Details: High Roller Records, Consisting of vocalist Therese Damberg, her brother Marcus Damberg on guitar, Hampus Steenberg on bass and Kent Svensson behind the drums, Teaser Sweet have already made some waves in the Swedish metal scene. They originally started out in 2013, when Marcus Damberg asked his sister and former bass player Christoffer Cardell "shouldn't we start a band?" The initial line-up was completed by Kalle Krantz on drums. Before writing their own material, they used to be playing Kiss cover songs. After recording a demo, they took to the stage and eventually releasing three albums and an EP: »Hit And Run« (2015), »In The Night« (EP, 2017), »Hypnotized« (2018) and »Monster« (2020). For the new album »Night Stalker« the band has now inked a deal with High Roller Records. Therese Damberg's powerful yet melodic vocals at times sound like a cross between Acid's Kate, Leather Leone and Johanna of Lucifer. However, she herself sees it in a different light: "If I must name a female singer, it is Doro Pesch that I love to listen to. Otherwise, it's male singers that catch my attention, such as Rob Halford with his great feeling and attitude in his vocals." When asked about the big number of high-class female-fronted or all-female hard rock and metal bands in Sweden - from Crucified Barbara and Slingblade to Thundermother and The Gems -, the singer searches for an explanation: "Hard to say what the reason is for that. My guess is that Swedish women probably have an ear for hard rock and a confidence to follow their own path. ABBA laid the foundation for female singers from Sweden, and it is natural that hard rock bands have female singers just as there are bands with only men." Apart from being influenced by the music of Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Dio and even latter-day Europe, a song like "Deep In The Woods", with it's galloping bass work, owes a lot to Iron Maiden. Therese laughs: "You have a really good ear, that's correct!" Elsewhere, numbers such as "Cold Is The Fire" and "Turn Me On" are also full of great hooks, making »Night Stalker« the band's best album so far. MATTHIAS MADER

Teaser Sweet - Night Stalker (CD)