Unleashed
Hammer Battalion

One might debate the choice of the Unleashed to remain staunchly committed and bound to a particular sound, but it is necessary, as well as professionally correct, to acknowledge how Johnny Hedlund's band has indeed contributed to the birth of this sonic form and has passed it down through the years (we're approaching twenty now) with ultimate dedication and consistency, yet avoiding repeating themselves for the mere purpose of publishing records to feed ravenous beasts. Beasts that feed on death metal, which is not only Swedish (such is the group's origin), but first and foremost Viking and battle-hardened, doubly locked within a cage made of ancestral traditions and Nordic mythologies.

All this contributes to creating the Unleashed identity, an identity never scratched and never abandoned, not even when their activity was interrupted between 1997 and 2002, because theirs is firstly a faith, a project that is not destined to ride any wave of temporary or ephemeral success and least of all to last the span of a season, as the goal is immortality through a ritualistic proposition of musical forms that spring from the soul and aim for the attainment of Valhalla. And it is from this perspective that "Hammer Battalion" (the title already speaks volumes) should be viewed, as, for example, compared to the previous "Midvinterblot," it recovers a more uniform dimension, given that the language spoken is almost exclusively death metal, with a few thrash restarts and some passages bordering on the brutal, gaining in monolithic and warrior dimension.

They believe in it and will never give an inch. They must be respected and, in some ways, safeguarded; after all, they themselves claim: "Our music is a way of life."