LETHAL STEEL - Running from the Dawn MLP HRR 726, ltd 500, 200 x black, 150 x transparent blood red + 150 x transparent milky clear vinyl, lyric sheet Viktor Gustafsson - Vocals Isak Rosemarin - Lead Guitar Valentin Papp - Rhythm Guitar Totte Thyrhaug - Bass Leo Ekström - Drums 01 Weekday Refugee 02 Stay Away 03 Ge Allt 04 City of Sin AVAILABLE

In 2012 Lethal Steel from Sweden issued their first demo (with a circulation of only 50 copies) and started playing some smaller venues in their home country. Guitarist Johan Frick explained a few years back: “The demo was recorded at Fryshuset during a couple of weeks in May 2012. We recorded it all by ourselves. 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’.” Lethal Steel went on to sign a deal with High Roller Records and issued their debut album »Legion Of The Night« in 2016. “I felt the reactions from the press were mostly very positive, more positive criticism than we first believed the album would get,” describes vocalist Viktor Gustafsson the press reactions to their first album. “From the fans the reactions were incredible, we really appreciate that so many people like our music and also the possibilities that this gives us to play live gigs and travel to places we otherwise wouldn’t travel to.” »Running From The Dawn« is the name of the band’s new EP featuring four new songs. That's a gap of four long years between »Legion Of The Night« and »Running From The Dawn«, why that? “Many reasons,” explains Gustafsson. “First of all we had a couple of line-up changes along the way, Jonte and Johan choose to go down other paths musically, with Jonte joining Enforcer and Johan joining Night Viper. Then Valle and Edvin Aftonfalk (guitarist of Morbus Chron etc.) played a couple of gigs with us. After that Edvin droped off and we went quiet with rehearsing and playing live for a while. At the end of 2018 we started to talk about writing new material and the idea of this EP was born. Isak joined the band and at the end of September 2019 the EP was ready for mix and master. We were playing live a lot in 2016 and did a tour early that summer. Afterwards it’s been more rare, because of th line-up changes I have just mentioned. But now we will seek to start playing live more, and get started with some more creative action in the band.” “I would say mostly the vocal structures are the biggest difference between »Legion Of The Night« and »Running From The Dawn«,” Viktor Gustafsson continues. “I believe we’ve written songs more fitting for my style of singing. Otherwise the songs are pretty much built in the same way, with fast riffs and pounding drums.” "Ge Allt" from »Running From The Dawn« is once again a song sung in Swedish (Lethal Steel had one on the first record as well). Not a lot of bands from the traditional first wave of Swedish metal bands in the late 1970s/early 1980s had Swedish lyrics... Viktor Gustafsson explains: “Not too many, that’s correct. But quiet a few of the underground bands like Jonah Quizz, Reflex and Onyx worked with Swedish lyrics. I think this gives a vibe to the songs that is hard to reach when you sing in English.” In the entire world Sweden probably has the highest number of new metal bands per inhabitant. Why is that? Is metal an important youth culture in Sweden? In Germany for example metal fans tend to be much older than in Sweden…Viktor does have a logical explanation: “It has been more common in our generation anyway. When we grew up, there were big gangs of people listening to metal in parks and such, the younger generations don’t seem to be as interested though. But hopefully this trend will be put to an end.” Matthias Mader