220V - Fine, Fine Swedish Brew
by Martin Popoff

One of the greatest bands from the New Wave Of Swedish Heavy Metal was undoubtedly 220V (pronounced "two twenty volt"!). Along with Torch, Heavy Load, Axewitch, Overdrive, Oz, Trance and Silver Mountain, 220V helped carve a sound that was gothic, leaden yet melodic - all about guitars howling in the night. Indeed, Power Games is, in my opinion, one of the finest metal albums ever pressed to plastic. Now back touring and recording, the band has an album called Volume 1 plus a reissue of Eye To Eye out on Power Play Records (see www.powerplayrecords.net for more).

"We've just resumed the work on a live album," says guitarist Mats Karlsson. "This one will be a full album as opposed to the five songs that were released on our 20th anniversary limited edition album Volume 1 two years ago. We've also just completed a recording for Brunflo Hockey, which is a local hockey team. We've done their anthem song, sort of in the 'We Will Rock You' vein. Apart from that we're writing new stuff and we'll be recording this fall I guess."

What, indeed, would a new 220V album sound like?

"Since it's the original (early) line-up of the band that's now reformed, it may sound a little different than later albums. The band was a bit more on the experimental, progressive side in the early days. More tempo changes and slightly heavier material is my guess; at least of what's been on the table so far. We're still finding our way; we haven't been writing together for some time so we're trying stuff out. But it's moving along in the right direction. In terms of songs, I'll give you one that's decided: 'Hell Of A Lady'. A few other new ones that were released on the Volume 1 album are 'Don't Come My Way', 'On Top Of The World' and 'You'."

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