SPIRIT OF ALCHEMY
IN STORES WORLDWIDE APRIL 9:TH 2021

UPCOMING EVENTS IN 2022

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“Spirit of Alchemy”

The mighty Johan Kihlberg´s Impera is back with their heaviest album to date. Beside the exciting new approach, “Spirit of Alchemy” features some of the most prominent players from the Swedish rock scene.

Johan Kihlberg´s Impera is the brainchild of Stockholm born drummer Johan Kihlberg, who formed the band in 2011 after having worked in the music business for over 30 years, performing with members from legendary acts such as Kiss, Thin Lizzy, Europe, Rainbow and Mötley Crüe. After five Impera releases, including the original soundtrack for the short movie “The rage”, mastermind Kihlberg decided it was time to steer the music into a heavier direction.

Every album leading up to “Spirit of Alchemy” has been unique in the how Kihlberg has invited his noted friends from the international rock and metal community to add their magic to the songs. This time, the stellar musicianship comes courtesy of no less than bassist John Levén (who has been with Swedish hard rock titans Europe since its formation) and renowned drummer Snowy Shaw (who has a history with King Diamond, Mercyful Fate and Sabaton). The soaring vocals is brought to you by power house Jonny Lindkvist of Nocturnal Rites, while the stellar guitar wizardry once again is handled by Lars Chriss from Lion’s Share.

“Spirit of Alchemy” is an album full of focus and determination. The metal riffing in songs like the uptempo rocker “All about you” and the guitar picking that starts off the haunting “When souls collide” manage to sound both classic and futuristic at the same time. Even though Johan Kihlberg´s Impera’s new effort is rooted in the harder realms of rock, Kihlberg’s lifelong passion for atmospheric movie soundtracks once again shines through in the epic finale that is “Battle”.

Simply put; “Spirit of Alchemy” is sure to please both older and newer fans and push Johan Kihlberg´s Impera’s career to the next level.

Carl Linnaeus

Line-Up

Johan Kihlberg

Johan Kihlberg

John Leven

John Leven

Snowy Shaw

Snowy Shaw

Jonny Lindkvist

Jonny Lindkvist

Lars Chriss

Lars Chriss

Kay Backlund

Kay Backlund

Mats Vassfjord

Mats Vassfjord

Pontus Egberg

Pontus Egberg

 ALBUMS

Spirit of Alchemy

Nothing Will Last

Read It And Weep

All About You

When Souls Collide

In Heaven

What Will Be Will Be

Lost Your Life To Rock `N` Roll

No

Battle (Instrumental)

The Rage

Main Title  

 Dreaming  

 At the Gym   

 Fight Challenge

 In The Cell

 Fields  

 Breakout  

 Confrontation  

 Tank Assault   

 End Title  

Age Of Discovery

Prelude

That´s The Way That Life Goes

Fear

Falling

The End Of The Road

Just A Conversation

The Right Stuff

Why Does She Care

I Am I

It’s A Revolution

Empire Of Sin

Empire Of Sin

The Beast Is Dead

Evil (become A Believer)

Don’t Stop

Hole In The Sky

End Of The World

Thunder In Your Heart

Lights In The Sky

Darling

Lost Boy

Fly Away

Pieces of Eden

Beast Within

These Chains

All Alone

Smalltown Blues

Since You’ve Been Gone

Goodbye

Easy Come

You And I

This Is War

Fire And The Flame

Legacy Of Life

 Turn My Heart To Stone

Kiss Of Death

Break The Law

Shoot Me Down

Sunset Rider

Tell Me

More Than Meets The Eye

Is This Love

Show Me The Money

Dead-end Street

VIDEOS

The Family

History

2018

After three albums with his band IMPERA, founding drummer Johan Kihlberg decided it was time to spread his wings, and the Swede came up with the idea to record his first solo effort, Johan Kihlberg’s Impera “Age Of Discovery”. “I felt this would give me the opportunity to spread my wings a bit and work with some other people,” Johan said. “I grew up with bands like KISS, QUEEN, ABBA and THE BEATLES, who were not afraid to have a wide range of styles on their albums. I’m obviously a hard rock fan at heart, but I’m also influenced by bands like SIMPLE MINDS, KRAFTWERK, MANFRED MANN’S EARTH BAND, HUMAN LEAGUE and many others. I’m also a huge fan of movies and movie soundtracks.”

