Send "The Unguided " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 Redemption and second chances don’t come easily in the music industry, especially in more recent years when one-hit wonders and single-release artists are becoming more prevalent than ever before. It becomes even more difficult when artists need to use new names or form new bands in order to find that redemption. Such was the path for vocalist Richard Sjunnesson after his departure from modern melodic death metal group Sonic Syndicate. Disgusted by the group’s changed sound—a change that was forced on them by Nuclear Blast Records, no less—and wanting to return to his roots, Sjunnesson decided to form his own group that would take on Sonic Syndicate’s older style and let it grow naturally. The resulting group became known as the Unguided, and with this group, Sjunnesson definitely achieved his goal.It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Sjunnesson relied on many familiar faces to bring the Unguided into existence. For production of the group’s demos, the Nightmareland EP, and the debut album Hell Frost, producer Jonas Kjellgren, who is also the rhythm guitarist for Scar Symmetry, and his the Abyss studios were chosen, mirroring the choices for Sonic Syndicate’s latest three albums. Artwork for both Nightmareland and Hell Frost, as well as the singles pressed from Hell Frost, was done by either Gustavo Sazes, who designed the cover for Sonic Syndicate’s Burn This City EP, or Jose Aranguren, the artist behind the visuals for Sonic Syndicate’s debut Eden Fire....full text |
| Sputnikmusic |
| After the leave of one of their front men, Roland Johansson in 2009, the band Sonic Syndicate took on a new singer who had shown promise and abilities similar to that of their former leader. Roland had been in charge of many of the clean vocal bits appearing on the band’s songs, as well as some of the screaming. Unfortunately due to family issues, Roland had to leave permanently. With their leader gone, Sonic Syndicate had to make a very important decision. The band had to find someone similar in range and capability or risk a change in their style and sound. Long-time friend of the band and part-time roadie Nathan J. Biggs seemed like an ideal choice. The band had known him for a while, which meant that there was chemistry, and the few jobs that he did with them showed that he had more than what was required to fill Mr. Johansson’s shoes. Sonic Syndicate went on to release a satisfactory EP that same year which debuted the new singer’s abilities and was entitled Burn This City. The album re-instilled some confidence in fans that Biggs had the potential to continue on the legacy that Roland had left behind... and then the following year the band released the album We Rule The Night. It remains uncertain how passive the rest of the band was about the decision, but one thing was certainly clear, that Biggs played a large part in the reputable suicide that occurred as a result of the change in style which fans had suspected would happen, but kept quiet about after the release of their initial EP. With the loss of the band’s respect and the band’s reputation came the loss of their other front man Richard Sjunnesson. Richard had been in Sonic Syndicate since the band’s inception and mourned the loss of everything that he and Roland had worked so hard to forge, along with the other original members who gave into Biggs’ decision. Richard then got in contact with Roland who had also mourned the death of Sonic Syndicate and together they formed a new project called ‘The Unguided’. Joined by Roger Sjunnesson and John Bengtsson (who both still play in Sonic Syndicate), and Henric Carlsson (ex. Dead by April), the newly formed band immediately began working on a promotional EP. Within a few months The Unguided released Nightmareland, and just over seven months later released their debut album entitled Hell Frost....full text |
| Metal-archives |
| Whilst this album is a mixture of new material, a single released 1-2 years ago and a few recycled songs from the Fallen Angels period. Eagerly anticipated by many old SS fans', this album was promoted by a single with Green Eyed Demon and Pathfinder, both having very pleasant chorus', but simply couldn't be listened to more than a dozen times. When the Hellfrost album dropped, I'm not going to lie about this, but I was ecstatic, I had eagerly awaited this release since I heard that Roland and Richard had teamed up for another release, admiring the artwork prior to listening to it. Very impressive parcel. But you know what they say...Don't judge a book by it's cover. Upon my first listen, track titles ignored initially, I found that some of the songs were somewhat annoying, the repetition of a chorus in the same monotonous tone really began to hit me as a real turn off to this album, a far cry from Denied and Jack of Diamonds, it has to be said. The perk to this album was by a long way had to definitely be Collapse my Dream, the best song off this release, the lyrics, thought provoking, the manner in whence it was sung, pleasant on the ears, and the guitar work, nice to air guitar along to, rhythmic and memorable. Clearly a song meant for Love and other Disasters if ever I heard one. The rest of the album would've been filler material for other albums, as it was of much lower quality that Only Inhuman and Love and other Disasters, or for Betrayer of the Code's circumstance, it was a failed song from a previous release in Fallen Angel's time period....full text |
The Unguided lyrics
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