V/A - Metal Knights - The Resurgence of Swedish Steel 1983 - 85 (2003)

Issued on splatter blue/yellow vinyl.
Limited to 500 handnumbered copies.
Comes with a 8-page booklet with band infos & photos.

Introduction
In case you don't know, this is far from being an ordinary compilation album. Sure, doing albums like this with unsigned bands has been done for many years. What makes Metal Knights special though is that all of these recordings are almost twenty years old by now and all these bands split up many many years ago!. However, there seem to be some interest in getting something started again in some of the bands on here. If this will happen and in what shape, only time will tell. I hope this album will serve as a step in the right direction in them doing so.

If I knew how long time and how hard it would be to get this album completed when I first got the crazy idea of doing a compilation album with obscure Swedish 1980's metal back in 2000 I would probably never had started working on it in the first place. At times I almost cursed the day when I came up with the idea!. These ten bands that made it to the album in the end were far from the only ones I had in mind in the beginning when I started trying to find out about bands who I thought were good enough and then try get in touch with them for the album. In fact, about a third of the bands on here I found rather recently. If it hadn't been for them I probably would have given up completely by now. I'm glad I didn't though as I truly think this compilation definitely show what a great metal scene Sweden had back in the 1980's.

The idea with this album is to present bands that unfortunately never managed to release anything on vinyl when they where together. Two of the bands, Shylock and Stormbringer, did get vinylized later on but both of them had changed their names by then. One thing I find very irritating with many of the excellent compilation albums released back in the 1980's was that there was hardly ever any information about the bands what so ever. I decided to make this album, as how I think a compilation really should be like - informative!.

There have been several problems in getting this album completed. Some bands were so hideously obscure nobody seems to know anything about them. Some bands I got in touch with never got back to me and some I only heard back from once or twice. So if I had managed to get material from all bands I wanted I could probably have made this into a double album. This of course brings us to the question of a secodn volume in the future. I've already been asked about this. Sorry to disappoint you, but it seems very unlikely. It'se been over two years since I first started working on this one and doing another one would probably take just as long.

Enough with my ramblings. Now crank this one up loud and enjoy!!! In defense of real metal, Niclas Johansson & Stormbringer Productions.

Thanklist: The bands I've been working with in the past five years (existing or not); Tilmann Benninghaus & Drowned, Rikard Wermén & Murder Corporation, Chris & Eternal Hatred, Fredde Ernerot & Temperence, Paul van Rijswijk & Hammerhawk, Janne Stark & Overdrive, Martjo Brongers & Vortex, Leif Eriksson & Nicke Johansson & Maninnya Blade, Andrija Veljaca & Mercy, Basse Norberg & Metal Mercy and Scott Waldrop & Twisted Tower Dire, Tobias "Det är ett hårt liv" Bergquist & Jonas "Hon var ju inte motorintresserad för fem öre" Rydberg for helping me out with CD-R's, Metalion & Slayer, Laurent Ramadier & Snakepit and Patrick Lefevre & Iron Wolf for spreading the w orld about Stormbringer in their zines, Jeff Plagnard, George Hlodash, Claes Glenning, Sascha Glaeser, Sear Perry, Silvia Moresi and Laurent Perugia for being great tape traders, Fujii Yasuhiro, Kornel Kontros, Luiz Silva and Nelson B. Filho for great record trades, Dirk Niggeman & Else Metal Mailorder, Jürgen Hegewald & Hellion Records, Richard Walker & Miskatonic Foundation, Cronis & To The Death Records, Stan Koson & R.I.P. Records, King Fowley & Battlezone Records, Rob Preston & Doomed Planet Records, Jim Cranford & John Haupt & OPM Records, Edward Hultgren & Game Two Records, Jeff Bron & Bad Posture Records, Joe Pangallo & Hades Paradise Records, Patrik Leijen & Mikael Persson & TPL Records, Matthias Unfug & Hell Bent For Records, Daniel Strandberg & Warhorse Underground Distro and Jens Häfner & Metal Storm Records for helping me out with distribution, releasing great records or just for being cool and supportive people.

Special thanks to: First of all, all the bands on this album; Michael Leufvenius & Highlight, Håkan Göthberg & Crime, Torbjörn von Braun & Exist, Mats Ahlstedt & Rubycon, Jan Strandh & Act, Anders Fernlund & Killerhawk, Jan Granvik & Neptune, Christer Nilsson & Stormbringer, Åke Möller & Orions Sword and Christer Rispling & Shylock, Bart Gabriel & Dragonight for promoting Stormbringer, Wojtek Gabriel for being the Stormbringer webmaster, Johan Kalin for mastering this album, Scott Waldrop for the artwork, T. Ketola for the layout and last, but cerainly not least, Lennart Larsson for all the help in getting me started with this album (couldn't have done it without you!). Finally, thanks to all the people I have forgot and especially to all of you who buys my releases, which allows me to keep doing this!.