Swedish heavy metal stalwarts AMBUSH are about to return with their third album „Infidel“. Things have not always been easy for the band prior to the release and in the past five years much has changed for the five-piece from Växjö: Bassist Ludwig Sjöholm is on sick leave since 2017 and just recently guitarist and founding member Adam Hagelin has left the band for good. We spoke to AMBUSH frontman Oscar Jacobsson, who is looking forward to the band’s future despite these minor setbacks.
Hi and thanks a lot for taking time for this interview! How are you doing?
Hi, thanks for having me! I’m fine, working on the upcoming tours. Lots of exciting things to come in the future!
Five long years have passed since the release of your last album “Desecrator”. What has been happening for Ambush during that time?
Two years after Desecrator, released late 2015, we toured quite alot and had loads of fun building new friendships and fans playing all over the world. After our Brazilian tour in 2017 though, our bassist Ludwig Sjöholm got sick in a very serious kidney disease. The doctors prevented him from playing live, and he was and to this day still is very sick and spends most of his time in bed. Therefore, for quite some time we had problems going forward with the band from that point, and decided only to play festivals here and there with our good friend Burning Fire from Night on bass. The songwriting process was still ongoing though, but we wanted to wait until we felt fully ready to record with a lineup that we believed in. Burning Fire ended up playing bass on the Infidel album, as Ludwig only managed to play parts of Hellbiter due to his condition. Burning contributed a lot with his musicality and ability to drink tons of lager beer on this album. After the recordings, our guitarist Adam Ace Hagelin decided to leave the band for personal reasons, which delayed the release a bit. We were lucky to replace Adam with a new fresh axeman named Karl Dotzek & we now have a strong contribution on bass in mr. Burning Fire. I think this lineup of Ambush sounds amazing and I can’t wait for the upcoming touring!
With “Infidel” your third album is about to be released. How would you describe the record and where do you see its biggest differences to your previous effort?
The record has got a wide variety of songs just like our two first albums. I personally think that this album overall has got more depth and melancholy to it both lyrically and musically. I’d say it’s more melodic but yet darker subjects than the first two. Also, overall slightly less catchy and more interesting refrains. „Infidel“ has the same essence of simplicity and heaviness that Ambush stands for.
Is the third effort still the dreaded “make-or-break moment” for a band?
No album is make-or-break for this band. Only shake-and-bake!
What was the songwriting and recording process for “Infidel” like?
The songwriting has obviously been going on for a long time. The lyrics and base for the title track Infidel were written before we even recorded Desecrator. It has been great to have the time to arrange all the songs properly. This was actually the first time we spent time rehearsing and making small adjustments to the songs before heading into the studio, and it was time well spent for sure. Now when we’re done and go to the rehearsal it feels like we can play these tunes even better live. The recording was like always. Professional work from our hero Mankan from PAMA studios, and lots of late night work for the boys. Good times as always!
Guitarist Adam Hagelin, who played with Ambush since the beginning, recently left the band. Could you elaborate on the circumstances of his departure?
Adam was tired and has had a rough time the last couple of years. I think we all expected this would come at some point, and we have full respect for his decision. Adam is still in the Ambush-circle of friends and family that have fun together, and we are and will always be brothers for life! As I told you before, Karl Dotzek just replaced Adam and brings a different persona and guitar playing to the table. Karl is basically one hell of a guitarist and a straight up crazy dude born and raised in the deep forests outside of our hometown, Växjö. I’m sure the fans will love him as much as we do!
What’s your view of the current metal scene and where do you see Ambush in it?
The heavy metal scene is very strong right now. Many bands are kicking very hard towards the well-oiled music industry and bigger festivals. I’ve fallen in love with many good newer bands that play heavy metal the right way. What is most important is that the bands, fans & organisers must go even more grass roots and work even harder together like they used to 40-50 years ago. Then we’ll break through the polished nonsense “metal” and hiphop that has its claws around the younger generations today. At some point young people will grow tired of that all music sound like a freaking robot, and then we’ll see even further growth to the scene. I see Ambush as one of the bands that takes real hand crafted traditional Heavy Metal forward into the new decade, and we are thankful and proud for doing what we love.
Also, which bands and albums had the biggest influence your style?
Of course all the greats we grew up with has been a big influence in what we do. Priest, Accept, Saxon, Ozzy, Maiden, Mercyful Fate/KD, Riot to name a few. We love everything heavy metal stands for, and that is why we formed the band to begin with.
What about your touring schedule? Will you be playing in Germany any time soon?
Yes, of course we’ll play in Germany. Germany feels like the home of Ambush at this point. We’re going on an interesting european tour in May, but unfortunately I can’t go into details until the tour is official. We’re also going on a Latin American tour in October. I bet the Ambush schedule will be quite busy! Also, I’d like to welcome everyone to our release fest in our home town, Växjö, the 13/3 & 14/3. We promise two days of pure madness in the Bullet Bar with lots of surprises.
Thank you for the interview! Please let us do a short brainstorming in the end of this interview. What comes in your mind first reading the following terms:
Rob Halford: God.
Symphonic Metal: Pretentious.
Pay To Play: Bankruptcy.
Revival: Mercyful Fate.
Roadie: Drunk.
Sabaton in 10 years: Sabatoff.
Once again thanks for your time. The last words are yours – is there anything left you want to tell our readers?
Thank you very much! I’d like to raise my glass to all heavy metal warriors out there. Keep on banging your heads and we’ll meet very soon!
26. Februar 2020 Thomas Meyns
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