Anton Maiden Found Dead

Jesus Bonehead sent me a link earlier and stated that Anton Maiden (aka. Anton Gustafsson) was found dead over the weekend. He provided me with this link as a verification. Of course it was all in swedish and I couldn't understand a fucking thing. I did, however; manage to dig up a free swedish translator.


For those of you that aren't familiar with Anton Maiden, here is a little background.

Anton Maiden: Geek Superstar
A boy and his software
by Joel Schalit Published December 30, 1999 in Whoa!

Sweden isn't necessarily the first place that comes to mind when Americans think about European cool. After all, it's the country that gave birth to the seventies schmalz-pop band ABBA, the group responsible for enshrining the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in a similarly-titled million-seller.

Nonetheless, Swedish rock is making something of a vengeful comeback right now, particularly when it comes to exporting punk rock and heavy metal back to America. Swedes are making fashionable rock and roll, and it's hip to be Swedish again. Sub Pop's recent Swedish acquisition The Hellacopters are being touted as the trendiest thing around by College Music Journal, while their countrymen Meshuggah (Hebrew for "crazy") have become one of the most popular metal bands to hit this side of the Atlantic since the heyday of Pantera. No foreign invasion, however, would be complete without the importation of a third sensation to Sweden's new imperialist rock and roll trinity: the conspicuously uncool 19-year-old computer programmer Anton Gustavsson.

A student by day, he's a dedicated headbanger by night who records under the alter-ego Anton Maiden. Anton got play on America's college radio stations early last summer with his self-titled debut CD, an unauthorized recording of eight Iron Maiden songs sung in Anton's inimitable karaoke style. The songs were recorded on his home computer using free MIDI files of classic Iron Maiden songs that he'd downloaded from one of Scandinavia's burgeoning MIDI-module metal Web sites, the Iron Maiden Sound Archive.

Inexplicably satisfied enough by the quality of his recordings to put them online, Anton uploaded them to his personal Web site as MP3s. All of a sudden he found himself one of the very first stars of the international DIY Internet music era. Anton was getting played on Swedish radio, and was in heavy rotation on well-regarded American underground radio stations such as New York's WFMU and Berkeley's KALX. In a recent post to an Iron Maiden discussion list on the Internet -- where he was getting flogged by bewildered Maiden fans for having had the chutzpah to butcher their favorite songs -- Gustavsson smugly boasted, "I'm famous in my own country."

What gives? The secret to Anton's success is that he presents the ultimate portrait of the awkward music fan: alone in his bedroom, un-self-consciously singing in a heavy Swedish accent his own cheesy renditions of notoriously melodramatic heavy metal anthems. For the moment, however, Anton is unavailable to the world. Perhaps due to legal action from Iron Maiden, or the wrath of "authors" of the Iron Maiden modules that he used to sing his hits -- Anton's covers received a lot of bad press in the Scandinavian mod-metal community because he appropriated their work -- Anton's celebrated MP3s are no longer available. However, Anton is rumored to have a record deal, so we may be hearing from him soon. Until then, Matt Kelly at Cool Beans magazine has made one official Anton song available on a compilation disc.

Once you hear Anton, you'll never think Sweden is a synonym for Ikea again.

This was the first story:

http://www.bt.se/bt/btartikel.asp?version=173195

Police Are Begging For Help Finding Lost
Published: 2003-11-06 11:06

Police are requesting that common people help in find 23- year old Anton Gustafsson who disappeared from his accommodation in Borås sometime over the past few weeks.

Anton Gustafsson studies in Borås. He had left from his accommodation in Borås late on Friday or possibly Saturday. On the following Tuesday his disappearance had been discovered.

Anton Gustafsson is presumably wearing a blue jacket and jeans. He is around 180 centimeters tall and had normal build. He has dark blonde hair and blue eyes. He also wears glasses.

Police had spent most of the day in närområdet with bloodhounds and helicopters. We spoke with a teacher of Anton Gustafsson but he was a little distraught by it all.

If anyone know the whereabouts of Anton Gustafsson Please contact the police in Borås, or in Kinna.

The next day he was found dead according to this article:

http://www.sr.se/sjuharad/nyheter/arkiv.asp?DagensDatum=2003-11-07&Artikel=319298

Lost 23-year old found dead
15.45 | friday 7 november 2003

The 23-year old man from Borås who was lost for a week, has been found dead.
Police do not suspect foul play.
Police had sent out an army of men after he disappeared from his apartment late Friday.