Metal
Heavy Psych Sounds · 16 October 2026
Firebreather’s fourth album was recorded by a drummer who is not in the band. The label’s own page says so plainly: when the time came to go into the studio the Gothenburg trio were “in between drummers” and called Tommy Hanning, who was around at the time of the first record. Hanning lives way up north in Sweden, learned the songs from home, flew down for one weekend to play them with the other two and then they recorded.
The rest of the sheet is short and says what the band were after: keeping it “raw, heavy and groovy”, expanding their trajectory and adding “a lil more melody to vocals as well”. They recorded with Joona at Studio Underjord and, according to that same text, told him straight away that they wanted it raw and dirty. Seven songs, no guests, all compositions credited to the group and all lyrics to Mattias Nööjd, who sings and plays guitar, with Jacob Madetoja on bass.
“El Cuervo”, the second track, is the only Spanish title in a programme that otherwise runs in English, and “Shrines” closes the album. The change of house also accounts for part of the tone: the self-titled debut came out in 2017 on Suicide Records, “Under a Blood Moon” (2019) and “Dwell in the Fog” (2022) on RidingEasy, and this is the first for Heavy Psych Sounds. Four albums, three labels and the same nominal line-up from the start.
The sheet, though, does not quite say who was there. The album’s member list gives Joakim Olsson on drums while the text beside it explains that the one who played them was Hanning, and nowhere does it say on which tracks or in what role. On a record sold on the rawness of the take, the name of whoever keeps the time ought to be the first thing you read. Angry Metal Guy, the only independent review it has drawn, singles out the guitar solos and calls the percussive performance “suitable but unremarkable”; with one weekend of rehearsal and songs learned separately, that is the result you could expect. The album came out on 16 October on digital, CD and several coloured vinyl editions, and the label’s page publishes no mixing or mastering credit.
Rating: 7.5/10
Text by Roger Estivill