THIRD STORM "The Locust Mantra" CD

THIRD STORM "The Locust Mantra" CD (Chaos Records 2023)

THIRD STORM was formed in 1986 in Uppsala, Sweden by four people who shared the same passion for the underground extreme music and at that time was very much influenced by acts like Bathory, Venom, Hellhammer etc. The music scene in Sweden back then was very glam oriented - more so than most European countries - and extreme metal bands were seen as talentless bums. The band didn't care and tried their best to be the most extreme; the members were just kids in the 14-16 age range when they started, and how well you played didn’t matter as long you could make noise with your instrument.

THIRD STORM performed about a dozen shows at that time. The overall crazy performance and the Satanic image were very over the top and therefore not taken seriously, so the band was laughed at for two years until they finally split up in 1988. But the past decade or so, people have seriously taken interest in the past and found about this obscure, strange band who is more known for their name than theirmusic.

The stuff THIRD STORM recorded in the '80s is rare as hell: a couple of recordings were made just for the band themselves, and very few copies were spread back in the old days of tape-trading. The music back then was very primitive and raw, like other black metal bands at that time; the music was also thrash-influenced, but with a very noisy touch. The band used blastbeats in '86, and not many could grasp that kind of noise back then. The vocals were insane screams, and lyrics were written in a way the South American bands did back in the '80s. They didn’t even take any band photos and didn’t think or care in the terms of promotion, photos, flyers, studios, etc - they just wanted to bang their heads and make noise. In 2015, Dark Descent Records released THIRD STORM's "comeback" record, the two-song Tarîtîya Me EP.

The spirit of THIRD STORM today is the same as in 1986, but the musical direction is breaking new ground and new sinister elements are added. The band released their first full-length, The Grand Manifestation, in 2018. That album is also their first of a trilogy the band is working on.

In 2022, THIRD STORM finally entered the studio to record their second full-length, The Locust Mantra, now aligned with CHAOS RECORDS. Continuing the momentum set forth on The Grand Manifestation, THIRD STORM's second album is a tour de force of quintessentially Swedish blackened death metal: classic yet current, "retro" 1990s but plausibly modern. Totaling 41 minutes, the nine songs comprising The Locust Mantra are more dynamic and epic than before, but there's still an intensity and heaviness that harkens to those primordial days of '80s proto-black, particularly from South America. Slashing and searing but gleaming with a classiness and clarity, the production across the album highlights the outstanding technical skills of THIRD STORM's bolstered new lineup. The new rhythm section of bassist Daniel Håkansson and drummer Jesper Ojala make their presence felt with power and passion, while the core members of vocalist Heval Bozarslan and guitarists Hasse Hansson and David Eriksson sound fired up and feed off that new black blood in the band.

Timeless and untrendy, THIRD STORM prove with The Locust Mantra that Swedish blackened death metal is far from fading away.