English translation from the Swedish Magazine OKEJ. OKEJ was more or less the only music magazine in Sweden during the 1980’s and almost 90% of Swedish youth read it and then talked about in school. Are you interested in the OKEJ magazine phenomena, read more here!
NOTE: The band on the leftside, CANDY ROXX, was some kind of soft 1980’s rock music, so that part is not translated. I don’t even understand why they chosed to combine them in the article.
HEAVY LOAD (SWE)
1984 is not a doomsday year for the heavy metal Vikings HEAVY LOAD. On the contrary, this year they have every chance of a major, international breakthrough. Did you know that Saxon wanted them as the opening act on their European tour? Did you know that PHIL LYNOTT played bass on one of the songs on the new album?
And they are hardly abandoning their image. Heavy Load wants to be the Vikings of etal, and they do not shy away from using spectacular outfits on stage.
This perhaps makes Heavy Load stand out a bit on the increasingly large etal scene. They stand for their thing even if they have received criticism for it. That is worth respecting.
Heavy Load has just released their new album "Stronger Than Evil", where they show that they are stronger than ever.
Heavy Load's style - heavy, fast etal characterized by musicality and enthusiasm - is unique. Perhaps they can be classified as "Nordic Metal".
English metal fans like Heavy Load, and their records are an interesting item on the English import market.
Last year, Heavy Load was supposed to play at the big and important - Reading Festival. But it fell through at the last minute.
Now the hard rock vikings are taking new actions, soon the real crusade will begin!
HEAVY LOAD is a bunch of stubborn vikings, who after a long struggle have finally been rewarded for their efforts. Of our Swedish hard rock bands, HEAVY LOAD is the oldest and it is also the most well-covered in English newspapers - both in interview form and in gossip columns!
It was in the mid-1970s that brothers Ragne and Styrbjörn Wahlquist formed the embryo of HEAVY LOAD, but it was not until 1979 that the group was fully formed in the form it has. Ragne and Styrbjörn recruited their cousin and guitarist Torbjörn Ragnesjö and bassist Eddy Malm - and since then it's been 100 percent heavy metal!
But, perhaps we should point out, the guys' first LP was released in 1978, "Full Speed at High Level" (it costs 400 Swedish Kroner today!), an album that they aren’t satisfied with.
- We had a week in the studio, the result was there after
.
The next album, the five-song mini-album "Metal Conquest" was better, and their second LP "Death or Glory" even better and it was received with open arms even in thrifty England.
STRONGER THAN EVIL
And now LP number three is out, "Stronger Than Evil", an LP that will surely be liked by all HEAVY LOAD fans, both here at home and abroad. And when you listen to it, listen especially carefully to the song "Free" because there Eddy has handed over the bass to Phil Lynott! Not bad!
- Phil was staying in a hotel near the studio where we made the record, says Ragne. He must have heard that we were playing, got curious and came in.
- We were just working on "Free" but we hadn't put the bass on and he pointed that out. We joked and said he could help us and on the last night he was in Stockholm he came down to the studio and put the bass on.
- He got a jacket from us too, says Styrbjörn. He put it on and said he would come back and play with us when Thin Lizzy finished!
FAN CLUB IN SAN FRANCISCO
You can see that HEAVY LOAD has made a name for itself outside our borders when people who come back from San Francisco tell us that they have seen Hell's Angels driving around with shirts and jackets that say HEAVY LOAD on them. They also have their own fan club in the States.
- But we have nothing to do with it, we just know that it exists. They probably sell shirts and badges with our brand, it would be fun to see what they are really up to.
Of the American radio stations, it is also the ones in San Francisco that play HEAVY LOAD the most. When "Death or Glory" came out, it was played several times a day for a fortnight!
- Imported records, says Ragne. We don't have an American record label yet, but we are negotiating.
Stubborn
The guys themselves, how are they? Kind, actually. Stubborn, absolutely. They would never have gotten as far as they have without a remarkable stubbornness.
