Sweden’s long-running death metal band Unleashed has announced that their fifteenth studio album, Fire Upon Your Lands, due out on August 15 via Napalm Records. Alongside the announcement, the band has shared the official lyric video for the album’s third single, “A Toast to the Fallen”.
Discussing the meaning behind “A Toast to the Fallen”, Unleashed explained: “In the aftermath of the great war, the Valkyries fly across the bloody sand dunes at the foot of Mount Sinai, choosing the Warriors who made the ultimate sacrifice and died fighting for our way of life. It is time for a toast for the fallen. They live forever in our hearts as they make their final journey to Valhalla.”
In a recent conversation with Jai That Aussie Metal Guy, Unleashed frontman and bassist Johnny Hedlund reflected on the band’s enduring motivation after decades of making music. “Well, I don’t know how to stop. [Laughs]. It’s strange because I’ve gotten this question many times, and I still don’t know really the answer.”
Johnny went on to recount the band’s early days: “The thing is that when we started this band, I was a young guy. We started it in 1989, and I had played in Nihilist for two years, so I started playing death metal in ’87. Now that’s, like, 400 years ago [laughs] — at least it feels like it. So the thing is that everything that we spoke about way back then was mostly, ‘Let’s go out on fucking tour and bang heads together and drink some beers.’ There was no plan to release 15 albums way back then, but as the years kept rolling, and we realized, ‘Man, we might actually be good at this’ [laughs], we just kept on going. And we still do. And Anders [Schultz] used to tell me, ‘Well, what the hell should I do if I didn’t do this?'”
He added: “First of all, it’s very inspiring to make music and lyrics, and we love it. And, of course, going out to meet people and still bang heads and drink beer and meeting all the friends I’ve been seeing for all those years, that’s the thing, man. There’s nothing better. So, yeah, we just keep on rolling.”
Fire Upon Your Lands continues the legacy of Unleashed, a band that has maintained its place in the death metal scene for nearly four decades — and they show no signs of stopping.
