Author Archives: leifkringen

TRIAL: An early highlight

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trial-photo3When you listen to the band’s first demo and compare it to the new album, “Vessel” set to be released in January, it’s easy to hear that the band has improved massively over the course of four or five years. The band has a much stronger identity these days, and the songwriting is so improved that I sometimes have a hard time understanding we’re talking about the same band. Even though 2015 hasn’t started yet, I am pretty sure “Vessel” will end up in my top 15 when it’s time to make that list again in a year’s time.

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PLAYLIST: Week 49

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1. KENN NARDI “Dancing With The Past” (Tribunal)a2088355485_10

– 28(!) songs that sounds like a natural follow up to the last Anacrusis-album. Monumental and emotional.

2. TRIAL ”Vessel”(High Roller)

– A band that is still growing, still improving. Close to dark heavy metal perfection! Continue reading →

AIR RAID: Full armed heavy metal

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AirRadi-Bandpic_2I have always been quite impressed by Sweden’s Air Raid, a band that arrived seemingly out of nowhere with their cool EP “Danger Ahead” back in the spring of 2012 and followed up with the full length “Night Of The Axe” towards the end of the next year. Both releases were put out by the great Stormspell Records, by the way. Continue reading →

RIOT V: The fifth chapter

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2 RIOT V Promo Photo 2 by Chris Del Grande PRINTI was lucky to do an extensive interview with Mark Reale in the wake of the release of “Immortal Soul” back in the autumn of 2011. While he seemed quite weak and fragile already then, he was very optimistic. It’s an interview I will always remember, even if I’ve done hundreds throughout the years. Just a few months later, Mark passed away, only 56 years old. Continue reading →

MAUSOLEUM GATE: Heavy metal with seventies influences

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mausoleumgate-photo3Finland’s Mausoleum Gate is the latest in a line of bands trying to do their own thing rather than just copying the NWOBHM, which has already been the flavor of the month, for some time now. Their self titled, debut album has just been unleashed onto the metalheads longing for some really obscure metal influenced by acts from both the seventies and eighties. We spoke to guitarist Count La Fey about most things related to Mausoleum Gate. In short: the past, present and future. Enjoy! Continue reading →

SOLITARY SABRED: Meddling with witches

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Solitary SabredI have to admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of “The Hero, The Monster, The Myth”, Solitary Sabred’s debut album from 2009. In fact, I kind of forgot about the band until I heard one track from “Prelude To Redemption”, the two track promo released in 2012. The rough mix of “Burn Magic, Black Magic” really raised my expectations for the announced full lenght, and when I finally got my hands on “Redemption Through Force” a month or so ago, I was by no means disappointed. Simply a great album of US metal sounding steel forged in Cyprus. 

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OUTCAST: “Good things come to those who wait”

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outcastVery few releases this year, have blown me away like Outcast’s self titled did. For me, this EP, so far only released on tape, is one of the best releases of 2014, perhaps even the best one. I grabbed the phone to talk to the main man Chris Fong, currently living in Oslo, Norway, for what I believe is the first interview ever with one of the finest newcomers of 2014. Continue reading →

PLAYLIST: Week 35

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1. OUTCAST “Outcast” (Heavy Chains)outcast - cover

– Working man’s heavy metal with a punk undertone. Great!

2. SOLITARY SABRED ”Redemption Through Force”(Self released)

– A huge step forward from the last album. Very good epic metal.

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UNDERGROUND: Slovenian metal

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Underground-logo

Ever since I heard the demo from Slovenia’s Underground, I wanted to do an interview with the band. In a year were many of the most impressive releases have come from demo acts, the guys managed to stand out with their honest and straight in you face heavy metal-apporach. Continue reading →

STALLION: Rising, mounting and riding

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Stallion must be one of the most talked about German newcomers of the last few years. A demo was recorded in 2013, and received praise from most of those who heard it. However, it was their debut-EP, “Mounting The World”, containing a mixture of heavy metal and hard rock, that really turned people’s heads. The self financed vinyl only release proved to be a real success with the first press selling out rapidly before High Roller entered the picture and made sure a second edition was made available. Continue reading →

TAROT: Not another mystery band

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Tarot logoAustralias’s Tarot is suddenly one of the hottest bands in the very depths of the heavy metal underground.  Very much deserved if you asked me, as both of the tapes the band has put out this year are very impressive. As not a lot is known about Tarot, I once again decided to take matters into own hands. I hooked up with Will (also known from The Wizar’d and Dracula) to get the information needed. Continue reading →

Need your help and feedback!

