"TALES OF THE NORTHERN SWORDS - A Tribute To Heavy Load" is a project put together by Underground Symphony Records to honour and tribute Swedish Heavy Metal band "HEAVY LOAD" who formed in 1976. Firstly I'd just like to give huge credit to HEAVY LOAD for writing all the material on this album, I'd actually never heard of them until finding out about this album and have since took an interest and a loving for HEAVY LOAD's music; and I also feel that all the bands on this album paid a fine tribute to them very respectfully and admirably!

This album had me pulled into it and headbanging right from the start with SHADOWS OF STEEL's cover of "Dark Nights"; A mid-tempo, riff heavy and groovy, straight up heavy metal number. Having never heard this band before (or most of the other bands on this double disc delight) I was very impressed with how they delivered their tribute to HEAVY LOAD. Of course, when I read the track list and all the bands involved, familiar names like TWILIGHT ZONE, ETERNAL SILENCE, GREAT MASTER and DARK HORIZONS caught my eye and got me very excited to hear what they add to this album, and they all did an outstanding job! As I said, I was unfamiliar with HEAVY LOAD's music until after hearing this tribute in full, but after hearing both versions of most of the tracks here, I can safely say that every band deserves a lot of praise for their work and input into this well organised monster of a tribute album! I often find with long tribute albums or compilation albums that I get bored 3 quarters of the way through, but this album was a pleasure from track one until the final track "Run With The Devil", which was recorded by most of the bands involved in this project, and is a fantastic way to bring this project to a satisfactory ending.

Personal favourites of mine here would be "Stronger Than Evil" covered by the female fronted, Italian quintet ETERNAL FEAR, I strongly recommend you checking their original material out! I also really enjoyed "The King" covered by GREAT MASTER, "Might For Right" by ARTHEMIS, "Free" by DARK HORIZONS, "You've Got The Power" by ISENGARD and of course, "Run With The Devil" by the UNDERGROUND SYMPHONY ALL STARS! All of these bands seem to pull off these tracks as if it were their own, which I love; There's no real point in covering a song if you can't display your own unique 'twist' on it which differentiates you from everyone else, especially on a tribute album. And this whole album is full of it; every single band here both pays great tribute to the beloved HEAVY LOAD, whilst also adding originality to their cover versions, thus keeping things exciting, durable, and bloody epic!

This album has introduced me to 15+ phenomenal bands, and paid tribute exceptionally well to HEAVY LOAD with incredible covers, which deems this release an absolute success and I urge you to check out this album, and every band involved with this project. I sincerely doubt you will be disappointed by this release.<