In 1990 Masquerade recorded a demo that was favorably reviewed 100/100 in the magazine Metal Hammer. The band consisting Tony Johansson vocals, Thomas G:son guitars, Henrik Lundberg Bass and Marco Tapani(Grönholm) came out from the town Skövde in Sweden and gained quickly a reputation of being a great live band as well as having great songs. After ending up on a second place at the Scandinavian Yamaha Music competition, where Christer Wedin (at the time GM for Dino Music) was one of the jury members, and was blown away about the bands performance and the band had soon a record deal in place with Dino Music (Later Empire Records), In 1991 Masquerade started to record their self-titled debut album together with engineer Ronny Lahti ("Europe", "Talisman") the band finalized the mixing. The album hit the streets in 1992 with positive reviews all over the globe by critics who found the album comparable to the music of bands like Whitesnake and Def Leppard. After their first album and tour the band started to write new material and began recording their second album to be named Surface of Pain, released in 1994, the album was characterized by a heavier approach and the band went to Japan for a x-mas tour. The band aLSO got interest from America and signed with Metal Blade Records. With the 3rd album Flux Masquerade worked together with Fredrik Nordström who had achieved success with Hammerfall. 2022 marks the 30th Anniversary of the bands debut album. Check it out on vinyl!