A near mythic band in the doom metal scene, Sorcerer was founded in 1988, but outside of a pair of legendary demos, the band wouldn't release a proper album until 2015. Formed in Stockholm, Sweden in 1988 around the talents of John Hagel, Tommy Karlsson, and Peter Furulid (vocalist Anders Engberg and guitarist Mats Liedholm joined the following year), the band issued a demo (Anno 1503) in 1989. A second demo followed in 1992 (both were extremely well-received in the metal community), but the band soon splintered and disbanded (Hagel went on to join Tiamat). John Perez of Solitude Aeternus made both demos available through his own Brainticket Records in 1995, but it would be 15 years before fans would hear any real news about the underground doom rockers. In 2010, Hagel assembled a new version of the group, which included Engberg, Therion guitarist Kristian Niemann, Six Feet Under guitarist Ola Englund, and drummer Robert Iversen, and performed live at the Hammer of Doom Festival in Germany, and in 2011, Perez reissued the original Sorcerer demos on CD with previously unreleased material. By now the seeds had been sown for a Sorcerer resurrection, and the band began discussing plans to a record a proper debut album. Englund left the group in 2012 to join Six Feet Under and was replaced by Peter Hallgren (Rob Rock), and in 2015 the band issued their long-awaited debut studio long-player In the Shadow of the Inverted Cross via Metal Blade Records. A sophomore effort, The Crowning of the Fire King, arrived two years later, again with the support of Metal Blade. ~ James Christopher Monger