I’m sitting here writing this piece and I literally feel like I am writing an obituary. In the seven or so years that I have been doing this blog, there have only been a handful of times where I had to write something that weighed so heavy on my heart that it brought a tear to my eye. As anyone of you who has been reading this blog for any amount of time knows, I am a huge fan of Graveyard. I awoke this morning to not only news that Graveyard had disbanded but I was also met with no less than 20 Facebook messages (both public and private) of people asking me if I’d heard the news. It was as if a good friend had died and they were all checking in on me. In all honesty, this is exactly how it felt. Here is the official statement from Graveyard themselves:
Dark clouds above the graveyard today.
Due to the all so classic reason “differences within the band” the Graveyard is as of today officially closed. This is the unfortunate final decision we’ve had to make after going through a period of struggling n juggling with personal issues. Things have gone out of hand and now our energy is very low. As a direct result of this we’re sorry to say that all scheduled touring is cancelled.
Graveyard have always been more about the music than the talking and that approach is the way we intend to deal with this situation also. What we can say is that we don’t know if and when the Graveyard will re-open and return in full force.
Stay tuned, stay awesome & No endless night in sight.
Joakim, Axel, Truls, Jonatan
This was a band that meant the world to me. Graveyard was a band that I found at a particular time in my life when I needed something truly special. Discovering Graveyard, to me, was very similar to when I discovered the Grateful Dead. I first discovered Graveyard in 2011 when I was sent an advance copy of their album Hisingen Blues by my very good friend Loana at Nuclear Blast. At first listen, I knew right away that this was no ordinary band. With each passing song, the magnetic pull of their music and the lyrics drew me in and connected with me in a way that no other band had done in a very long time. By the last heart wrenching notes of “The Siren” came to a close, I knew right away that I had found my new favorite band.
In Graveyard, I found their music to be the perfect soundtrack to the many facets of my life. Their songs made me smile, they made me think, they made me headbang, and even at times made me cry. Graveyard had a way of writing songs that made me feel things so much deeper and so much stronger than just about any other hard rock/metal band out there.
Not only was Graveyard a band that released amazing, emotionally charged music, they were a band that put on a live show that would absolutely gut me. Graveyard, no matter what setting you were seeing them in, Graveyard would deliver a show that was so full of passion and a sort of mystic energy that you could feel completely over take you. Graveyard had a way of making you feel like you were the only person in the room at times and that, my friends, is not something that is easily done.
It’s hard to believe that I have only been a fan of Graveyard for a little over five years. It feels like they are a band that has been there all my life and maybe that is why I love this band so goddamn much. In those five years, I went from being a diehard fan to even becoming a friend of the band as they treated me like family. Every time they came to town they welcomed me with open arms (literally). Times spent on the tour bus talking about early Fleetwood Mac, guitars, The Grateful Dead, and American beer are some of the times that I will cherish and remember for the rest of my life. It’s not every day someone gets to become family with their favorite band. Maybe this is why this hurts so much because it’s more than just a band breaking up. It means that there’s a chance that I will never hear new Graveyard music again, I will never see those magical shows, and I will never have those amazing, personal moments with the boys and their crew (Hi Erik!) that I came to love, appreciate, and anticipate.
Call me dramatic, call it whatever the fuck you want but today, I am in mourning. The best way I can close things out is with a quote from a fictional character. Do you remember the movie Almost Famous? Towards the end of that movie, groupie Sapphire is talking with Russell Hammond and she delivers this piece of wisdom: “They don’t even know what it is to be a fan. Y’know? To truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts.” This one hurts more than you’ll ever know.
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