If you dive into the archive section of this site, something I strongly recommend you to do as there is a lot to read there, you can already find three interviews I did with Eternal Champion in the past. The first one was published right after the band released their demo, while I spoke to the guys again when they did the split release with Gatekeeper back in 2015. The last time I hooked up with the band was of course when the put out their debut album, the mighty “The Armor Of Ire” was hot off the press back in the autumn of 2016. Like always, singer Jason Tarpey is the one answering my ques ..read more

After a couple of albums that didnt’t do that much to me, “Win Hands Down” was a fine return to form from Armored Saint, one of the real veterans of the Los Angeles-scene. As I didn’t get a chance to speak with the band back then, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands when the band’s record label, Metal Blade offered me the chance to chat with bass player Joey Vera. What are his feelings about the previous album “Win Hands Down” about five years after it was released? – I think it was really great, and I am proud of the record. It’s a good representation of the band and like all of our re ..read more

A new Cirith Ungol-album, their first in nearly 30 years, simply can’t go unnoticed here at Metal Squadron. I called drummer and original member Robert Garven to get all the details on the long awaited comeback from what must be considered as one of the founding acts of epic heavy metal. Robert, when Cirith Ungol disolved you said that you would never touch the drumsticks again. What made you reconsider? – Well, you know, I was pretty firm on that. And I never thought that we would ever get back together. And that’s why Greg (Lindstrom) and I put out “Servants Of Chaos” on Metal Blade, with a ..read more

When old bands reunite, and especially those who never advanced from the demo stage back then, it often ends with one album, fueled by a succesful festival apperance or something similar. Sweden’s Sorcerer has now delievered three albums since the band reformed, and it doesn’t seem like it will stop here. We have covered the band when they released both previous albums, “In The Shadow Of The Inverted Cross”, and “The Crowning Of The Fire King”, and just like last time, singer Anders Engberg is the one faced with the task of answering our questions.  He seemed really proud of  “The Cr ..read more

Showing great consistency on their recordings, Dark Forest, has slowly, but surely grown into one of my favourite acts formed in the new millennium. Their new album is called “Ash, Oak & Thorn” and continues what has become almost a tradition now by delivering classic heavy metal with exceptional guitars, kind of laidback and mellow vocals and some really fantastic melodies. Since we covered most of the history of the band on previous occasions, in extensive interviews you can find here and here, this one is a bit shorter than usual, focusing mainly on the new album out now on Cruz ..read more

“III” is the title of the brand new album by the Greek/Italian constellation Dexter Ward, an album that sees the band venturing into music as well as lyrics that are even more epic than before. As Metal Squadron did back when the band released their second album, “Rendezvous With Destiny”  in 2016, we once more hooked up with singer Mark Dexter for a chat about the what’s happened in the camp since then. “III” is out since a couple of weeks. What excites you most thinking about the release of the album?                                                                                    – I gu ..read more

  I have had the chance to speak to Niklas Stålvind, singer and guitarist in Wolf a few times already, but a quick search through the archives here at Metal Squadron reveals that none of those interviews are to be found here. Well, time to do something about it, as the band just released a new album “Feeding The Machine”. The following interview was also the title story in the March edition of Scream Magazine. Niklas, if you look back at your last album, «Devil’s Seed», how do you view that album today both as an album standing on its own as well as a part of the Wolf-discography? – After ..read more

With the album “Poltergeist”, released earlier this year through Pure Steel, Mindless Sinner has really upped their game. The album is a big improvement on its predecessor. I made an appointment with singer Christer Göransson and phoned him to get some details about both the past, present and future. The band went under some other names before you settled for the moniker you are using today, why did the name become Mindless Sinner in the early eigthies? – We started out as Purple Haze in 1981 and then we changed the name to Genocide after the Judas Priest song. Then after a year, or a year a ..read more

Having an archive with close to 200 interviews without a single feature on Portugal’s Ironsword is a fucking tragedy. It must have been Tann himself who sent me the 1998 promo tape for a review in Scream Magazine more than 20 years ago, and even though I have loved all their album since the self titled debut, I believe this is the very first time I have spoken to the man who is certainly one of the best songwriters of the European heavy metal scene for the last two decades.  “Servants Of Steel” is the title of the new album, and Tann is the man answering all the questions. How do you view you ..read more

Being a bit too young to experience the release of Angel Witch’s self titled debut, the band’s material still made a huge impact on me when I bought the vinyl version of “Angel Witch Live” at my local store when it was released through Metal Blade back in February 1990. It might have been the mystical cover art that convinced me, I can’t recall having heard anything from the band, not even the song “Angel Witch”, but as I listened to the album, songs like “Angel Of Death”, “White Witch”, “Sorceress” and “Atlantis” to name only a few, really impressed me. In retrospect, these songs fueled my i ..read more