The first person Johan approached was LION’S SHARE guitarist Lars Chriss, who is also a renowned producer and mixer. “Johan and I got together and started writing songs,” Chriss said. “He usually had an idea of the direction and we took it from there. We also had a couple of friends coming up with basic ideas for about half of the album. We had the luxury to cherry-pick the songs we thought would add to what we already had going. For lyrics and melodies we worked closely with singer Mick Devine of the band SEVEN, whom I’ve done a couple albums with the last couple of years. My old friend and LION’S SHARE keyboardist Kay Backlund stepped up to the plate and worked with us on a couple of tracks as well.”

Kihlberg and Chriss decided to work with several different singers on the project, while enlisting Kihlberg’s longtime friend and IMPERA bandmate Mats Vassfjord to lay down the bass tracks. “As soon as we had the songs written, we started thinking about what voice and singer that would fit each individual track the best,” Kihlberg said. “Fortunately, they all agreed and did an amazing job on the album. I even managed to get one of my all-time favorite singers, Michael Sadler from SAGA, to sing a song.”

Johan Kihlberg’s Impera “Age Of Discovery” features a wide range of musical influences while remaining a very strong, melodic and powerful album. It boasts great production work by Chriss and a stunning artwork by Carl-André Beckston.

Line-up: Johan Kihlberg – Drums/Keyboards; Lars Chriss (Lion’s Share)- Guitars; Mats Vassfjord (220 Volt) – Bass; Michael Sadler (Saga) – Lead & Backing Vocals on 8; Göran Edman (Yngwie Malmsteen, John Norum) – Lead & Backing Vocals on 6; Mick Devine (Seven) – Lead Vocals on 3, 5, 9 – Backing Vocals on 3, 7, 9, bonus track; Nigel Bailey (Bailey) – Lead Vocals on 7, 10, bonus track – Backing Vocals on 5, 10 ; Nils Patrik Johansson (Lion’s Share, Astral Doors) – Lead & Backing Vocals on 2, 3; Michael J. Scott – Lead & Backing Vocals on 4; Mattias IA Eklundh (Freak Kitchen) – solo on 9; Kay Backlund (Lion’s Share) – Keyboards on 1, 3, 6; Anders Rybank (Coastland Ride) – Keyboards on 8

Produced by: Johan Kihlberg & Lars Chriss

Mixed by: Lars Chriss for www.noterious.eu

Mastered by: Mike Lind

Artwork by: Carl André Beckston

PRESS

“Spirit of Alchemy”

The mighty Johan Kihlberg´s Impera is back with their heaviest album to date. Beside the exciting new approach, “Spirit of Alchemy” features some of the most prominent players from the Swedish rock scene.

Johan Kihlberg´s Impera is the brainchild of Stockholm born drummer Johan Kihlberg, who formed the band in 2011 after having worked in the music business for over 30 years, performing with members from legendary acts such as Kiss, Thin Lizzy, Europe, Rainbow and Mötley Crüe. After five Impera releases, including the original soundtrack for the short movie “The rage”, mastermind Kihlberg decided it was time to steer the music into a heavier direction.

Every album leading up to “Spirit of Alchemy” has been unique in the how Kihlberg has invited his noted friends from the international rock and metal community to add their magic to the songs. This time, the stellar musicianship comes courtesy of no less than bassist John Levén (who has been with Swedish hard rock titans Europe since its formation) and renowned drummer Snowy Shaw (who has a history with King Diamond, Mercyful Fate and Sabaton). The soaring vocals is brought to you by power house Jonny Lindkvist of Nocturnal Rites, while the stellar guitar wizardry once again is handled by Lars Chriss from Lion’s Share.

“Spirit of Alchemy” is an album full of focus and determination. The metal riffing in songs like the uptempo rocker “All about you” and the guitar picking that starts off the haunting “When souls collide” manage to sound both classic and futuristic at the same time. Even though Johan Kihlberg´s Impera’s new effort is rooted in the harder realms of rock, Kihlberg’s lifelong passion for atmospheric movie soundtracks once again shines through in the epic finale that is “Battle”.

Simply put; “Spirit of Alchemy” is sure to please both older and newer fans and push Johan Kihlberg´s Impera’s career to the next level.

Carl Linnaeus

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