Only Heavy Metal

PRESS RELEASE: OSUKARU to release "THE LABYRINTH" in March 2017!

Swedish AOR band Osukaru are about to release their brand new album "The Labyrinth" in March 2017, which will be their 4th full length studio album, but also their first ever concept album. It was mixed by Viktor Stenquist (Beseech, Amorphis) and Attila Bokor (Morph, BOA, Osukaru).

"The Labyrinth" is a love letter to classic fantasy movies from back in the day and in particular the 1986 fantasy flick "Labyrinth", thereof the album title.

"The idea was to write songs that when played in the order they appear on the album, they would tell the overall story of the spectacular and magical movie 'Labyrinth', but with each song still being able to stand on its own" Oz says.
"But as a twist, our version of the story is more from the antagonists point of view, as I would imagine the book read by the protagonist in the first scene of the movie is as well. So by going from that angle, we found a lot of interesting stories and themes to build our songs on."

"The Labyrinth" sees Osukaru taking one step back and two steps forward into their already established AOR-with-an-edge territory, raising the keyboards and the melodies just another notch.

Oz: "I'd say that this one is our most AOR oriented release since 'Salvation', but it's also our most hard hitting rock album to date."

The album artwork was, as always, created by Oz himself and this time we see returning model Isabelle Högbacka being back as their blindfolded heroine for the first time since "Salvation" in 2012.

"The Labyrinth" will be available on CD and digital download (via City of Lights Records / Membran Entertainment Group), vinyl (via Blastzone Entertainment) and as a limited edition collector's box set only available at http://osukaru.bandcamp.com/

Swedish melodic rock band Osukaru will release the follow up album to last years highly successful "The Labyrinth" on September 28th of this year. The new album "House of Mirrors" consists of 11 tracks produced by founder / guitarist Oz Osukaru and singer Fredrik Werner, mixed by Svein Jensen at Grand Recordings in Gothenburg and mastered by Kristian Fyhr at Fyhr Music Productions.

"With 'House of Mirrors' I think we finally figured out how to combine the melodic AOR elements from our 2012 debut album 'Salvation' with the rawer groovy edge of 'The Labyrinth', yet still include something completely fresh" says Oz Osukaru. "In that way, this could easily be the spiritual successor to our debut, yet stand its own ground. I know a lot of bands have said this about their new release and all, yet I never have. Not until now that is because this is without a doubt our best album so far!"

Singer and co-producer Fredrik Werner joins in: "This album marks the completion of what has been shining through here and there on previous releases. It has a mixture of melody and raw attitude which reflects my personal influences very well", he says. "You won’t know what hit you by the time you reach the last track on our, in my opinion, most solid AOR experience to date."

The cover artwork was created by Oz himself, this time working out the concept with his manager / fiancée Adrienne Hawe, starring model Emelie Blidmark.

"Just coming off 'The Labyrinth" which has our most iconic album cover to date, I didn't want to go back to how I created them before, nor did I want to try and remake our last one either" says Oz. "This was a hard nut to crack but with fresh feedback from Adrienne as well as us both going through some of the classic album covers within our genre, I finally found inspiration to, together with my very good friend and model Emelie Blidmark, create what I believe matches the quality of 'The Labyrinth', if not even surpasses it."

"House of Mirrors" drops on CD and digital September 28th via City of Lights Records all over the globe.

First single "MacGyver It" will premiere on The Steve Price Rock Show on ARFM tomorrow, Saturday August 11th and be officially released on Monday, August 13th.