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The reservoir of new Swedish Metal bands seems to be just endless. Hot on the trails of High Roller recording artists Dead Lord, Humbucker and Heavy Tiger there is Ambush. Oskar Jacobsson (vocals), Olof Engkvist (guitars), Adam Hagelin (guitars), Ludwig Sjöholm (bass) and Linus Fritzson (drums) have all played in other bands before Ambush. “We were a close gang of friends so it felt natural to play together when the opportunity presented itself,” remarks drummer Linus. He continues: “We were sitting in a basement and shared a couple of beers, listening to old school heavy metal. In the middle of all joviality, we somehow felt nostalgic and a bit frustrated that various new productions could not measure up to the old pure masterpieces. We decided to do something about it and as a result, Ambush was born.” Well done, lads! In August 2013, Ambush issued their first demo tape (forming the basis for their deal with High Roller Records). The current 7" single »Natural born Killers« (with “Heading East” on the B-Side) is a taster for the band's full-length album due to be out on High Roller in spring 2014. “The two tracks on the single sum up the feel and the sound of the upcoming album well. We think it's a very strong album and these two particular songs give you a great idea of what is to come,” summons up Linus. As mentioned above, it's hard to overlook how much new heavy metal talent there is in Sweden at the moment. Of course, like with the whole Scandinavian Street Rock 'n' Roll scene (the originators being Turbo Negro, Gluecifer and the Backyard Babies), there might come the point of oversaturation. Linus Frizson does not fear such a scenario: “It's great that there's a lot of good bands out there representing Sweden but we don't see them as competition. We're focusing on our own music and what we do to make the 'Ambush sound' as personal as possible. The music that we make doesn't, in our opinion, have an expiration date. Whether it comes from Sweden or not doesn't matter as long as it is good heavy metal.” Stylistically, Ambush are not miles away from current Swedish bands like RAM and Enforcer but they're far from being mere copycats as Linus explains: “They are both great bands with similarities to our music but we try to keep our style and sound as pure and unique as possible. We play our heavy metal hard, raw, melodic and with a touch of evil. The primary influence comes from early 1980's heavy metal (of course there are no synthesizers).” So you better watch out: Ambush could be the next big thing from Sweden! Matthias Mader |