Kristian Wåhlin

Who is Kristian Wåhlin?

Kristian Wåhlin is a Swedish musician, graphic designer, and album cover artist for many bands in the extreme metal scene worldwide. He is often credited under his pseudonym, Necrolord.

Wåhlin's interest in art began while attending Schillerska Grammar School, a secondary educational institution in central Gothenburg. He has referenced Romantic and Renaissance painters like Caspar David Friedrich, Albrecht Dürer and Hieronymus Bosch as early influences. This interest also coincided with the time in which he studied music.

At the age of 17, Wåhlin formed Grotesque with school friend Tomas Lindberg on vocals, Alf Svensson on guitar, and Tomas Eriksson on drums. The 1990 break-up of Grotesque would lead to the formation of At the Gates, who would be credited as instigators of the "Gothenburg Melodic death metal sound". Wåhlin would collaborate with Lindberg and other At the Gates members a short time additionally in the death metal band Liers in Wait, and would go on to design the "Russian icon" cover-art of At the Gates' cornerstone release, Slaughter of the Soul.

Dissection, who shared practice quarters with At the Gates, would display illustrations by Wåhlin on the cover of The Somberlain and also Storm of the Light's Bane; the latter featuring the infamous scene of the "grim reaper horseman" in the middle of a snow-covered forest tundra. In the Nightside Eclipse, the debut of seminal Norwegian black metal band Emperor, would also be graced with his work on the cover. Wåhlin would continue as an album artist for several other bands in the European death, black, doom, power and gothic metal collective throughout the 2000s.