Strömstad's SWORDMASTER date to 1993 and their foundation by guitarist Nightmare Industries (real name Emil Nödtveidt). Nightmare also played with OPHTHALAMIA and is the brother of the imprisoned DISSECTION mentor Jon Nödtveidt. Following the 1995 'Wraths Of Time' mini-album release on Florida's Full Moon Productions, drummer Inferno (Tobias Kjellgren) joined DECAMERON. He would eventually rejoin DISSECTION for their December 1995 European tour. His replacement in SWORDMASTER was another ex-DISSECTION member, Ole Ȫhman.

The 'Wrath Of Time' mini-album was re-released on vinyl format in 1996, limited to 1000 copies and with two extra tracks; 'Metallic Devastation' and 'Claws Of Death (Conspiracy)'. The band, crediting themselves as vocalist Whiplasher (Andreas Bergh), guitarists Nightmare Industries and Beast X Electric (Erik Halvorsen), bassist Thunderbolt and drummer Terror (Niklas Rudolfsson), signed to French imprint Osmose Productions the same year but would start to draw themselves away from Black Metal and into straightforward Thrash tinged Heavy Metal with each successive release.

'Postmortem Tales' emerged in June 1997. A vinyl edition was limited to 1000 copies. SWORDMASTER next released the 'Deathraider' set in 1998 as a 12" vinyl picture disc and a CD, the latter featuring different tracks. Their final release was the 1998 full-length 'Moribund Transgoria'.

A further evolution into more modern, Industrial edged sounds prompted a name switch to DEATHSTARS. The band also took on a radical image change for the album 'Synthetic Generation'. The record first surfaced in Sweden during March of 2002 on LED Recordings but would be picked up for European release by the German Nuclear Blast label the following year.