{"id":105408,"date":"2025-09-05T00:00:53","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T23:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=105408"},"modified":"2025-09-16T11:55:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T10:55:30","slug":"album-review-ambush-evil-in-all-dimensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-ambush-evil-in-all-dimensions\/","title":{"rendered":"AMBUSH – Evil In All Dimensions (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

AMBUSH
\nEvil In All Dimensions<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNapalm (2025)<\/span>
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Swedish leather-clad mob Ambush formed in 2013 and two albums followed quickly in the form of Firestorm<\/em> (2014) and Desecrator<\/em> (2015). With this brace it seemed as if the band was on the track to stardom, being part of a heavy metal formation \u2013 including Enforcer \u2013 that looked set to take on the world. It sort of happened, although I found myself drowning in a sea of pretenders and wannabes at the time.<\/p>\n

By the time Ambush released their third album, Infidel<\/em><\/a>, in 2020, the novelty had worn off. Even so, Ambush remained a reliable band, their marrying of traditional and power metal an ever enduring spectacle. With this fourth full-length offering the mob continues to nod towards the nostalgic heights of 80s heavy metal, bringing the expected familiar warmth of Iron Maiden, Scorpions et al with a borderline speed metal dynamic fuelled by Judas Priest.<\/p>\n

The earliest signs suggesting a new album was on the way emerged with the title track several months ago. Admittedly, I wasn\u2019t the biggest fan of the song, and even with its galloping axe work and strong clear vocals I couldn\u2019t help but detect an unintentional parody, a cheesy topping summed up by its accompanying video. However, Ambush remained defiant, soldiering on with their army of fans in tow and some very good songs.<\/p>\n

The key to the bands popularity is certainly the twin guitar assault of Olof Engqvist and Karl Dotzek. They litter this album with glistening duels of steel, swashbuckling speed and traditional metal fury which gallop and sprint in equal measure. Vocalist Oskar Jakobsson has always had that crystal clear strain that reminds me of Helloween\u2019s Michael Kiske, driving his army on through the badlands under the cloak of darkness.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no denying the potency of Ambush as they scorch through a batch of fiery journeys with joyful gallops and razor riffage that\u2019s happy to honour the likes of Accept. \u2018The Night I Took Your Life\u2019 is a standout cut, galloping on a tumble of hard drums and showcasing Jakobsson\u2019s versatility. \u2018Iron Sign\u2019 is of similar tempo so it\u2019s nice to hear a song like \u2018The Reaper\u2019 which slows the groove and brings a darker edge.<\/p>\n

It can\u2019t be easy for a lot of bands to display variety within the traditional metal framework, songs tend to either drift or, more commonly, gallop. It often becomes predictable, and yes, that can be the case with Ambush, but then again their melodies are still crafted well enough to hold your attention. Another song which I was drawn to after the first few listens was \u2018Come Angel Of The Night\u2019 with its Judas Priest-esque charge, but having said that, everything on offer here is tight and tidy even if a bit formulaic.<\/p>\n

After a five year gap, Ambush bite once again, although the teeth marks don\u2019t necessarily leave a lasting impression.<\/p>\n

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

AMBUSH Evil In All Dimensions Napalm (2025) Rating: 7\/10 Swedish leather-clad mob Ambush formed in 2013 and two albums followed quickly in the form of Firestorm (2014) and Desecrator (2015). With this brace it seemed as if the band was on the track to stardom, being part of a heavy metal formation \u2013 including Enforcer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4463],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-ambush"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105408","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=105408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105409,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105408\/revisions\/105409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}