LORD FIST - Wilderness of Hearts LP HRR 776, ltd 500, 150 x black, 150 x olive green + 200 x transparent purple vinyl, lyricsheet Perttu Koivunen - Vocals & Guitars Niko Kolehmainen - Guitars Pekka Lampinen - Bass Eetu Orbinski - Drums 01 First Morning - Collapse 02 Arkona Cross II 03 Wings Drawn in Our Minds 04 Flying Over Tiprinith 05 Moonhalo (Instrumental) 06 Sisters 07 Princess of the Red Flame 08 Aurorae 09 Tigers of Snow 10 Wilderness of Hearts black vinyl SOLD OUT! green + purple vinyl LAST COPIES!

When Perttu Koivunen and Niko Kolehmainen founded Lord Fist in 2011, they quickly gained momentum within barely half a decade, releasing one demo, EP and album respectively while teaching club audiences in their native country Finland that metal doesn’t need any saccharine additives to make you get high on it. However, five years had to pass before their much-lauded debut “Green Eyleen” received its due successor, but now the Finns take us along into their “Wilderness of Hearts” – hearts they are wearing upon their not necessarily spike-studded, proverbial sleeves. Having built exceptional rapport with their earliest fans, the quartet practically wrote new songs in constant exchange with them. “I realised that the concept of ‘Green Eyleen’ originated from my subconscious,” explains guitarist and singer Perttu, “so as the new album was taking shape, the lyrics fell into place naturally as well. I wrote about real-life events, which I knitted together with what I’d seen in my dreams into something drifting away from ourselves.” Within the framework of NWoBHM-inspired steel, this means Lord Fist set to music a regained awareness of their place as living beings on Earth. As for their role on Planet Metal, their uplifting, forward-pushing style may lend itself to that of their countrymen Nightstryke, Legionnaire or Angel Sword – yet excels in that the frontman his six-string counterpart Niko display an astounding inventiveness when crafting melodies and structuring songs that, strangely enough, don’t swerve one iota from the traditional path. “We came up with this style of music by listening to many different genres,” highlights Kolehmainen. “There are lots of guitar parts in our tunes because we had so many ideas that needed to get out. Those moments during rehearsal when something is made ‘on the spot’ and gets played were priceless. It happened without much stress or anything like that; you simply felt a rush coursing through your entire body and ripping the brain chemistry!” And a ripper it is: Straight and fast fare like ‘Wings Drawn In Our Minds’ is flanked by the playful swagger of ‘Sisters’, which boasts a plethora of tempo changes within not even four minutes, and the almost progressive instrumental ‘Moonhalo’, resulting in a record that does not only sound classic but is destined to become one. Andreas Schiffmann