Lethal Steel are a new band coming from Sweden. They have just inked a deal with High Roller Records. In 2012, the band issued their first demo (albeit with a circulation of only 50 copies) and started to play some smaller venues in their home country. Guitarist Johan Frick explains: “The demo was recorded at Fryshuset during a couple of weeks in May 2012. We recorded it all by ourselves. Leo, who now plays drums in the band, was playing guitar together with me. Jesper Nyrelius played drums. We rushed the recordings to finish the demo before ‘Muskelrock’ to have something to show the people at the festival. That year we went directly from ‘Muskelrock’ to ‘Sweden Rock’. The only tape we had for the festival was this 4-track demo; with the first Grim Reaper album on the B-Side.”
The name of Lethal Steel’s first album for High Roller Records is »Legion Of The Night«. It contains eight traditional heavy metal anthems in the vein of Air Raid, Ambush and Black Trip. Johan has some more details: “The album was recorded with Olof Wikstrand from Enforcer. We started recordings in late2014 but due to Enforcer’s live schedule and Jonte who broke his hand in a bathroom accident the day before the guitar recordings, we did not finish it before the end of May 2015. The album contains five completely new songs, two old tracks never recorded (‘Into The Void Of Lucifer’ and ‘Nattsvart’) plus ‘Nocturnal Seductress’. We are all too happy with the results. The lyrics are mostly derived from our own lives, with occult themes added to them. Some songs are based on folklores. For example, ‘Night Of The Witch’ is about a Swedish lore in which witches travel to a mythical place called ‘Blåkulla’, where they feast with the devil.”
Regarding the band’s influences (of old and new bands alike) Johan states: “It’s hard to say which old bands have been the most important to us, but of course Heavy Load are a huge influence.
All the members of Lethal Steel met because of a common interest in old bands like Jonah Quizz, Gotham City and Mindless Sinner. So for us, all of those bands have been essential for Lethal Steel forming in the first place. We are the only Swedish band playing genuine heavy metal at the moment though, at least that’s how we see it. There is only one other relevant traditional heavy metal band around now that we can think of and that is Tungsten Axe. Compared to the past, we think that there is still a broad variety of different styles in Sweden, but there are more bands within each category today. Few are as good as the old ones though, if you ask me.”
Track Listing:
-Sirius
-Nattsvart
-Rosier
-Warrior
-Night of the Witch
-Into the Void of Lucifer
-Nocturnal Seductress
-Demon From the Past
Line-Up:
Viktor Gustafsson – Vocals
Johan Frick – Guitar
Jonathan Nordwall – Guitar
Christoffer Thyrhaug – Bass
Leo Ekström Sollenmo – Drums