Orions Sword (Swe) - Crusade Of Heavy Metal [CD] (2022)

Heavy Metal

CD compilation in Deluxe slipcase limited to 500 copies.
Includes Orions Sword's 1983-1985 recordings.

Also released on black vinyl (10-tracks) limted to 150 copies [Cult Metal Classics #CULTMETALBLACK5LP]

Tracks 1-6 taken from the 'Charge' demo 1983. Recorded and Produced by Orions Sword
Tracks 7-16 taken from the 'Volume II' demo. July 1984. Recorded by Ingemar Lund at IL-Studio, Västervik
Tracks 17-21 taken from the 'Out Of Orion' demo 1985. Recorded and Produced by Orions Sword.

Orions Sword - The Story (as told by Åke Möller, translated by Janne Stark)
As a teenager in the seventies me and my best mate Ebon dreamed of standing in stage and rocking out just like Black Sabbath, Sweet and later Judas Priest, Kiss and Motorhead. But it wasn't until I was about 20 when I studied Industrial Electronics at a school and I met drummer Morgan Johansson, that my hopes were up. He lived in the next community.

In November 1981 the basics for Orions Sword was formed, where I was going to be the rhythm guitarist, Morgan Johansson on drums and my childhood friend Ingemar "Ebon" Söderlund on bass. Later on, in February 1982, Peter Holgersson joined on guitar and later on also vocals. He was the most skilled musician of us. It was a guy like Peter the band needed to get the musicality in order. I got to know him when he also went to the same school as me and Morgan.It was now time to start writing our own songs. Peter came up with most of the basic riffs and then we all contributed to making it into songs. I wrote a lot of the lyrics.

We did some stumbling attempts at a Rock Band competition in Västervik in 1982, plus a few more gigs, but we finally had to fire my childhood friend on bass, since he couldn't really keep up with us and sometimes had a whole verse left when the rest of us were finished. Later on, also the drummer went the same way. It was just me and Peter left. In 1983 Janne Gustafsson joined on drums, which did really lift the band. There were no bass players, and no one wanted to become one either since you're kinda hidden on stage. But, said and done, I went home to my old friend, whom I had recently fired, and borrowed his bass, since I couldn't afford one. And, we had cleared the air and there was no bad blood between us. He realized how bad he was at learning the stuff.

Time passed and I really liked playing bass. Lemmy was my inspiration! In 1983 we recorded our first demo "Charge" and in October the same year we got the chance to open for Overdrive at Rockparty in Hultsfred. That night could have ended badly when a guy in the audience leaned in over one of our pyro tubes placed at the front of the stage, which was about to blow... 

Ok, here I need to step in! (This is Janne Stark of Overdrive taking over the rudder) - We also had pyro, but ours were placed behind the amps. The day after the show there were big headlines in our local newspapers saying things like "Rock concert almost ends in tragedy", "Overdrive throws bombs at the audience" etc., and some guy tries to sue us for being burned at THIS concert saying it was our bomb that hit his arm! We recognized the guy as one of the security guys and we figured the only he way he could have been burned was if he had crept in behind our amps and put his hand of the firing tube. So, all this time it was actually Orions Sword's bomb that went off and the guy blamed us (probably thinking since we were more established, he'd get more money from us). We were never sued, but we sure got a lot of free publicity from this, so thank you Orions Sword!

Back to Åke:
In November the same year, we three became four when keyboardist and firebreather Ralle Johansson joined the band. New songs with some keyboards in the background started to take shape. Ralle's idols were guys like Don Airey and John lord. This was the band's final line-up that would last until February-March 1986:
Peter Holgersson - Lyrics, Vocals, Lead guitars
Ralle Johansson - Keyboards, backing vocals (R.I.P 2009)
Janne Gustavsson Drums (today in Devils Duck, in Austria, where he now lives)
Åke Möller - Bass, Lyrics, Pyro

During the winter of 1983 we did our first gig with Ralle in a Sobriety association's hall, which ends with the fire brigade coming since we used so much pyro there was smoke everywhere. On February 22, 1984, we did another show in our hometown, a show which was also filmed on an old Beta Video recorder. In July the same year we also recorded the demo "Volume II". It was recorded on an old 8-track reel-to-reel by Ingemar Lund at IL-Studio in Västervik. It was recorded under quite simple conditions. At night we were, by hand, cutting out the cassette inlays which we had copied on one of County Council's Copy machines. I used to work there as a janitor.

We sent the tape to various zines and this made OKEJ journalist Stefan Johansson contact us. He wanted us to be "Band of the month" in the next issue. Said and done, in March 1985 we were. That's when a hell of a lot of letters started pouring in from various countries from fand and magazines, which was a blast! Now we had to have releases, photos etc. ready just to put in an envelop and ship out. We also sent tapes to different labels but were never picked up. We were probably not yet good enough.

Later in the fall of 1985 we at least got the opportunity to participate, as the only unsigned band, on the classic Swedish Metal Aid record. It was a really big thing to be in the same studio/room as Europe, Treat, Six Feet Under etc. Later on, also in the live broadcast in the national TV show "Nöjesmassakern" together with the entire Swedish rock elite!

Time passed and more gigs, but like in any other band there's always someone who decides to leave. This time it was me since we had different views on the musical direction. In February 1986 I decided to quit and join Raving Mad instead, who were heavier and rawer.

Orions Sword fell apart and Peter formed the band Violet Rose who went on for another year or so. Both Raving Mad and Violet Rose were in the 1987 Rock-SM competition and both bands went as far as to the regional final on April 24, 1987, but in different age categories.

In the fall of 1994, I formed Noztalgica, which is a cover band playing hard rock and heavy metal songs from the old days. We have however talked about writing our own stuff, which really is more fun!

- Åke Möller, Bassist Orions Sword / Raving Mad / Noztalgica