11/30/2010 12:59

Bullet

Bullet: 'Highway Pirates'

On July 31 2009, Swedish heavy metallers Bullet's drummer Gustav Hjortsjö was hanging around backstage at the Sävsjö Festival. Suddenly he noticed a familiar face in the crowd: Saxon's legendary singer Peter "Biff" Byford. Gustav was determined not to let this chance go missed. He approached Mr. Byford and explained that the singer just had to do a guest appearance on Bullet's next album.

"Maybe", Byford replied, "What's the name of the album?" Gustav had no idea. Bullet was still touring to support their 'Bite the Bullet' album, and hadn't really thought a whole lot about the next album. "But which song do you want me to appear on then?", Biff continued. In a state of panic Gustav mumbled the first reasonably rock 'n' roll orientated title he could come up with: 'Highway Pirates'.

A month later they met again, at the Skogsröjet Festival in Reijmyre. About 40 seconds into the brilliant hard hitting title track you can now hear Biff Byford's contribution: A wolf whistle.

Bullet is up for a new experience upon the release of their third album. It is the first time they have to live up to peoples highly set expectations. It is, though, a natural consequence of the success that came with the bands previous album, 'Bite the Bullet'. The album went up to position 3 in the Swedish charts, and made Bullet one of the most frequently booked bands the following year. The success culminated when they did an acclaimed appearance as support act for AC/DC on the sold out Ullevi Stadium show in Gothenburg. The enormous success seems to have inspired rather than put pressure on the heavy metal heroes from Småland though - 'Highway Pirates' is definitely their strongest album to date.

'Highway Pirates' was mixed by Tobias Lindell, who has worked with Swedish rock bands like Europe, Mustasch and Hardcore Superstar. Together with Bullet he has succeeded in creating a sound that is retro and modern at the same time. Hampus Klang's and Erik Ahlström's guitar sound is incredibly pure. Bullet is, and always will be, a band which is to be experienced live – but 'Highway Pirates' is an album that completely captures the intense feeling of their live performances.

Track listing:
1. Highway Pirates
2. Back on the Road
3. Stay Wild
4. Blood Run Hot
5. Fire and Dynamite

6. Down and out
7. Knuckleduster
8. Heavy Metal Dynamite
9. Citylights
10. Into the Night

'Highway Pirates' will be available on CD and vinyl formats, through Black Lodge / Sound Pollution. Release date is April 2nd, 2011.

(source: Sound Pollution)