{"id":105275,"date":"2025-08-15T00:00:59","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T23:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=105275"},"modified":"2025-08-22T11:19:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T10:19:20","slug":"album-review-unleashed-fire-upon-your-lands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-unleashed-fire-upon-your-lands\/","title":{"rendered":"UNLEASHED – Fire Upon Your Lands (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNLEASHED
\nFire Upon Your Lands<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNapalm (2025)<\/span>
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

The voracious Vikings are back, even if my love affair for the Swedes fizzled some time ago. Unleashed has become the death metal version of Manowar (check out the track \u2018To My Only Son\u2019 for evidence) by pouring tankard of heroic tales which don\u2019t always sit comfortably with yours truly. Even so, Unleashed are true veterans of the void, causing enough rumbles to disturb a plethora of undersea titans.<\/p>\n

The most impressive thing about this latest album, the bands 15th, is the axe work. To an extent there\u2019s a strong traditional metal element to the work of Tomas M\u00e5sgard and Fredrik Folkare, immediately evident on ravenous opener \u2018Left For Dead\u2019. It\u2019s a quality that somewhat separates Unleashed from the clan of death metal cannibals. In fact, it leaves me questioning as to whether the Stockholm mob is still death metal at all. Occasionally the foursome will veer into that quintessentially Swedish groove, but there\u2019s an abundance of variety flashed by the axe melodies.<\/p>\n

The title track is very groove based, the opening slam of the riffs plucked from the mid-90s as the chimes of Johnny Hedlund\u2019s bass run in tumultuous tandem with the drums of Anders Schultz. Hedlund has one of the more decipherable vocal snaps. His chops always sound angry and commanding and he\u2019s extremely gnarly on the trudging grind of \u2018Hold Your Hammers High!\u2019, even if there\u2019s a corniness on the subject matter.<\/p>\n

Admittedly there are a few moments which can\u2019t help but drip with cheese as the lyrics become borderline power metal. \u2018To My Only Son\u2019 hits hard enough musically where there\u2019s an outburst of thrashiness to its approach, but I can do without the lyrics. In fact, many of the words feverishly barked throughout this record make me wince. However, I\u2019ve many a time looked beyond the veil of battle torn tales to appreciate the music, and that\u2019s where Unleashed delivers most. \u2018War Comes Again\u2019 is streaked with a blackened vim, spiteful and cold in its speedy embrace. Meanwhile, \u2018Hail To The Varangians!\u2019 again sees the combo channel a thrash-death dynamic.<\/p>\n

Fire Upon Your Lands<\/em> is certainly a controlled yet feverish opus, even with some of the mid-tempo arrangements (\u2018Unknown Flag\u2019), much of which is conniving and snaking in its structure (\u2018Loyal To The End\u2019) and exposes the band as being far more technical than given credit for. Okay, so I\u2019ve not been all too loyal to the discography of Unleashed, but it\u2019s good to be able to dip back in and enjoy this latest effort.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNLEASHED Fire Upon Your Lands Napalm (2025) Rating: 7\/10 The voracious Vikings are back, even if my love affair for the Swedes fizzled some time ago. Unleashed has become the death metal version of Manowar (check out the track \u2018To My Only Son\u2019 for evidence) by pouring tankard of heroic tales which don\u2019t always sit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,234],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-unleashed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105276,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105275\/revisions\/105276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}