Author Archives: leifkringen

SATAN’S FALL: Dedication and passion

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Satans Fall, logo 2

With projects and bands like Tyfon’s Doom, Legionaire, Angel Sword and Satan’s Fall coming through more or less at the same time, on top on already established, but still kind of “new” acts like Ranger and Speedtrap, Finland suddenly doesn’t seem like such a miserable place to be. While I was a bit more lukewarm towards Angel Sword as you can read in my review elsewhere, Tyfon’s Doom really caught my attention, which in turn lead to an extensive feature. Now the time has come to get to know Satan’s Fall a little better. Most of the questions are answered by guitarist Tomi Mäenpää, but for parts  of the interview he was helped out by the other members.  Continue reading →

TYFON’S DOOM: From speed metal to hard rock

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Tyfon's DoomAs I have mentioned several times already, one of the main intentions with Metal Squadron from the very beginning, was to present some new and interesting bands. Even though there is space also for the bigger, established acts, the demo bands will always be a vital part of this webzine. At the moment, it seems like Finland is one of the places to be, as finally there are some pretty good acts coming through. One of these is Tyfon’s Doom, a one man project who just put out their second recording “Yeth Hound”.  Continue reading →

RAVENSIRE: Unleashing the beast

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For me, personally, “The Cycle Never Ends” is one of the most anticipated heavy metal releases of 2016. I love the raw, barbaric sounds of Ravensire, and I thought the songwriting on their previous effort “We March Forward” was rock solid. So good in fact, that I awarded the album with a 85/100 rating here at Metal Squadron, which in turn led to a place on my top five-list for 2013. So, is the new album worth the wait and the anticipation? For sure, “The Cycle Never Ends” is another highlight of pure and crushing heavy metal, at least as good as it’s predecessor. Guitarist and main songwriter Nuno Mordred was happy to answer all our questions. 

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ICE WAR: Not a Strat-metal band

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Ice War

With no less than four (!) new releases, Ice War, a one man project by Joe Capitalicide, formerly of Iron Dogs, has really made a mark on the start of 2016. One 7” as well as three different tapes are the physical formats available so far, all released on different labels. Just as the split of Iron Dogs after two well received full length releases, this seems to be a little confusing. We spoke to Joe to get all the necessary information on his new project.   Continue reading →

MORTALICUM: Consistent deliverer of doom

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With “Eyes Of The Demon”, their fourth full lenght release, Mortalicum from Sundsvall in Sweden confirms their position as one of the more reliable doom/heavy rock outfits out there. We got in contact with bass player Patrick Backlund to get all the lastest on the Swedes who had their last album released on Metal On Metal towards the end of last year. We also managed to get a small update on Patrick’s other band, Quicksand Dream.  Continue reading →

VULTURES VENGEANCE: The first step

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Towards the end of last year I got the chance to listen to “Rising”, the debut demo from Vultures Vengeance, an Italian band dealing in surprisingly heavy, obscure and dark metal. A really nice surprise, and something different from all the retro acts occupied by trying to replicate the sound and feeling of the NWOBHM as perfect as possible. More or less the whole band got together to answer my questions, for what is one of the first (if not the first) attempt at an in depth interview with the Italians.  Continue reading →

LETHAL STEEL: Harsh and heavy

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Just like they did last year, with Trial, High Roller is once again supplying us with one of the early highlights of the new year. This time the band in question is Lethal Steel, and the album is called “Legion Of The Night”. Even though the band has existed for something like five years now, this is the debut album from the Swedes. Metal Squadron spoke to guitarist Johan Frick to get all the background info on what is yet another very promising heavy metal act from Sweden. 

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BLACK OATH: A totally different approach

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Black Oath!

Italy’s Black Oath is a band that I feel haven’t really got the attention they truly deserve. Their 2013 release “Of Qliphoth And Darkness” was a fine piece of melodic doom metal, gaining a lot of playing time at my house. The band’s new album, “To Below And Beyond” was released on CD-format last month, and shows a more diverse sound, keeping the best parts from the past, and adding some new and fresh elements which give even more diversity and dynamics to the songs. Vocalist and nowadays also bass player A. Th gave us a pretty interesting update on the band. Continue reading →

WARLOK: A form of escape and exploration

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Warlok who? you might ask. If it was spelled with a “c”, I am pretty sure everyone would have known that we were in for a piece on the now defunct German act fronted by Doro, but Warlok is something completely different. As it is now, this one man project has released a demo, available on tape only so far, through Swords And Chains. As a writer you’ll often wonder which band member will turn up to answer your questions, in this case it was no other choice than let Matt Edwards do the talking.

