Century - The Fighting Eagle

"The Fighting Eagle": Century Soars On Wings of Classic Metal (Early Track Stream)


We’ve been following the career of Leo Ekström Sollenmo with great interest for these last few years as he’s played on some of the most interesting new Swedish releases: drums for the excellent ancient heavy metal warriors Lethal Steel, several instruments for mind bending death metal masters Temisto, drums for speed freaks Tøronto- Leo has it going on.

Now joined by Tøronto bandmate Staffan Tengnér, the two have a new band simply called Century. After putting out an excellent demo the other year, they’re back now with a special 7” single to promote ahead of their upcoming debut album on Electric Assault Records. Though it’s only two songs (one of which is a single-exclusive Witch cover), it’s a promising sign for the album and proof that Electric Assault remains one of the finest talent scouts around.

Covering a somewhat obscure Swedish band is a great signifier of what Century is all about, and their new track “The Fighting Eagle” is a storm of heavy metal brilliance that strongly recalls labelmates Tyrann as well as old Swedish classics like Gotham City. Despite that clear link to the nascent heavy metal scene of their country, “The Fighting Eagle” isn’t purely worshiping at the feet of previous Swedish gods. The lead guitar and sometimes sharper-than-average rhythm riffs (not a lot of big plodding power chords here!) bring to mind some of more talented early Brits, and even without flashy technical riffs the musicianship that this pair of metal magicians bring is a clear step above more pale imitators failing to bring the same bite to this style of heavy metal. The Witch cover they chose is “Still Alive,” and that’s what Century has to say about true heavy metal: it’s still alive, and will never die.

Listen to the exclusive premiere of the new single below:

The Fighting Eagle releases March 25th, 2022 via Electric Assault Records.