Industrial metal war machine Raubtier (German for “predator”) will issue their fifth full length album on 19 February through Despotz Records.
The trio’s (Hulkoff – Vocals / guitar, Kjellgren – Bass and drummer Buffeln) first physical North American release, ‘Barsarkagangwas’ produced by the band themselves and recorded at Terrorfabriken in Hasparanda and Black Lounge Studios in Parlby. Jonas Kjellgren mixed the album at Black Lounge. It is the third Raubtier release to feature Scar Symmetry guitarist Jonas Kjellgren on bass. “Joining Raubtier was not like joining any other band I’ve been in, it’s more like a brotherhood of men made out of steel!,” says Kjellgren.
From the aggressive, industrialized coldness of current single “Bothniablod” (“Bothnia Blood,” which refers to the Swedish-Finnish borderlands and the Gulf of Bothnia) to the military march of “Den Sista Kulan” (“The Last Bullet”) and the epic traditional metal attack of “Tropaion” straight through to the proto thrash metal maelstrom that is “Praetoria,” ‘Barsarkagang’ hits it’s mark, no matter the language.
‘Barsarkagang’ follows ‘Bestia Borealis,’ a “best of” compilation of sorts released in late 2014, helping the band find an audience outside of Sweden for the first time. The album was met with overwhelmingly favourable reviews and resulted in an upshot of thousands of new sales and more than a million Spotify streams. All of this despite the band’s insistence upon Hulkoff’s insistence upon singing in his native Swedish. Hulkoff explains, “I find it both challenging and rewarding to write and sing in my native tongue. The primeval force, the “urkraft” of the old north, is still dwelling inside the Scandinavian languages. I am constantly seeking that power.”