Ambush – Infidel

8/10

I am one of those people who think that Sweden is the best country in the world for metal music and I am also sure a lot of you, our dear readers, agree with me on this. The scene is bursting with tons of talented and kick ass bands. One of the more underrated bands when it comes to heavy metal, is the mighty Ambush from Växjö in southern Sweden.

I found out about Ambush when they released the very good debut album “Firestorm” in 2014, although I feel they truly came into their own in 2015 with the follow up masterpiece “Desecrator”. Now, five years have passed since then and the time is here for “Infidel”. Because of the long waiting period, the expectations is accordingly pretty high for this album and right of the bat with the opening title track, you hear that Ambush have not lost their magic.

The fast paced opener is followed by a more mid tempo and groovy “Yperite” before we once again crank up the tempo with “Leave Them To Die”. The next song is the first single from the album, the very memorable “Hellbiter”. When this was released it was a strong message that Ambush would not stray from their path when it comes to bringing the masses high quality old school heavy metal, just like it was done in the primarily early eighties.

The intro “The Summoning” then brings us to the strongest track of the record, namely “The Demon Within”. After this we continue with several high quality bangers, such as “A Silent Killer” or “Heart Of War”. Overall, we have a whole bunch of very good songs that are also extremely versatile. We have everything from double kick drum to impressive guitar harmonies and Ambush really prove once again that they are one of the very best bands at what they do.

With the wide range and highly impressive vocals from Oskar Jacobsson leading the charge, Ambush comes at you with all guns blazing when they deliver classic heavy metal in the vein of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, early Queensryche or whatever band in that genre you wish to compare them with. They do this with surgical like precision for the most part and it feels like Ambush really have the potential of being the next big thing in Swedish heavy metal. We have the musicality, the skill, the style and the songs, so even if “Infidel” perhaps doesn’t reach the sky high level of “Desecrator”, it without a doubt is a kick ass album that has a good chance of reaching a lot of top ten lists at the end of the year. No one, not even the German legends Accept themselves, are better at memorable choruses with big hockey style choirs right now.

My prediction is that Ambush are well on their way to being a band for the more commercial scenes as well and not just a hidden gem for the underground fans.