Monday, December 12, 2016

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, Narnia) 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" track list:

01.  Maze of Mind02.  The Stories We Tell03.  Voices In the
Dark04.  Edge of Night05.  It's Only Forever

"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