Diabolical Masquerade is a Swedish one-man project. All music is written and played by Katatonia guitarist Blackheim who wanted to have a band where he could compose more extreme music whilst Katatonia were exploring more mellow moods. The music leans heavily on melodic black metal with some death metal influences. Blackheim, whose real name is Anders Nystrom, wanted to experiment more with song structure, theme and composition. This is most notabley seen on his last project as Diabolical Masquerade called "Death's Design" This album is concieved as the soundtrack to a nonexistent swedish horror movie, with 61 tracks broken up into 20 movements, each with a unique feel and theme. While Death's Design is a more extreme album than any released by Katatonia in recent years, it also includes many passages featuring non-guitar instruments and rythyms not typically found in Heavy Metal music. It is for the most part an Album which expresses a story line through the feel of the music itself, much like the orchestral soundtrack to a movie might, and by doing this Nystrom proves the creativity that extreme music can reach in the hands of a skilled practicioner of his trade. Katatonia is a Swedish heavy metal band formed in 1988 by Jonas Renkse (formerly Lord Seth) and Anders Nyström (formerly Blakkheim). ... Black metal is a musical genre related to styles of heavy metal such as death metal. ... Death metal is a type of heavy metal music with thrash metal influences which emerged in the United States (especially Florida and California), Europe (especially the United Kingdom and Sweden) and Canada in the late 1980s and early 1990s. ...

 Blackheim worked together on the project however, with Dan Swanö. In early September 2004, it was announced that Blackheim had put the project to sleep after not having found the necessary inspiration while working on a fifth album. 

Dan Swanö Dan Swanö, (born on the March 10, 1973, in FinspÃ¥ng, Östergötland, Sweden), is a multi-talented Swedish musician, lyricist and vocalist, somewhat influential in the underground death metal and prog rock communities, with a small but devoted cult following for his numerous works. ... 2004 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December See also: September 2004 in sports Deaths in September • 27 Tsai Wan-lin • 24 Françoise Sagan • 20 Brian Clough • 18 Russ Meyer • 15 Johnny Ramone • 12 Fred Ebb • 11 Peter VII of Alexandria • 8 Richard Girnt...

Discography

• 1996 Ravendusk In My Heart (Adipocere)
• 1997 The Phantom Lodge (Adipocere)
• 1999 Nightwork (Avantgarde Music)
• 2001 Death's Design: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Avantgarde Music)

Members

• Blackheim - All instruments