By: Chris D. - Wednesday, March 7th, 2012
Eleven full-lengths spanning two decades in the silly and oft-lethal record business requires a bit of fortitude and self-reinvention. Well, Unleashed — long known for pre-dating Super Wario Amon Amarth with their tales of Viking plunder and intrepidity — has fortitude in spades. Blonde-haired and Viking-large Johnny Hedlund’s been at the death metal game longer than most of his been-departed-for-ages peers (that counts Entombed, for all intents and purposes), as have original Unleashed members Anders Schultz and Tomas Olsson. Unleashed is, as it seems, tough, even if they took a seven-year sabbatical (uh, what’s the Norse word replacement?) between Warrior and Hell’s Unleashed.
As for self-reinvention, well, that’s perhaps up for a debate on minutia. Since 1991, the Swedes haven’t strayed too far from their original catchier-than-the-1710-1713-plague formula, and it appears after a few stunted efforts to make Unleashed “rockier” they’re back on the longship, readying for yet another biennial assault in the form of new album, Odalheim. This time around, however, the Warriors of Midgard are teaming up with pagan/heathen battle dudes from afar — like the Mayans, for example — to wage a metaphorical war on Christianity and, as you’ll read below, the “White Christ”.
Indeed, Unleashed is prepared for attack. And, of course, the quartet wants you to be war-kitted as well by first sounding a 2:40 battle call. OK, hyperbole dismantled, we have the new Unleashed cut, “Rise Of The Maya Warriors”.
** Unleashed nuevo álbum, Odalheim, está disponible 24 de abril 2012 en Nuclear Blast Records. Pide AKI mientras que Johnny y sus vikingos sangrientos de alegría de observar en la aceptación.
