In the battle over the best types of metal, it’s always the ones you least expect. Thrash metal is too loud and brash to be ignored; death metal never shuts up if you have had enough Duolingo to understand which viscera the Cookie Monster growling/lusting over. Some you can avoid altogether if you avoid certain areas: Black metal is a fairly quiet if you are outside of forests; ditto for sludge and swamps. Doom and psych are seemingly everywhere and nowhere at the same time, a whiff of green smoke in the distance. The one you’re never safe from is heavy metal. Serving both as a cornerstone to nearly every metallic mutation and a “guilty” pleasure to even the kvlt-iest amongst our ranks, wherever there is leather, a party, a Maiden, or a Priest, heavy metal can strike. It’s almost like an Ambush, an apt name for the sneakily stellar Swedes herein. Evil in All Dimensions even comes with an album cover that screams vengeance (and a little Eddie). The secret to the band’s success isn’t quite as obvious on first listen, where you’re treated to the tightest songwriting this side of Judas Priest or The Scorpions: it’s friendship as vocalist Oskar Jakobsson shares:
“The fact that we as band members foremost are friends, shines through in the music and especially live on stage. Back when we started the group in 2013, we had quite humble ambitions and just wanted to play real traditional heavy metal, have some fun and drink beer together. We were often rehearsing while partying together with our friends in Växjö and quite early on we understood that people seemed to like what we did and that inspired us to write more songs and to try to release a demo tape. Even though ideas may vary and opinions sometimes clinch, deep inside we all know that we respect each other no matter what. That makes it easier for Ambush to have heated conversations here and there [laughs]. The record we played the most in the rehearsal ‘coffee breaks’ was Defenders of the Faith by Judas Priest. I have a dim memory of our guitarist Olof who for whatever reason punched the plaster wall in the rehearsal room to pieces to the tones of ‘Rock Hard Ride Free.’ We had to fix the wall as the landlord noticed a couple of days later [laughs].”
Evil in All Dimensions is out on Friday, and you can preorder it from Napalm Records. Follow Ambush on Facebook and Instagram for future updates.
Photo courtesy of Ambush
