Swedish heavy metal act Rifforia release their second single, ‘The Devil’s Sperm’ no less, on Metalville Records, with their debut album, Axeorcism, due for release on the 23rd February.
The song’s apparently the story of a monumental battle epic from a bygone era and world. It combines traditional heavy metal with heroic choruses and modern guitar solos.
Available digitally, you can check out the video here at RAMzine. It follows the band’s first single, ‘CC Cowboys’, that tells the story of the cold war between the superpowers of the USA and the Soviet Union. With its driving drums and cutting guitars, the song creates a dark mood intending to reflect the fear of a global catastrophe, and you can also check out the video to that single here.
Rifforia features Nils Patrik Johansson (Vocals), Marcus Bengts ( Guitars, bass), Magnus Fredriksson (Guitars) and Fredrik Johansson (Drums) actually has a history that goes back a dozen years ago.
Bengts and Fredrik Johansson had been in Tuck From Hell, and having proved a popular live act, debuted with the album Thrashing. However, destiny had other plans and the band was put to rest. Almost.
Together with guitar player Petrus Granar, who’d also been in the band they continued to write music. Then Granar was invited to join the band Civil War, ironically featuring Fredriks’ father Nils Patrik Johansson on vocals.
“It felt really strange to sit on a bunch of kick ass thrash songs without doing anything with them. Our singer Niclas Ingels had no time to focus on music due to his family situation so what to do? From out of nowhere my dad, Nils Patrik, said: what the hell, I can sing for you. Let’s make a full album,” said Fredrik Johansson.
Aside from Civil War, the elder Johansson has sung with Astral Doors and Lion’s Share.
“I was a bit sceptic at first since he’s a pure heavy metal singer but then I realised that in the beginning most thrash bands had real heavy metal vocals not growl.
“The rest is, or will be history. We changed name to Rifforia, started the recordings, had a lot of fun and with mixing genius Martin Haglund in charge everything went smooth. Petrus Granar also came back to play some guitar on the album. He was a lot of help.”
The resultant album, Axeorcism, is said to deliver ten statements of “real strong, modern heavy metal”.
Tracks featured are: ‘A Game That You Don’t Understand’, ‘Sea Of Pain’, ‘Well Of Life’, ‘Built To Destroy’, ‘The Devil’s Sperm’, ‘CC Cowboys’, ‘Evilized’, ‘Rifforia’, ‘Welcome To Hell’ and ‘Death Row Child’.