- When we started going around to record labels to record our first album, no one was interested, says Ragne. The only thing you heard back then, in the late 70s, was: "Do you play hard rock? Can't you tune your guitar?"
Back then, it was Genesis and Yes that mattered. And disco of course. Hard rock was out - but now
the record companies have a completely different approach. Now they are looking for metal bands with all their resources.
THERE IS ASATRON
The guys in HEAVY LOAD like to talk about their lyrics. They put a lot of work into them and you can clearly see that Styrbjörn in particular is fascinated by our old Æsatyr beliefs. Thor's hammer and all that. Our old gods. The names they have are also old Norse names and they live up to them. Big, strong Vikings! And of course it goes home abroad. Especially in the USA, you might think, the country that was discovered by Vikings! Christopher Columbus - throw yourself against the wall!
What do they do when they're not playing? Ragne is actually studying law at university, Styrbjörn, on the other hand, prefers horror! Torbjörn is the slightly more down-to-earth type who likes to fish, pick mushrooms and spend time in nature as much as possible. Although he's also a bit weak for his home computer! Eddy is the group's go-to guy - he uses his free time exclusively to spend his money! That's what he says, but we should perhaps take his statement with a pinch of salt!
SWEDEN TOUR
Future plans then? Well, there are quite a few. Right now the guys are in hard training for the Sweden tour that starts at the end of March, they have negotiations underway with the USA and Japan. They will go to England, Holland and Germany, and they will actually play in Stockholm for the first time in two years. It will probably be at Draken sometime in April or May. It's about time, we die-hard Stockholmers say.
- We might have an American band with us, says Ragne. But we haven't finished negotiating yet.
But until they come to your area, there is one thing, or rather two, that you can console yourself with. First, the new LP, and second, a video, which will be released in video stores in the near future. A live video with no less than seven songs! It includes "Heavy Metal Angels" as well as "Dark Nights", "Bleeding Sheets" (number one in England!), "DaysBreak Ecstasy", "You've Got The Power", "Take Me Away" (number three in England!) and "Little Lies". Listen, watch and enjoy!
/ CHRISTINA LINDSJÖÖ
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PROFILES
Name: Styrbjörn Wahlquist
Born: 60 03 02
Eye color: blue-gray-green, in other words mottled
Hair color: blonde
Instruments: drums and singing
Leisure interests: resting, cinema, video, records, writing songs, going to the cinema, reading horror books
Favorite food: vegetarian
Favorite color: sky blue Likes: music and animals
Hates: concert venues without showers (!), selfish people; "egoism is evil"
Future dream: a big house with a large plot where I can have many animals, an area where endangered animals can live in peace
Name: Ragne Wahlquist
Born: 23 January
Eyes: dark blue
Hair color: blonde
Instruments: guitar, piano. Previously played violin and trumpet!
Leisure interests: studying law at university, diving, likes being outdoors, canoeing, karate
Favorite food: the ones I cook myself, right now I'm into elk meat and reindeer meat
Favorite color: burgundy and black
Likes: my leisure interests, almost all music
Hates: people who don't stand by what they say
Future dream: that there will be peace on earth
Name: Eddy Malm
Born: April 8
Eye color: melange (see Styrbjörn!)
Hair color: dark
Instrument: guitar, singing
Leisure interests: spending money
Favorite food: home cooking
Favorite color: blue
Likes: girls
Hates: falsehood
Future dream: to become financially independent
Name: Torbjörn Ragnesjö Born: April 11
Eye color: blue
Hair color: blonde
Leisure interests: science fiction films, books, art in the same field, fishing, mushroom picking, my home- computer.
Favorite food: grilled meat dishes Favorite color: deep sky blue like a late summer evening Likes: honesty
Hates: dishonesty and all pickled foods
Future dream: to become financially independent so I can live the way I want
Photo: Lindsjöö