With “Odalheim”, Swedish death metal pioneers UNLEASHED not only presented the successor of “As Yggdrasil Trembles” in the year 2012, but also continued telling their post-doomsday story, of course embedded into the Norse mythology.
After the mighty world tree Yggdrasil had trembled and rung in the end of the world, Fimbul winter followed: Three years of darkness and coldness, during which Mother Nature took back what was rightfully hers. This caused the end of life as we know it. Ragnarök. But the warriors who’ve survived will build a new world out of the old one’s ashes.
Right here, the story of “Odalheim” begins.
With “Odalheim”, the Swedes released their eleventh studio album. Once more, the mighty line up consisting of Johnny (bass& vocals), Fredrik (lead guitar), Tomas (rhythm guitar) and Anders (drums) has created a multifarious and hymnal album in typical UNLEASHED manner. “Odalheim” was produced by Fredrik Folkare and recorded in the Swedish Chrome Studios.
Re-telling the history of this legendary band shouldn’t be necessary. If it is, here’s the short version: Johnny Hexlund (bass & vocals) gathered the wild horde in 1989 after the end of the legendary underground death metal combo NIHILIST (the other band members remaining founded ENTOMBED). Since the release of the debut album “Where No Life Dwells” in 1991, UNLEASHED class among the most influential bands of the whole scene and every faithful death metal fan should have seen them live more than once, for example on tour with DEATH, MORBID ANGEL, AT THE GATES CANNIBAL CORPSE, ENTOMBED and SAMAEL, just to name a few! Nine more studio records followed and all of them made history. Special emphasis has to be put on the eternal classics – the masterpiece “Shadows In The Deep” (1992) and the glorious comeback album “Hell’s Unleashed” that followed ten years later and proved impressively that the men around Johnny Hedlund were as belligerent as ever.