Masquerade is a Swedish band formed in 1988. The band has since their early days been appreciated for their skill of craftsmanship. Their hard work started to pay off when their first demo cassette and single was met with rave reviews in England's Metal Hammer magazine. In 1992 the group released their debut album simply titled Masquerade on Sweden's Dino Music Records. The record was produced by the band and Ronny Lahti (Saigon Kick, Electric Boys) was brought in for the mixing. Masquerade received favorable reviews all over Europe and Japan. This and their reputation as an incredible live band helped to stimulate great sales throughout all of Europe and Japan. Their second full length was again self-produced with Ronny Lahti engineering and released in the fall of 1994, titled Surface Of Pain. This album was met with such a great response in Japan, that the band embarked on a sold out Japanese Christmas tour the same year. In 1995 Masquerade was introduced to America and Metal Blade Records. The band made a successful promotion tour and received great reviews all over America. In 1996 the band took time out and each member wanted to try something new. Marko and Henrik went out touring with other bands while Tony and Thomas started writing songs for other artists. The band got together again in 1998 and started writing songs for a new album. The album was recorded in 1999 and titled Flux. Yet again the band produced themselves and Fredrik Nordström a new Swedish talent was brought in for the mixing. Due to some legal problems that now have been solved, the album release has been delayed. The Flux album is probably the best the band have accomplished so far and by far the most personal. Masquerade signed with SorceryStudios in 2004 to release a new disc entitled 'In Disguise' which was released in early 2005 with great fanfare, SorceryStudios had been instrumental in giving the band a face on the internet and with being huge fans of the band themselves had taken the next step in releasing the new album which now leads us into 2006 with yet another Masquerade release on the horizon, an as yet untitled Live album due in the spring of 2006 with a Live Dvd also due later in '06. The band also plans to head back into the studio to record their 5th full length album which at present does not have a due date. Stay tuned to MASQUERADETHEBAND.COM or SORCERYSTUDIOS.COM for all the latest!