words @killer.solo.music
Sweden’s futuristic metal architects return with a heavier, deeper and more human chapter in the METALITE universe.
There’s always been something slightly different about METALITE.
Since guitarist and founding member Edwin Premberg started the Swedish melodic metal outfit in 2015, the band have built a world where power metal, electronics, huge melodies and science fiction can coexist without any of them feeling like an afterthought.
Now, with DISCOVERY, that world gets bigger.
Speaking with KillerTube, Premberg explains that the album continues the story established on Expedition One. Humanity has escaped a collapsing Earth and reached a distant planet — and DISCOVERY picks up the story after that arrival, exploring what happens when the survivors begin discovering what their new home has to offer.
But DISCOVERY isn’t simply another chapter in the concept. Musically, METALITE wanted something heavier.
Premberg talks about pushing the guitars further forward, adding more chugging and low end, while giving the bass and drums a greater presence. Much of that evolution has been helped by drummer Erik Junttila, whose first album with the band brings a harder and more organic rhythmic attack.
And behind the desk is a familiar name: acclaimed producer Jacob Hansen. Having worked with METALITE since their debut Heroes in Time, Hansen has helped shape the band’s sound while allowing it to evolve from album to album.
That evolution doesn’t mean abandoning the human element.
For Premberg, that’s essential. Programming can create almost anything these days, but it can’t completely replace a human musician. With Junttila behind the kit, METALITE have been able to bring more of that human feel into the music — something Premberg says the band have been chasing for a long time.
The interview also dives into Premberg’s songwriting process, which can begin anywhere: an idea in the car, a melody captured on his smartphone, then hours in his home studio turning that fragment into something real.
There’s even a trip down memory lane, from modern synth plugins and ReFX Nexus all the way back to the Commodore Amiga 500 and ProTracker.
And perhaps the most interesting part of METALITE’s futuristic vision is how close some of it is beginning to feel.
Premberg’s stories are influenced by real-world ambitions to explore space, including humanity’s current focus on Mars. As the interview turns toward the increasingly blurred line between science fiction and reality, he sums it up perfectly:
“The sci-fi is now.”
DISCOVERY also marks another important chapter in a much longer journey. When asked which song from METALITE’s catalogue remains especially important to him, Premberg points back to “Afterlife” — the first song he ever wrote, the track he spent years developing, and ultimately the song that helped lead to the record deal that started METALITE.
The next chapter arrives September 25.
And if the story of METALITE is heading where Edwin Premberg thinks it is, DISCOVERY may be less about imagining the future than documenting the moment we start living in it.
This is the gospel.
I bite crowd surfers.
Killer.
