Lancer – The Highwire Daze Legacy Interviews

Lancer: Of Second Storms and Metal Ostriches

Originally Posted: 06/03/15

Meet Lancer, a mighty metal collective from Sweden ready to enrapture the world!

From the press release:

Lancer invaded the heavy metal scene with its first EP, ‘Purple Sky,’ in 2012, and went on to release its debut self-titled album the following year.

Since its inception, Lancer has played festivals and live dates with bands like Steelwing, Wolf, Bullet and Katana, and was soon hailed to be the new rising star in Swedish heavy/power metal. With its energetic and technically brilliant live shows, these young musicians deliver the full package.

Lancer’s sophomore effort, Second Storm, is a lesson in melodic metal, drawing inspiration from classic acts like Iron Maiden, Helloween and Gamma Ray. The group joins a long tradition of outstanding Swedish metal bands like Hammerfall, Sabaton and many more.

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Lancer, and how long the band has been together.
Hello, this is Fredrik Kelemen and I play guitar. The band consists of five guys that really share the same love for making metal music together. Our vocalist Isak Stenvall was the one that started the band back in 2008, but then we were only a cover band, playing songs of Hammerfall and Helloween. In 2009, we decided to start to write our own material and LANCER was born. I have been in the band from the very beginning, our drummer Sebastian Pedernera joined when we stopped being a cover band. Our bass player Emil Öberg and guitarist Ewo Solvelius have joined during the way.

Where is the band based out of and what is your local metal scene like there?
We started out in Arvika, Sweden since we all met at the music academy that is located there. Same town Enforcer is from, by the way. But now we rehearse and are based in Karlstad. The metal scene is quite strong. We have several rock clubs in town, and big bands like Helloween, Accept, WASP and Entombed have played here. There’s a great climate for local metal bands as well, and quite easy to get a gig in town.

Is there any story or concept behind the album title Second Storm?
No, there is no concept. Just a reference to it being our second album. And the ”second storm” is being sung about in both ‘Aton’ and ‘Fools Marches On’.

Select two songs off Second Storm and what inspired the lyrics.
Our first single of the album, ‘Masters and Crowns,’ is a story about a blinded population that are being ruled by their masters, only following their command. But it is also a song about hope, that we can make a change to all the injustice in the world and live in a brighter future.

Many metal bands write lyrics inspired from stuff in the bible. That’s a book full of so many crazy stories, and great to pick metal themes from. The song ‘Behind the Walls’ is about God’s wrath over Sodom and Gomorrah, where God stepped in and killed a great party. Both of these songs have music videos to them, check them out on YouTube!

How does Second Storm compare to your previous albums?
The songs are still inspired from both the German and the British metal scenes, but the production is heavier and more up to date this time. Our first album sounded a bit like an ’80s demo tape, but “Second Storm” really sounds new and fresh. The songs are also better arranged and are more well-written this time, we have really evolved and become better musicians too.

Who did the cover art on Second Storm and how much input did you have on it? And where did the mascot ostrich come from and does the bird have a name?
His name is Dimitar Nikolov and he has done artwork for bands like Steelwing and Katana before. When we approached him we had an idea of our ostrich being a cyborg in a post-apocalyptic world. But when Dimitar sent the first sketch we were blown away! It was beyond our wildest imaginations, we really love what he did. The ostrich has been with us from our very first demo, Isak painted a dragon-bird-monster for the cover, or so he thought, because it turned out as an ostrich by chance 😀 And we really liked it, an ostrich is a fast, aggressive and fierce creature, it doesn’t get any more metal than that. But it still doesn’t have a name, we’re not even sure if it’s a boy or girl.

What could one expect from a live Lancer show?
We always struggle to do the show of lives each time, and really give the fans value for the money. And the love and belief in our own music shines through when we play. I don’t want to sound cocky or anything, haha, but I think we are a fantastic live act, with great energy on stage.

Has Lancer ever played here in the States or plan to do so in the future?
We really want to! We’re not sure how the market is in the US for smaller European power metal bands, but if we get the opportunity and if the US fans want us to come, we sure will.

If Lancer could open up for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
Well, of course we want to play with our own heroes like Iron Maiden or Judas Priest. But it would also be awesome to open for both ’80s Helloween and Helloween from today, and Gamma Ray or Hammerfall. The list could go on and on.

What is your favorite Swedish beer of choice and why?
I’m really the wrong person to ask since I almost only drink pale lager beer, and preferably the Danish ones like Tuborg or Carlsberg. But if I must choose I would pick Norrlands Guld, which can be translated to ”The gold of the north”. All the beer gourmets in Sweden reading this will kill me now, haha!

What’s up next for Lancer?
We have just finished our four release gigs for the album. The response from the fans have been nothing but great. The album was released a little too late for us to be booked for the summer festivals, but in the fall we will probably go on tour. Apart from that we will start to write new songs, now that we have the time for that.

Any final words of wisdom?
Keep spreading our music and keep listen to metal!

(Interview by Ken Morton)

Lancer on Facebook