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Dear all!

I have a lot of people visiting Metal Squadron without signing up for future updates either on Facebook or via mail. If you came here by accident, and this is simply not what you are looking for, please ignore this message, but if you found the site useful and think you might visit the page again, please sign up.  leifkringen_skallelogo_trådkorsversjon_liten

I also strongly encourage people to comment on the reviews and the interviews. It doesn’t take long to leave a few words, either positive or negative. All this will help me a lot during my work to have regular updates and generally improve the site.

You’ll find all the details to the right in your screen, or you could go here:

http://www.facebook.com/metalsquadron

DEMON BITCH: “We love heavy metal”

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Demon bitch1

Demon Bitch’ “Death Is Hanging…” must be one of the overlooked heavy metal releases of the year. I guess it has to do with the fact that it’s only available on tape so far. But come on, there must be others out there who love these songs as much as I do? It’s without a doubt one of the best things put out there this year, and Demon Bitch certainly deserves a lot more attention than they’re getting. As I couldn’t find a lot of information on the band on the internet, I once again took the matter into my own hands, and fortunately singer Logon and guitarist Mars put a lot of effort into answering my questions. Continue reading →

PLAYLIST: Week 29

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1. CROSS VAULT “Spectres of Revocable Loss” (Eyes Like Snow)1601090_1459726670915929_489707947_n

– Huge, slow, melodic and crushing doom metal in the vein of Warning.

2. RANGER “Shock Skull” (Full Contact)

– New 7″ from one of the best  speed metal bands of today, both on stage and on record. Believe they performed both songs at KIT. Continue reading →

STARBLIND: Heavy fucking metal to the world

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Starblind

Of course it makes sense for the independent metal labels to release more than one album at a time. Stormspell is putting out a lot of releases at the moment, and as usual we’re talking about some old stuff being rereleased, but also a few debut albums by up and coming acts. Starblind from Stockholm in Sweden, belongs to the latter category, and the band members all gathered to answer my questions. Continue reading →

THE DAGGER: “How we think it should sound”

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The Dagger1

The Dagger’s self titled debut, out on Century Media later this month is one of the surprises of the year halfway through 2014. Even though I know it consisted only of one self penned demo version (along with a cover version of Quartz’ “Mainline Riders),  the single the band released through High Roller before adding “The” to Dagger, wasn’t able to convince me, but the full lenght is for sure a completely different story.

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Playlist: Week 25

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1. DEMON BITCH “Death Is Hanging…” (Dying Victims)artworks-000080250046-2o1d8b-original

– So far only available on tape.Not that far away from the sound of fellow Detroit-outfit Borrowed Time. Unique vocals and a nod to bands like Mercyful Fate and Helstar too. Four really cool songs!

2. STONE DAGGER “The Siege Of Jerusalem” (Electric Assault)

– With the release of this 7″ inch, finally the tape can get some rest. One of the most promising new epic metal bands for a long time. Believe the hype!

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DARKEST ERA: This or death

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darkestera-photo2

I’ve followed the band that is now called Darkest Era since they were Nemesis and released their self titled demo back in 2006. After a while, a change of bandname became necessary, partly because there were already too many bands peforming under the same monicker. Darkest Era was chosen, and early in 2008 the band’s first release under the name was made available through Germany’s Eyes Like Snow. The title was “The Journey Through Damnation”, an EP containing four songs.

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Playlist: Week 22

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1. DARKEST ERA ”Severance” (Cruz Del Sur)darkest_era_-_severance__large

– Grey and melancholic with more identity than on the first one. Lots of atmosphere and some great melodies too. Interview coming up!

2. THE DAGGER “The Dagger” (Century Media)

– A huge surprise. Very seventies inspired from these (mainly) death metal musicians. Influences ranging from Black Sabbath, via Deep Purple to Judas Priest showing clearly in the material. Interview coming soon.

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NOBLE BEAST: A genre reborn?

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Noble Beast

Even though I haven’t featured many of them here yet, apart from the huge article on Scanner that is, I am a big fan of a lot of fast and melodic stuff from Germany , with bands like Rage, Running Wild, Helloween, Heaven’s Gate, Flanez, first Chroming Rose and Blind Guardian to name a few. However there are years since I heard some new and interesting bands in this genre.

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