishall together with the band Zeta and they invited Heavy Load to headline. They also did the radio show Heavy Metal Heaven, which was recorded live at Heavy Load's Thunderload Studios, plus another show at Kulturhuset which was broadcast by Swedish Radio.

In 1982, Onyx entered the CTR Studios in Nacka together with Trettioåriga Kriget (aka Thirty Year War) guitarist, Christer Åkerberg. The recording was paid for by bassist Pelle's father Kalle. The result of the CTR recording was the self-titled four track EP, printed in 500 copies and now a highly sought-after collector's item. What was unusual about the record was the combination of the classic guitar dominated heavy metal riffs and lyrics in their native Swedish tongue. Kai had introduced singing in Swedish already from the start, when the band was a bit more punkish and there was never even any discussion of changing it.

In the summer of 1983 the band got access to the huge Piperska Muren building where they set up to record a new demo. The recording was mixed by now renown producer Nicklas Flyckt, who has worked with hard rock/metal bands such as Great King Rat and Candlemass as well as million sellers such as Celine Dion, Westlife and Robyn to name a few. Niklas brought in equipment from the KGR Studios and the they set up Håkan's drums in the major ball room, Björn's guitar rig in the men's and Krister's in the ladies, huge tiled bathrooms. The result was a great sounding six track demo. The boys worked hard at trying to get a record deal, but nothing came out of it and by the end of the year the en- ergy had run out. The members' musical tastes started growing apart and the current sleaze/glam scene with bands like Ratt and Poison didn't inspire. The band more or less fizzled out, especially since the members also had to do their military service.

Post Onyx
Björn, Kai and Krister formed the band Johnny Rocker, who were more influenced by bands like Hanoi Rocks and Mott The Hoople. Their gimmick was that all members should look the same, kinda Like The Ramones, except they all looked Like Nikki Sixx. They recorded a couple of demos, but nothing happened. Kai quit music, started studying and had a family, but is now in a cover band. Björn tried to get a new band going, but there was always some drummer or bassist missing. He started studying, had a family and since 2000 he's played in various cover bands such as Copyrats and he also made a short stint in doom band Core of Nation, where he plays on the 2005 demo. After Johnny Rocker folded, Krister and Håkan, together with singer Kent Ploog (later in Sabbtail) and bassist Benny Andersson (ex-Stand By), formed the band Da Vinci (not to be confused with the Norwegian namesakes), but nothing came out of it. Krister and Håkan also ran an advertising agency together for several years. Apart from playing in a corporate rock competition, Håkan didn't play drums much. His sister is by the way Anna Kjellberg, who played bass in female power pack Drain.

On May 6, 2015, Håkan sadly passed away in his sleep. After Onyx, Pelle was again tipped off by Marcel Jacob and joined the band Force, which turned into Cheri. Now it was his time to do his military service and his time in Cheri was over. He quit playing bass and now lives in Perth, Australia. Krister continued in the music business as producer/composer, working with Peter Svartling for several years. He wrote the song "Still Holding On" for Idol celebrity Daniel Lindström and he kept working in the creative business, which the beautiful Onyx re-issue package is proof of. Björn kept working in his home studio, writing and recording, and in 2021 he finished the instrumental solo album "Cubs", under the moniker Fearthebear, where he has written, played and recorded everything himself.

"Looking in the rear-view mirror, these were damn fun and intense years. We hung out, more or less, all the time, playing, just hanging out, listening to metal and partying. We were incredibly devoted, arranged gigs, ran around to record labels trying to get signed. Probably like many other kids our age. Onyx was clearly one of the highlights of our lives", says Björn. I'm really excited to have been involved in making this piece of Swedish metal history, this unsung FVASHM (Första Vågen av Svensk Heavy Metal - First Wave of Swedish Heavy Metal) act, finally be available for the masses! This is a killer band with lots of hidden gems that need to be discovered and now have been uncovered - so dig in!

- Janne Stark: Author of "THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SWEDISH HARD ROCK AND HEAVY METAL"