Year : 2020
Style : Heavy Metal
Country : Sweden
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 103 mb
Bio:
Neptune is a melodic metal band from Stockholm Sweden.The band started back in 1979. The band recorded an EP 1986 that was released 2018 together with collected demos.In the later part of the 70´s and in the beginning of the 80´s there was a band called Warriens. The band consisted of three guys; Roland on bass, Tommy on drums and Ray played guitar and handled the vocals. They played rock music inspired by the 60´s and were gigging everywhere as much as they could. They started to grow their audience over time and they even won a few music contests.After a while, probably around 80/81, they decided to leave their softer rock-based music in favor of a much heavier style. It was not just the music that was updated to a more 80’s based sound. With the inspiration of big arena band as Judas Priest, Saxon, and Iron Maiden they had a bigger plan.The band’s appearance was much more of a visual appearance as Heavy Load and Manowar with the ancient Nordic masculine Vikings in mind. Hence the name – Neptune.In order to make the visual somewhat clearer, the texts were based on just ancient Nordic stories or tales if you want. With that said, this was a choice made for more than 30 years ago and do not have any political meaning either back then or today. The texts are just stories based on our old Viking history.In the beginning, Ray was managing both guitar and vocals. To give him total freedom to do what he does best, they decided to hire another guitarist – Johnny Östergren. They performed a bunch of gigs during that time. After a while, the band decided that it was time to record their first demo. Robert Wellerfors known for working with Axewitch, Roxette, KSMB, and others were selected as recording technician and producer. Several record companies showed interest in the band and their demo in the era of NWOSHM.Late 2017, something happens that no one really could predict. Johnny showed some old songs for the singer from Narnia – Christian Liljegren. He liked it so much that he shared it further. In one or another way the songs ended up at a record company. A few days later Tommy received a message on Facebook from Janne Stark, who was representing the record company Sonic Age/Cult Metal Classics, specializing in re-releasing recordings and demos from the 80s. Somewhat surprised, Tommy picked up the phone, contacted his old bandmates and told them about the record company’s request to re-release several of their old recordings, both on CD and vinyl. The contract was signed and the CD was in the stores early 2018.The story continues - Late autumn 2017 we met again and even though we only had the release of Land of Northern in mind. Someone said, why not make a video to promote the CD release. Said and done, we booked a warehouse for the purpose. Once we all stood in front of the video camera, a feeling arose that we didn’t felt for over 30 years. The idea of actually pulling the band together for real started to arise in our minds. We started to rehearse our old songs. However, it did not take long before both Johnny and Tommy realized that the time needed to put it to get this to work did not really exist.Ray, Roland, and Anders searched for a new guitarist and a drummer. The choice of drummer fell on an old friend named Jan “Tosh” Andersson who played with Ray and Anders during the 90’s. This new constellation resulted in a re-recording of the songs Keep Us Alive and Dreamer which was released digitally late summer 2018.After these songs were released, Janne stepped down to work on some own unfinished musical projects. Thanks to social media we had once again found another original Neptune drummer from the 80’s – Jonas Wikström. Not long after our first rehearsals with Jonas we found more or less by pure coincidence Anders Lindqvist and Neptune were once again complete and the plans for recording new material and bookings of new gigs were in full swing.
Album:
NEPTUNE is a Swedish Heavy Metal band originally formed in 1980. After going on hiatus in 1987, they reformed in 2017. Forty years after their inception, their first full-length record, Northern Steel, is set to be released November 6, 2020 through Melodic Passion Records. This is a collection of demo songs from their early days, though they sound re-recorded. They production is very good and does not sound like a collection of rough ideas.The record starts off with “The Prophecy”, a quick, one-minute song that sets up a Viking Metal feel with chants and almost tribal drums. This leads into “Viking Stone”, a song that fits in with the intro piece. The next two songs are “Last Man Standing” and “Fallen Nations”. There is definitely a theme on this record, though it is not a concept album. Similar to their Swedish brethren, SABATON, they speak often of battles, just not specific battles, ala SABATON. While they are similar in lyrical themes, these are very different bands.Moving farther into the disc, there are songs that are not war/battle based. “Angels” is more about relationships than anything else. Not to worry though, right after that is “Northern Steel”, another epic song or warriors. “Black Rain” and “Run For Your Life” both have that similar feel to the rest of the record. The guitar riffs are all fairly close in sound and rhythm. They aren’t cookie-cutter songs, but there is a definite tone to this record.Breaking from that mold is “Land Of Northern”, an epic ballad. With a much more melodic sound and a mid-range tempo, this is the song that would get the crowd swaying with their lighters, or more likely cellphones, lit up and chanting along with the chorus. This is probably the most memorable song on the record for me, mainly because of the break with the rest of the record.NEPTUNE is a band that is a little difficult to pinpoint. Releasing their demos from 30+ years ago is a bit of an anomaly. Many bands want to be known for their newest stuff. These songs are good, solid rockers. I do hope they are writing new music. They have a lot of potential. This is a well-produced, mixed and engineered record, obviously not a bunch of demos just re-released from a long-ago era.The musicianship is good. The band is solid. The songs are fun to listen to and will make a good transition to the stage if they get to play live. The tunes are easy to digest and the subject matter is popular with a large crowd.
Line Up:
Roland "Rowland Alex" Alexandersson - Bass (1980-1987, 2017-2019), Vocals (2019-present)
Anders "Andy Olson" Olsson - Guitars (1985-1987, 2017-present) - See also: ex-JAR
Jonas Wikström - Drums (1987, 2019-present)
Jan Tosh Andersson - Bass (2019-present) - See also: ex-JAR
Johan Rosth - Keyboards (2020-present)
Tracklist:
01. The Prophecy
02. Viking Stone
03. Last Man Standing
04. Fallen Nations 04:23
05. Angels
06. Northern Steel
07. Black Rain
08. Run For Your Life
09. Land of Northern
10. Seriously
11. Ruler of the Sea
12. Vanheim
Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/
