Watain
Swedish black metal band
Watain is a Swedish black metal band, formed in 1998. The band's name is taken from an early recording by the American black metal group Von. The band have become famous for their theistic Satanist views and for their live shows which involve pyrotechnics, candles, Satanic rituals, animal carcasses, and blood. At a now-notorious live performance in Brooklyn in 2014, they doused audience members in animal blood, allegedly causing some members of the audience to vomit. This was picked up and publicised by TMZ, generating controversy around the incident. To date they have released seven full-length albums, as well as three live albums and a number of demos and EPs. Their most recent album The Agony & Ecstasy of Watain was released on 29 April 2022 through Nuclear Blast. The band's core lineup has remained stable since their formation, consisting of Erik Danielsson, Pelle Forsberg, and Håkan Jonsson, though as of 2015 Jonsson no longer performs live, Emil Svensson (aka E. Forcas) of fellow Uppsala death metal band Degial was recruited as live drummer.
History
Watain was formed in 1998. According to Erik Danielsson, when the band formed, "there weren't really any bands anymore that seemed to take things that seriously, and there weren't that many bands that actually consisted of, you know, people that did so much more than just play the music that they liked and the same kind of music that their idols play".
The public source identifies “Watain” as swedish black metal band. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Watain, Swedish and black.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1509682. VIAF identifies the subject as 128263713. The Library of Congress control number is no2013115521. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1998, 2014, 2022 and 2015.
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This entry incorporates text from “Watain” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.