Passenger

Passenger began as a side project. Anders Fridén, the vocalist of In Flames, joined a project aiming for a sound different from the melodic death metal he was used to. Alongside Patrik Sten and Niklas Engelin, they created something that didn’t fit the labels of their original bands. Initially under the name Cliff, they recorded two demos at Studio Fredman that never saw the light of day, but those seeds already carried the essence of what was to come.

After a hiatus, the band resurfaced in 2000 with a demo, and the following year recorded another featuring early versions of songs like Used, In My Head, Circus, and Drowning City. The definitive leap came with their self-titled debut album, Passenger, accompanied by a video for In Reverse. However, the real turning point arrived when Fridén admitted the project couldn’t progress at the pace he needed: In Flames tours left him little time to dedicate to it. He then decided to take a break from his main band to focus on what, years later, would become his second album.