Swedish heavy/power metal band MANIMAL was founded in 2001. Their first full-length album, The Darkest Room, was released in 2009. Right away it hit the official album charts in their home country of Sweden on #36 and received worldwide critical acclaim. The intelligent mixture of powerful melodic metal and progressive elements made MANIMAL one of the genre’s most promising new acts.

For the last couple of years, the Gothenburg-based band has been working on the follow-up, and the result was definitely worth waiting for!“Trapped In The Shadows” is a splendid album, delivering energetic, melodic metal which impressively blends “Painkiller”-Judas Priest with the best of Queensryche: the perfect symbiosis of power and finesse! Song titles such as “The Dark” and “Trapped In The Shadows” imply that MANIMAL’s sound is melancholic, and at the same time it remains melodic all the way.

The band has recently produced a music video for the opening track “Irresistible”, which will also be the first single of the album. “Irresistible” perfectly represents “Trapped In The Shadows” as Samuel Nyman’s high-pitched vocals and the heavy, Judas Priest-like riffs merge to a furious up-tempo smasher. The album also offers almost doomy riffs as in “Man-Made Devil” as well as a children’s choir in “Screaming Out”, which underlines that MANIMAL are no stranger to diversity.

Appearing on the track “The Journey” is legendary vocalist Udo Dirkschneider (U.D.O., ex-Accept).
“It has been an honor and a dream come true to work with Udo – a man whose music has had a great impact on us all”, says MANIMAL’s guitarist, Henrik Stenroos.

The mixing and mastering of “Trapped In The Shadows” was handled by Achim Koehler (Primal Fear, Brainstorm, Sinner).
MANIMAL is currently making plans for touring and festival appearances in 2016.

hardmanpr / afm records