DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH - Odes To The Gods (June 27, 2025)

🔥NEW UPCOMING ALBUM RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT!🔥

🤘New release from: DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH – Odes To The Gods (June 27, 2025)🤘

DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH, the ’80s heavy metal side project of THERION, are set to release their debut album Odes To The Gods on June 27, 2025! The first single, “Darkside Brigade“, delivers a powerful dose of classic metal fury. Watch the YouTube video clip below.

From the Facebook page Christofer supplies some extra info:

Some more details about the coming Defenders of the Faith album:

– The album have two categories of heavy metal songs. Half the album is a bit more edgy and tough like Accept and (when they are in the mood for it) Judas Priest. The other half is more sophisticated and melodic, like Maiden and Scorpions.

– One of the songs have a part with a bit of strings. It wasn’t common back then, but Ozzy had it in at least two songs I can think of – which makes it approved by the rules in the Book of Heavy Metal.

– The album has a lot of kind of obvious nods and winks to other artists and also some so-called Easter Eggs. Those are more subtle but can be discovered by a trained ear and a sharp mind of a metalhead knowing his/her heavy metal history. Then there are the difficult ones that I think only professional (or very skilled amateur) artists will figure out. A few of the easter eggs are not heavy metal though, some are references to an artist that were one of the influences for the 80’s heavy metal bands.

– Playing live. I decided to cut down drastically on playing live with Therion, so I’m obviously not going to start touring with a new band instead. So the idea is not to play live.

– The cover. I really love this cover and I am happy many seems to like it too. It was done by Jan Yrlund and he had free hands to work from a basic concept idea I gave him. To me Accept Restless and Wild (original cover with the two burning flying V guitars) was the cover that had the biggest impact on me back then. But I also loved Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbows debut album with the Stratocaster castle. So I asked for something like the Rainbow cover, but with a Flying V and make it more like a temple. He went more in the classic castle style instead, but as soon as I saw it, I was blown away and understood this was better.

/ Christofer

Odes To The Gods tracklist:

01. Heavy Metal Shakedown
02. I’m In Love With My Tank
03. The Time Machine
04. Northern Stones
05. Darkside Brigade
06. Funeral Pyre
07. Intruder
08. Our Saviour
09. The End of the World