SLINGBLADE - s/t 7 HRR 136, limited to 500 copies, 150 x clear/ black/ white splatter vinyl + 350 x black vinyl Kristina Karlsson - Vox Johan Berg - Lead Guitar Linnéa Olsson - Rhythm Guitar Niclas Svensson - Bass Peter Henriksson - Drums -Can`t Get Enough -Until Death Do You Part SOLD OUT!

Slingblade from the lovely city of Stockholm have just released their debut 7" single for High Roller Records (with "Can't get enough" on the A-side and "Until Death do us part" on the B-side). As the band does feature two female members (namely Linnea of Sonic Ritual on guitar and Kristina on vocals), it is no wonder Slingblade sometimes get lumped in with all-female or at least partly female acts. Band founder Johan Berg takes this with a lot of humor: “They are not females, they are transsexuals. If we are gonna be mixed with anyone, it's gonna be all-transsexual acts.” The Girlschool comparisms are not valid for him either: “Girlschool is a great band but I don't think we sound a bit like them. We have been writing approximately ten new songs and if you listen to those songs, you would problaby hear early German Metal influences.” Johan continues: “There are no such things as female bands, just bands. Our biggest influence is all the great stuff from the early ‘80’s. Like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Saxon, Accept, Scorpions and so on.” This is how Slingblade was actually formed: “Me and the singer Kristina played in a band called Rio Grande. After Rio broke up we had the yearning to play heavier music. I was at the time listening to a lot of ‘80's Heavy Metal/Hardrock stuff and had a few riffs that were going around in my head. After a wet night with a lot of beer, we decided to form the band Slingblade. Slingblade is quite a new band and we have only done one gig so far. After we did that gig and recorded two songs, we got the offer to play at the Muskelrock festival. We decided not to do anymore gigs before that and concentrate on doing more songs. Now we are ready to play anywhere, it would be great to play in Germany.” Sweden has been a good breeding ground for Heavy Metal bands over the last 30 years. Is there something in the water in Sweden, or in the beer, I wanted to know from Johan? He says: “I think it's something in the water that you brew beer on. Sweden has a long history of good music I think, not just Metal/Stoner/Hardrock. There are a lot of good musicians in Sweden and it's a quite small country. So when something is getting popular the word spreads fast.” The Metal scene in downtown Stockholm is a different matter though, as Johan explains: “There is no distinct Metal scene in Stockholm I would say. There are of course several great Metal acts that have been around for a while but they are mostly in the DeathMetal/Progressive Metal genres. Then you have the thousands of young Sleaze/Hair Metal bands that are all over the place in Stockholm. The old school Heavy Metal scene is more a countryside phenomena. All the great Heavy Metal bands that are popping up at the moment seem to be more from small cities around Sweden – or if they pop up in Stockholm, they consist of countryside people, like us. I would say Slingblade is filling a void in the Metal scene in Stockholm.” One of the all-time greatest Heavy Metal bands from Sweden, at least in my humble opinion, are Heavy Load (from Solna, a district of Stockholm). They have not made an attempt at a comeback and they have not played a single re-union show. It seems as if they would like to keep their name as the kings of Swedish Metal untarnished. But how are people in Sweden judging Heavy Load nowadays? Johan closes: “For many hardcore Metal heads here in Sweden Heavy Load are still gods. They were the Metal pioneers, before them there was no Swedish Metal worth mentioning. I saw their first record here in my local record store, they charged 1,500 kr (150 Euros) for that one. I have no idea what happend with them. I quickly met their bass player in the same record store, a very mysterious man.” Matthias Mader