Dying Victims Productions, jewelcase, sticker, obi,
The idea for Slovenia’s CHALLENGER started in the summer of 2016, when Jakob Rejec (ex-VIGILANCE, Ambra) was challenged to play a foodball game with Urban Železnik (SkyEye), and if Urban won, they would form a band together. Unfortunately, they never played the game, but still decided to form a band.For the first lineup, they invited Blaž Tanšek (Mist, ex-Teleport) to play the bass guitar and Mihaela Žitko (Mist) to join on the drums. Through some jam sessions, the first riffs were made, and in November, the band had their first gig under the name Irön Breed, combining the surnames of Jakob and Urban, with Rejec meaning “breeder” and Železnik meaning “iron.” Soon after, they changed their name to CHALLENGER, and Mihaela left her drum duties to Toni Pleško (ex-Teleport, Natt, Đornata). In 2019, they released their first EP Turned to Dust to critical acclaim.
Corona times were not very fruitful for CHALLENGER, but in 2022, they came back with new blood on the bass guitar with Nika Krmelj (Eruption). With her, they finished their debut album and recorded a pre-production demo in the spring of 2023 but had to let her go soon after. The last lineup was formed with Samo Stopar picking up the bass guitar in the summer of 2023, with whom they finished recording their debut album in March 2024.
Now, at long last, that debut album is here: Force of Nature. Aptly titled, CHALLENGER’s first full-length draws from a deep well of heavy metal wisdom, and does so with gusto. Their stated influences include Saxon, Iron Maiden, Tank, Rainbow, Judas Priest, Venom, Mercyful Fate, Running Wild, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and the UK’s Satan, and verily do CHALLENGER siphon off both the best and most idiosyncratic strains of those legends’ DNA and reconfigure them into a travelogue of pathos and bravado. The songwriting across Force of Nature suitably gallops with energy, but the band patiently allow each construct to unfold, retaining a sense of austere grace in the process. The leads are majestic and many; most impart a melancholy seemingly at odds with the jaunty tempos explored, but the sum effect becomes one of steely-eyed stateliness perfectly in line with the album’s wider “doomed hero” drama. That CHALLENGER posses impeccable chops – to the man, with actual bass guitar prominent in the soundfield – only make these eight mini-epics gleam that much brighter.
CHALLENGER may unapologetically look the past, but their heavy metal heroism is truly timeless. Behold a true Force of Nature!
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