Despotz Records is extremely happy and proud to announce that CIVIL WAR‘s debut album ”The Killer Angels” have sold more than 20 000 copies in Sweden and have been awarded with a gold record.
Selling 20 000 + in our home country is something none of us could ever imagine when getting into the sessions leading up to the album, even though we felt that we made a solid record, getting these numbers was still something we couldn’t predict upon our wildest imagination.
The Killer Angels have received overwhelming reviews and response from all over the world, for us reading the one review after the other, getting comment from you, our fans, almost each and every one of them with all positive feedback is a bit unreal. We can’t tell you enough how much it means that you, the fans of our music, can look beside our previous adventures in bands through the years and giving this a listen for what it is, a fresh start with a new band and our own music.
From all of us, to all of you, thank you and see you around!
/Patrik, Rikard, Oskar, Mullback, Myhr, Pizza
Civil War
After leaving SABATON last year, the four ex members – Daniel Myhr, Daniel Mullback, Oskar Montelius and Rikard Sundén soon decided to start a new band. They very quickly completed their line-up with vocalist (Nils) Patrik Johansson (ASTRAL DOORS, LION’S SHARE) and bass player Stefan “Pizza” Eriksson ( VOLTURYON) and CIVIL WAR was born.
The band are due to release their first full length album “The Killer Angels” via Despotz records on 11th June. The album name is borrowed from the novel by Michael Shaara about the Battle of Gettysburg and the band have released two singles, ‘I Will Rule The Universe’ and ‘St Patricks Day’. Just today (16th may) CIVIL WAR have released the third and last single, ‘First To Fight’ before the upcoming album release.
Blackdiamond recently spoke to keyboard player Daniel Myhr about the band and new album. Some excerpts from the interview can be read below and the full interview can be listened to on the audio player:
Daniel described details about the band name and new album as follows:
“The whole historical theme of course comes from SABATON, but even before we decided on the name CIVIL WAR, we thought that maybe we should move away from the war theme a little bit. But when Patrik came into the picture, it seems he’s really interested in history himself. It doesn’t have to be as detailed as it was with SABATON, so we kind of flipped back to the history/war theme a little bit, even though we didn’t plan to. But some of the songs aren’t about war at all, we’re trying to keep a little bit of distance from it.
The sound is more traditional heavy metal, now we have Patrik he likes to write stuff that sounds a little bit like DIO. Then we mix it together with our style; a bit more typical power metal style, a bit of fusion between the older SABATON before Coat Of Arms and influences from power metal.”
Discussing the change from being in SABATON and moving on to CIVIL WAR, Daniel expressed:
“It felt really good to do something that was more ‘us.’ In SABATON, we were directed with what to play because Joacim wrote the songs. Now we work out all the material together, instead of just having material presented to us. We went from the basic to the finished material really easily, there was never any fuss about anything.”
CIVIL WAR
For more information about CIVIL WAR check out the official website at this location and their official facebook page at this location
CIVIL WAR — the new Swedish metal band featuring former SABATON members Rikard Sundén (guitar), Daniel Mullback (drums), Daniel Mÿhr (keyboards) and Oskar Montelius (guitar) alongside singer Patrik Johansson (ASTRAL DOORS, LION’S SHARE) and bassist Stefan “Pizza” Eriksson (VOLTURYON) — will release a new single, “Saint Patrick’s Day”, on May 1. A teaser for the track is available below.
“Saint Patrick’s Day” comes off CIVIL WAR‘s full-length debut, “The Killer Angels”, which will be made available on June 11 via Despotz Records. The group states: “The album deals with a lot of stuff: heroes, traitors, battles and heavy metal….and yes: we have a song called ‘Gettysburg’.”
“The Killer Angels” track listing:
01. King Of The Sun
02. First To Fight
03. Saint Patrick’s Day
04. Rome Is Falling
05. Sons Of Avalon
06. I Will Rule The Universe
07. Lucifer’s Court
08. Brother Judas
09. My Own Worst Enemy
10. Gettysburg
11. March Across The Belts (bonus track)
The song “I Will Rule The Universe” is now available for streaming in its entirety below.
CIVIL WAR‘s debut EP was released on November 13, 2012 via Despotz Records.
According to Sundén, CIVIL WAR‘s sound is “more old-school hard rock,” with “a little less keyboards” than that of SABATON. He says, “With Patrik‘s vocals on top, it becomes a different thing, but there are some parallels [to our previous band].”
Regarding how CIVIL WAR came together, b>Mullback told the Swedish-language newspaper Dalarnas Tidningar (DT), “It came pretty naturally. We always thought Patrik had a good voice and he accepted our offer when we asked him to join the band.”
“I had no hesitation about getting involved,” Patrik said. “ASTRAL DOORS certainly has a solid fan base, but we are a little more underground. I see this as an opportunity to reach a wider audience.”
The four ex members of SABATON were never involved in the songwriting process with their former band since those duties were usually handled by vocalist Joakim Brodén. But in the new group, everyone is contributing ideas.
“This has been a reawakening of sorts,” Mÿhr said. “I have never been in a situation where there has been so much creativity.”
On the topic of whether CIVIL WAR will continue SABATON‘s tradition of focusing on war-related themes in its lyrics, Mÿhr said, “No, we won’t. Now the lyrics can be about anything. [CIVIL WAR was just] a good name that sounded good.”
CIVIL WAR — the new Swedish metal band featuring former SABATON members Rikard Sundén (guitar), Daniel Mullback (drums), Daniel Mÿhr (keyboards) and Oskar Montelius (guitar) alongside singer Patrik Johansson (ASTRAL DOORS, LION’S SHARE) and bassist Stefan “Pizza” Eriksson (VOLTURYON) — will release its full-length debut, “The Killer Angels”, on June 11 via Despotz Records. The group states: “The album deals with a lot of stuff: heroes, traitors, battles and heavy metal….and yes: we have a song called ‘Gettysburg’.”
“The Killer Angels” track listing:
01. King Of The Sun
02. First To Fight
03. Saint Patrick’s Day
04. Rome Is Falling
05. Sons Of Avalon
06. I Will Rule The Universe
07. Lucifer’s Court
08. Brother Judas
09. My Own Worst Enemy
10. Gettysburg
11. March Across The Belts (bonus track)
A three-minute YouTube clip containing audio samples of the tracks that appear on the debut EP from CIVIL WAR can be found below. The CD was released on November 13, 2012 via Despotz Records.
According to Sundén, CIVIL WAR‘s sound is “more old-school hard rock,” with “a little less keyboards” than that of SABATON. He says, “With Patrik‘s vocals on top, it becomes a different thing, but there are some parallels [to our previous band].”
Regarding how CIVIL WAR came together, b>Mullback told the Swedish-language newspaper Dalarnas Tidningar (DT), “It came pretty naturally. We always thought Patrik had a good voice and he accepted our offer when we asked him to join the band.”
“I had no hesitation about getting involved,” Patrik said. “ASTRAL DOORS certainly has a solid fan base, but we are a little more underground. I see this as an opportunity to reach a wider audience.”
The four ex members of SABATON were never involved in the songwriting process with their former band since those duties were usually handled by vocalist Joakim Brodén. But in the new group, everyone is contributing ideas.
“This has been a reawakening of sorts,” Mÿhr said. “I have never been in a situation where there has been so much creativity.”
On the topic of whether CIVIL WAR will continue SABATON‘s tradition of focusing on war-related themes in its lyrics, Mÿhr said, “No, we won’t. Now the lyrics can be about anything. [CIVIL WAR was just] a good name that sounded good.”
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