Diabolique were formed out of the ashes of Liers in Wait in early 1995, when the two guitarists Kristian Wahlin and Johan Osterberg started working on songs and concept for a new band. The name was derived from the classical french horror movie, "Diabolique/Les Diaboliques" (1955). Needless to say, in the beginning Diabolique primarily drew their influences from horror movie soundtracks, but also from bands such as Black Sabbath, St Vitus, Neurosis, Swans, The Sisters of Mercy and Fields of the Nephilim. The early material was defined by the dense monotonous mass of eerie melodies that comprised a background to Kristian Wåhlin's deep, haunting voice. After a number of different drummers and bass players - including Daniel Erlandsson (drums, now Arch Enemy) and Alf Svensson (bass, ex-At the Gates ) - Hans Nilsson (drums) and Bino (bass) joined in May/June 1996 thus completing the most prolific Diabolique line-up to date.
Швеция
In July '96 the band entered Los Angered Recordings, Gothenburg, in order to lay down 5 tracks for promotional purposes. This recording scored them the deal with Black Sun Records, and was also released as a mini-CD on the French Listenable Records under the title "The Diabolique" 2 years later. The fall of '96 was spent rehearsing for the recording of the debut album, "Wedding the Grotesque". On January 2nd '97 the sessions started at Berno Studios, Malmö. 9 Songs were recorded, including stand out tracks such as "Blood of Summer", "The Unchaste Bittersweet" and "Sorrows Piercing Art". "Wedding the Grotesque" was released in June '97. The response was not quite as good as expected, but the album sold very well.
During the last months of '97 the band went into an intense songwriting period. Out of approximately 25 songs, 11 were picked out for the recording of the second album. Since Wedding the Grotesque was compiled of mostly very old songs, some of them dating as far as back as the early '90s, the difference between old and new material became more than evident on 1998s The Black Flower. An album exploding with passionate, driving and intense gothic rock, 80s melancholia blended with 60s psychedelia and 70s type arrangements. Not unlike bands such as The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Sisters of Mercy, Cocteau Twins and Depeche Mode. "The Black Flower" has the energy, drive and conviction as that of a debut album. It shows a band that needs to prove themselves to the world. The album received excellent response, but unfortunately Black Sun had a distribution problem at the time of release. Consequently, "The Black Flower" never got any proper distribution whatsoever. In January of '99 the deal with Black Sun expired.
However, the band kept rehearsing and working on new material, and in April of 1999, they decided to go with Necropolis Recordsout of Fremont, CA. The deal with Necropolis was only to be signed given the condition that the band would be granted enough studio time to record both a new full length and a mini album at the same time. The label obliged, and in June of 1999 Diabolique entered Berno Studios once again. This time with the purpose to lay down 18 new songs. In the end these sessions would result in the "Butterflies" ep as well as the album"The Green Goddess".
After the mixing of "The Green Goddess" was done in November of 1999 the band immediately started writing new songs.
Due to the huge amount of material being written the band decided the right thing would be to record two albums. In June 2000 the band hit the studio again to record 22 songs. This project dragged for some time and after a couple of weeks of recording during the summer and autumn of 2000 the rest of the work was postponed to 2001. Even though a rough mix was made in September 2001 the recording was never properly finished. This was what effectively killed the band at this point and led to a break on an indefinite basis.
However, the band never officially broke up, and have actually more or less been keeping active during the past years. There have also been serious discussions regarding the finishing of the last studio recording.