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HORACLE: A kind of magic

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Promo Shoot

Most of the time I try to help the bands by having the interview published when their new album is released, but when it comes to Belgium’s Horacle, things turned out a bit differently. An agreement to do this piece was in place several months ago, but I really struggled to find the time to finish my questions. Luckily, everything came together in the end, and singer Terry Fire as well as bass player L. Sabathan did a pretty good job by answering my questions.  Continue reading →

STEELWING: A fresh start

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After a flying start with the debut album ”Lord Of The Wasteland” and a chance to perform at Keep It True in 2010, things looked really bright for Steelwing. Unfortunately, the follow up, “Zone Of Alienation” wasn’t as strong, and things seemed  slow down a bit for the young Swedes.  I hooked up with guitarist Alex Vega, and ask him if he feels things took off a bit too fast with the debut… Continue reading →

MAGIC CIRCLE: Good music promotes itself

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With their self titled debut, Magic Circle from Massachusetts in the US, managed to gain a lot of interest in doom and traditional heavy metal-circles almost three years ago. It didnt make things less interesting when three of the same musicans released the brilliant Stone Dagger-demotape later the same year. Metal Squadron hooked up with with Magic Circle’s Chris Corry to discuss the band’s mighty fine new opus “Journey Blind.  Continue reading →

PLAYLIST: Week 47

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1. BLACK OATH ”To Below And Beyond” (Doomentia)cover

– Fellow Italians challenge Adramelch for most beautiful album of the year. Magic doom metal!

2. MAGIC CIRCLE “Journey Blind” (20 Buck Spin)

– Different from the debut. Has an early nineties Trouble-vibe. Some killer riffs here! Continue reading →

RAM: Back From The Dead

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RAm-bruk

I had a long chat with RAMs singer Oscar Carlquist around the release of “Death”, back in early 2012. One year later, RAM was on a hiatus and the future of the band was in doubt. After some serious thinking, the members decided to continue, and the new album “Svbversvm”, out through Metal Blade at the end of October, is the result of what the Swedes have been up to since. Oscar is once again the one picking up the phone when I call to get all the necessary info about what seems like a turbulent period in the history of the band. Continue reading →

BLACK TRIP: A Malcolm rather than an Angus

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Black Trip turned a lot of people’s heads with their awesome debut album, “Going Under”. In this lengthy interview with main man Peter Stjärnvind you’ll get most of the details on the material that constituted the first album, songs that Peter had been working on for years on his own, before he had a real band to play with. Of course you’ll also get all the essential details on the brand new album “Shadowline”, which is more of a band effort, with most of the members involved in the songwriting.

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MAGISTER TEMPLI: “We want to sound underground”

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The statistics really speak for themselves. So far I’ve done something like a hundred interviews for Metal Squadron, and Magister Templi is only the second one conducted with a Norwegian band. Okay, so a real traditional metal scene never existed in this country, apart from a few bands during the eighties, but seeing how our neighbours in Sweden produce one great band after the other, its really a mystery why something decent can’t come out of Norway anymore. Magister Templi has already shown a lot of promise with their first few releases, the EP “Iao Sabao!” and the full length “Lucifer Leviathan Logos”, but their brand new one “Into Duat” is definitely a step up in my opinion.
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STEREO NASTY: Do or die

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In a time where the majority of new heavy metal-acts seem to rehash NWOBHM or mid eighties European metal, it’s refreshing to hear a band like Stereo Nasty. They might not be bringing anything new to the table either, but the mix of heavy metal with and powerful hard rock, is so seldomly done these days that the promo the band sent me really stood out. I caught up guitarist Adrian Foley to get the full story on this promising Irish newcomer. Continue reading →

LUNAR SHADOW: Shadows are spreading

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Lunar Shadow

While things are on the rise again now when we’re closing in on the autumn, this summer was pretty quiet when it came to new and interesting releases. One band that caught my attention was the German newcomer Lunar Shadows who put out a promising EP all on their own. A couple of spins was enough for me, the pure metal sound was right up my alley. I didn’ t hesitate and contacted the band’s main man Max “Savage” Birbaum who acted very professionally and put a lot of effort into answering my questions.

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ZODIAC: No bullshit heavy metal

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IMG_2378A few of you have probably noticed the stream of the excellent new EP “Stone Command” by Zodiac, the heavy/doom metal outfit from Brisbane, Australia. If you haven’t checked out those three tracks yet, go here and listen to them straight away. The EP is also just released on tape by the ever reliable Heavy Chains, if you prefer to have it on some kind of physical format.  I guess there are more people than me who don’t know a lot about this promising act, so I hooked up with a couple of the members, mainly guitarist Leo, but singer Ben also popped in with a few answer, to learn about the past, present and future in the Zodiac-camp.

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ZODIAC: Full EP streaming

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zodaicHeavy Chains is one of my favorite  labels. Tarot, Dracula, Outcast and Eldorado are just some of the excellent acts associated with this label, but it doesn’t stop there. A few of you might be familiar with Australia’s Zodiac through their 2013 demo tape, but if not, this is your chance to get to know this Brisbane-based act. Will from Heavy Chains was kind enough to let me stream the band’s forthcoming EP. Check out these excellent songs  for yourself, and remember to grab a copy of the tape when it’s out.
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