Grotesque was spawned out of the abyss in September 1988 rising from the ashes of death/thrash/metal band Conquest, a band first formed in early -86 by guitarist & songwriter Necrolord. Howsoever, this band didn't become totally twisted, insane and serious until unholy screamer Goatspell joined in March -88. When Grotesque hit the local scene in the fall of -88 there were absolutely no other death metal bands around in the Gothenburg area and there were literally just a few people into underground death metal. Grotesque soon got a maniacal reputation of being devoted satanists, grave desecrators, blasphemers and a very brutal live band.
The original line-up featured Goatspell - vomits, Necrolord - high priest of distortion and Nuctemeron - 4-string damnation as well as two other members who soon left due to wimpdom. Rehearsing in the basement of Necrolord's house they soon got together their first violent pieces of death and mayhem. "Moondance Prophecy" was a slow song reminiscent of Celtic Frost/Hellhammer. "Shadows Of Lost Life" - a faster song somewhat in the style of Obscurity/Bathory and Poison (W.G.). At this time they also delivered their true brutal classic "Ripped From The Cross".
In the early months of -89 the drummerOffensor joined the order of blasphemy and desecration thus completing the Grotesque line-up. They rehearsed heavily and decomposed more complex and evil death/black metal material like "Ascension Of The Dead", "Blood Runs From The Altar" and "Fall Into Decay". On the 4th of May they recorded the blasphemous rehearsal/demo "The Black Gate Is Closed" an avalanche of death and hate preparing the wimps for Grotesque's first studio recording. The coming monts were spent writing new songs like the epic "Angels Blood" and "Submit To Death" as well as playing a few crazy and brutal live shows.
The legendary November recording of "In The Embrace Of Evil" featured five songs - this was originally ment to be the first five songs of a full lenght album on Dolores Records, another three tracks to be recorded later on. Therefore, the recording was never released as a demo.
On December 12 -89 Grotesque played a truly insane local show in front of 200 people. The crowd was in a frenzy as Grotesque launched their brutal death metal at unsuspecting victims... As well as a few of their own songs they got to play "The Return" by Bathory before the show was shut down by local authorities clamining Grotesque were a bunch of drug addicted satanic maniacs trying to start a riot.
In late -89 Nuctemeron left the band. This set-back did not hinder the unholy making of new, faster and more technical evil songs - "Nocturnal Blasphemies", "Spawn Of Azathoth", "Church Of The Pentagram", "Ritual Mutilation" and the legendary "Incantation". These new songs fully stated that Grotesque never compromised one way or the other... They had only gotten blacker, more evil and intense. Renowned tattoo artist and guitarist "The Haunting" had joined the band in the beginning of the year, bringing in a new dimension of brutality into Grotesque.
In August 1990 Grotesque did the "Incantation" recording (3 songs for the Dolores Records mini album). Later that month Grotesque played their last show and due to contradictions they split up shortly afterwards. On the Goood Friday of 1996 Necrolord, Goatspell and Offensor entered Berno studio to record 2 songs especially for the "In The Embrace Of Evil" cd, "Church Of The Pentagram" and "Ripped From The cross", the very first songs they wrote.

stolen from the Black Sun Records website