Category Archives: Long Distance Runners

ENFORCER: Always be inspired

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Enforcer2015b.jpg-kristian ekeblom

I’ve done several features on Enforcer for Scream Magazine, the last one, done around the time of the release of the last album, “Death By Fire”, turned out to be a pretty extensive interview, spread out over three pages in the February-issue back in 2013. Why am I mentioning this? Just because if you miss something in this brand new feature, it’s most likely because I’ve covered it before. So, the main focus here is “From Beyond”, the brand new album. Nevertheless, singer and nowadays also guitarist, Olof Wikstrand turned up pretty inspired for this chat, resulting in an article well worth reading for old and new fans of the Swedish quintet. Continue reading →

WAR DANCE: Hellenic heavy metal

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While everyone seems to be waiting in anticipation for the new album by Sacral Rage, the debut album from War Dance, in a completely different style of course, is also slowly drawing some attention. “Wrath For The Ages” has been out on the reliable Eat Metal records for a few weeks now, and we got in touch with guitarist and main songwriter Tassos Pananoudakis to get some more information on this act. Continue reading →

VISIGOTH: Heavy metal with a human element

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Visigoth Official 2014So, Visigoth turns out to be the first band featured twice with an interview here at Metal Squadron. As we go into our second year of existence, I guess it’s just natural that a few acts that we have featured before, pops up again. While the band had just released the cool EP “The Final Spell”,when we last featured them, they’ve now taken a step further and is ready to unleash their first full length releases onto the masses. We hooked up with singer Jake Rogers to get all the essential details on Visigoth’s Metal Blade debut. Enjoy! Continue reading →

SATAN’S HOST: The gears of hell grind fast

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Satan's Host PDG Promo 01
It’s been a turbulent three decades years for Colorado’s Satan’s Host. After the cult classic ”Metal From Hell” (1986) the band dissolved to fade into obscurity before guitarist Patrick Evil resurrected the band in the late 1990’s to churn out some pretty extreme black metal albums for the next decade to come. Following the unexpected return of original singer Harry Conklin in 2010 Satan’s Host again chose the left hand path and have released three slabs of death/black metal style music held together by Conklin’s clean but powerful air raid siren. 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 →

UNDERGROUND: Slovenian metal

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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 →

DEMON BITCH: “We love heavy metal”

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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 →

THE DAGGER: “How we think it should sound”

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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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DARKEST ERA: This or death

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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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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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WALPYRGUS: Make it darker

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There are guys in this business who are some of the nicest people you would ever meet. I remember Keep It True VIII back in 2007 when Twisted Tower Dire peformed. It was my first time at the festival, and one of the people i bumped into was Scott from Twisted Tower Dire. I guess I went up to him and introduced myself as I had just done a phone interview with him for Scream Magazine which I worked for back then. You could really feel that Scott appreciated it, and neither me or my friend left before Scott had given us each a Twisted Tower Dire-shirt . A really nice gesture from a really nice guy. Continue reading →

AMBUSH: Born out of frustration

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Doing interviews is quite similar to most other things in life, it doesn’t hurt to have some experience. It’s a good thing for the interviewer, and it’s definitely a good thing for the bands. Ambush from Växjo in Sweden clearly doesn’t have a lot of experience doing interviews, resulting in this phone conversation being a little too predictable. Of course, the problem could just as well be my questions being a little too boring and leaving little room for exciting answers.  Continue reading →

CLOVEN ALTAR: Metal in the Blood

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Cloven altar-artwork Stormspell seems to be capturing a lot of the up and coming demo acts these days.  One reason might be that Iordan is good at keeping up with what’s happening in the scene, but I guess it also comes down to the fact that he has earned a reputation for helping smaller bands and projects before some of them have moved on to bigger and better (?) things. Cloven Altar, the brainchild of Dustin Altar, is about to unleash their self titled, three track EP through Stormspell, and as always, we were curious to know as many details as possible. Continue reading →

PORTRAIT: Not Dead Yet

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A late evening in 2007, a Saturday I believe, and as dark as only a late November-evening can be here in Norway. Portrait has entered a small stage in Oslo to perform tracks off their demo “Welcome To My Funeral”, their seven inch “Into Nothingness” and a couple of tasters off what is gonna become their first full lenght, released in about half a year’s time. Even though there is clearly some potential to be heard, the peformance leaves a lot to be desired, both vocally as well as instrumentally. I catch myself thinking that a lot of work and some member changes will need to happen before the band is ready for the next step. An evening, six and a half years later (the darkness is still there, if you wonder), one of two surviving members from that pitch black November night, the guitarist Christian Lindell gives me a call to talk about Portrait’s brand new, third album, “Crossroads”. Continue reading →