Here are some quick facts on Enforcer. They hail from Sweden and they’re releasing their new album, Into the Night on November 18th through the folks at Heavy Artillery Records. If you love old-school metal in the vein of the first couple of Iron Maiden records, Tank, and Mercyful Fate, you need to pay attention to this band! The Gauntlet spoke with Olof, the singer of Enforcer to talk all things metal.
The Gauntlet: First off, you guys definitely have more in common with Mercyful Fate, Exciter, Tank, and Angel Witch than you do with any current band so I was wondering how you discovered groups from that era.
Olof: Well, I guess we started out our metal career like any other kid, you know, listening to the big bands like IRON MAIDEN, METALLICA and such bands. But apart from most other kids who stop there, I grew a genuine interest for the music and started to explore what was beyond those bands. I searched for contemporary bands and bands that influenced these bands. I soon discovered all the pearls published by the bands you mention. For me it’s pretty obvious, and I cannot understand why all these big bands can sell hundreds of thousands of tickets while for e.g. Angel Witch never would be able to pull a crowd of more than 500. It kind of scares me that people seem to stop by the big ones and their hits and not explore heavy metal any deeper.
The Gauntlet: When you formed Enforcer did you set out to have this sound or was it more of an organic thing?
Olof: ENFORCER is an idea I’ve had in mind for many years even before I started it. Of course it’s not the same thing now as it was in my mind let’s say five years ago, but the idea and the vision of the band is still the same. We have also of course developed a lot together but we still walk in the same direction as I meant to walk back then. Our idea is to play fast, simple, catchy and heavy metal. No one did that then, and almost no one does that now.
The Gauntlet: Besides you, I know of the Portrait but is there a scene in Sweden of bands who play more of an old-school type of heavy metal? When people think of Sweden here bands like At The Gates and Dismember come to mind.
Olof: There’s not really a huge heavy metal scene in Sweden, but it’s a handful of bands coming up. I think bands like BULLET, WOLF and RAM are most well known outside the borders of Sweden. I’m not saying I don’t like them but they are far from best heavy metal bands from Sweden right now. Pay extra attention when you hear of bands like IN SOLITUDE, PORTRAIT and HELVETETS PORT.
The Gauntlet: Was it hard finding the right bands to play shows with? Did you play with more death-metal and hardcore bands in the beginning?
Olof: We have actually been able too appeal fans from all kind of metal camps by playing metal that attracts all kind of people. We have played successfully on FESTUNG OPEN AIR, which is an extreme metal fest with bands like ANGEL CORPSE and NIFELHEIM, and this winter we will open for TREAT, a legendary Swedish sleaze-/glam band. I think that says a lot! But mainly we’ve done shows with other heavy metal bands.
The Gauntlet: I first heard you on the Speed Kills…Again compilation that came out a few years ago. How has your appearance on that helped the band? Did you get a lot of emails from people all over the world?
Olof: I can’t really tell how that helped us. Hopefully we gained a couple of new fans, but that’s beyond my knowledge. However, we got in touch with HEAVY ARTILLERY that way and they have done a great job for us promoting us and releasing our album.
The Gauntlet: Refreshingly, you guys don’t get into any heavy handed political lyrics on Into the Night. You have more of a horror/fantasy bent to the songs. Can you talk about some of the lyrical inspiration? Are you movie geeks?
Olof: Almost all of the bands who sing about political stuff just do it for the cause of doing it, just because everyone else does it, just to be cool and play “aware”. How trustworthy is that? Fuck that! Politics has nothing to do with metal and I definitely think that heavy metal should be about heavy subjects like death and destruction and that kind of stuff. But I’m also inspired by my own life which I use to conceal in different words. I like lots of horror movies, but I hate fantasy and that kind of stuff.
The Gauntlet: Olof has a really wide vocal range and he’s hitting high notes all over Into the Night. It seems like a lot of the younger metalheads these days prefer more of the death-metal styled growled vocals. Have you guys had any resistance from the more close minded metal kids?
Olof: Not really any resistance. Everyone can listen and like whatever they want. I cannot really answer a question about narrow-minded people. It’s their loss.
The Gauntlet: For our younger readers, can you list a few albums that you think are absolutely essential that they might not know about?
Olof: These are records done by bigger artists which you probably already know, but I still have to mention.
Iron Maiden – Killers, Venom – Welcome to Hell, Diamond Head – Lightning to the Nations and Judas Priest – Sad Wings of Destiny. These are all like a timeless Heavy Metal history-lesson in other words.
But if you really want to dig deeply into heavy metal, be sure to pick up the following gems:
Danger Zone(ITA) – Victim of Time (1984), Traitors Gate (UK) – Devil Takes the Highroad (1984), Mad Max(GER) – Rollin Thunder (1984), Savage Grace (US) – Master of Disguise (1985) and Tröjan (UK) – Chasing the Storm (1985).