Treat (band)

Formation and early days

The band was founded in Stockholm, Sweden in 1981 as "The Boys" by singer Robert Ernlund and guitarists Anders "Gary" Wikstrom and Leif "Lillen" Liljegren, but it wasn't until drummer Mats "Dalton" Dahlberg joined the band in the summer of 1983 that the band began to gain a following. Dalton had attained some contacts with Swedish PolyGram Records, which at the time was looking for a new Swedish hard rock band to sign. Around the same time bass player Tomas Lind joined and the band began to record a demo tape. When asked in early interviews who influenced their sound the band members said that they were heavily influenced by bands such as Whitesnake, Journey, Kiss and Van Halen The band's demo tape landed them a deal with Mercury Records and they started recording their debut album Scratch and Bite, changing their name to Treat. The first single released from the album was "Too Wild"; the single received much airplay in Sweden and took the Swedish rock scene by surprise. Many years later Europe's vocalist Joey Tempest said in an interview that when he heard the song he knew it would be a hit so a couple of days later he re-wrote the song "Dance the Night Away" as an answer to the single. At the same time "Too Wild" was released, bassist Tomas Lind left the band and was replaced by Kenneth Sivertsson. The band released Scratch and Bite in the summer of 1985 and toured all over Sweden, but in August drummer Mats Dahlberg quit the band with no explanation and was soon replaced with Leif Sundin who later played with Six Feet Under.

Success In Europe and minor success in USA

The band set about recording their second and most critically acclaimed album The Pleasure Principle in late 1985. It was released almost a year later in the summer of 1986 and suffered in the charts, largely due to the fact that at the time Europe's album The Final Countdown was storming the charts and the band was unfairly compared to Europe by the media and press. The song "Rev It Up" from the album was covered by American band New City Rockers and was a hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for them. The next album the band released was Dreamhunter, which spawned the successful single "World of Promises"; the video for the single received airplay on MTVs Headbangers Ball and was later covered by Swedish metal band In Flames on their 2000 album Clayman. During the recording of the album, drummer Leif Sundin left the band and was replaced by Jamie Borger. The band had only minor success with the album, but nevertheless managed to join the Monsters of Rock Tour 1988 in support of it. Soon after they completed the tour guitarist Leif Liljegren was fired from the band in December 1988, followed shortly by bassist Kenneth Siwertsson, who quit in February 1989 due to the band's lack of success. The band's final album of the 1980s was Organized Crime, released in September 1989 on Vertigo Records. For this album the band brought in bassist Joakim "Joe" Larsson (Ex-Six Feet Under, Power, Jammer) to replace Siwertsson. They also decided to replace Liljegren with a keyboard player instead of a new guitarist, in order to take some burden off Wikström´s shoulders, who always played both guitar and keys live. Patrick "Green" Appelgren (ex-Power), the younger brother of Mikael "Äpplet" Appelgren (European table tennis champion in the late 80´s), handled all keys from then on. The album did badly in the charts and was a commercial disappointment. The band toured in Japan in 1990 in support of the album, but achieved little success. This led lead guitarist Anders Wilkstrom to leave the band, as he was tired of the band's lack of success. He later joined the grunge band Mental Hippie Blood.

Self-titled album and breakup 1992–1993

In late 1990, the band replaced Ernlund with current Candlemass singer Mats Levén, who had previously sung with the band Swedish Erotica and recorded their last album of the 1990s. The self-titled album Treat was released in 1992 and again failed to gain any success for the band and led to the band's break-up on the 26th of March 1993.

Reunion 2006-Present

In 2005 a compilation album was released called Weapons of Choice, which sold surprisingly well around the world and led to the band reforming with the 1989 line-up plus Nalle Påhlsson on bass. The band then signed a deal with Universal and played at the Sweden Rock Festival on June 10, 2006. On March 19, 2010 the band released their reunion album Coup de Grace which was a great success for the band and has led to them touring the world for the first time since the 1980s. The album received positive reviews from the press. In July 2014, Treat played the Väsby Rock festival in Upplands Väsby, Sweden.

Members

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Other

Singles and promos