2015 was a pretty strong year for Sweden, in terms of good music, but this was mostly in the Melodic Rock and Hard Rock genres. Heavy Metal didn't do so well for Sweden, as it's a genre that I've always believed that they are not quite good at perfecting yet. They've come close, but not quite enough to make an album that will really impress me, but nevertheless, it's a new year, and that means hopefully a fresh start, so let us be off to meet a new Swedish Heavy Metal band and see what they are like, and they are LETHAL STEEL.

Formed in 2011 in Stockholm in Sweden, LETHAL STEEL is a quintet of Heavy Metal musicians who are new to the music scene. In 2012 they released a demo to get their music out to a label to sign them and soon after they signed a deal with High Roller Records. Now fast forward 4 years to 2016 and the release of their first album "Legions of the Night", which we shall now review to see what it is like.

Clocking in at around 36 minutes across 8 songs, the debut album from LETHAL STEEL is your traditional Heavy Metal album complete with shredding guitars, heavy vocals and pounding beats from the bass and drums. Nothing new in the formula as is usual in the Heavy Metal scene, but then it could be different in its own way, as bands do like to shake up the formula with their songs.

I'm not sure if the same is true for this one, as it sounds very iffy to me. The songwriting doesn't seem all that great, and the overall feel just sounds a little cheap to me. I don't know what it is but I think the mixing could have been improved to give the music an overall tighter feel and a slightly heavier sound. There are a couple of moments and songs where it's not such a big deal, but there are a lot of moments or songs, which could have used a bit tighter production/mixing.

Also, the performance sounds a little lazy and messy in a few places, and the somewhat average production and mixing makes it suffer as a result, most notable in the vocals which sound off to me, regardless if the sound was better or not. I could just be sounding stupid, but the performance could have been tightened a little bit, as I'm not really feeling it as I listen to it.

Bottom line, the debut album from LETHAL STEEL is okay as it does have potential to sound good but this first attempt just sounds and feels a little offish to me. Hopefully as the year goes on I'll hear better sounding albums, but so far the year is not getting off to a good start for Swedish Heavy Metal, or at least it doesn't in my ears as it may be good in yours but for me personally, this is very much hit or miss.<