Ragne Wahlquist’s memorial service in Stockholm last month had all the solemnity (and the stacked guest list) of a state funeral. Wahlquist, who for nearly 50 years led the heavy metal institution Heavy Load, has been called Sweden’s first true rock star, and Heavy Load is widely considered the country’s first metal band. His death on Jan. 2, three weeks shy of his 70th birthday, left a gaping hole in the scene that he and his brother and bandmate, Styrbjörn Wahlquist, created from whole cloth at the end of the 1970s. After Heavy Load’s initial shot across the bow, Sweden quickly developed into a global hotbed for metal, a reputation it retains to this day. Somebody in Sweden would have gotten around to starting a heavy metal band eventually. But Ragne and Styrbjörn had the vision and the guts to be first.

Heavy Load’s debut album, Full Speed At High Level, came out in November 1978, smack dab in the middle of ABBA’s historic run of chart domination. (“Thank You For The Music” had just come out; “Chiquitita” was a couple months away.) Full Speed is a bluesy, riff-driven affair, heavily inspired by the young Wahlquist brothers’ love of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. It’s a little rough around the edges, but it shows the early signs of the classicist streak that would come to distinguish the band from their chief influences. The album’s most significant contribution might be the way it Swedenized what had thus far been a strictly British and American aesthetic. A full decade before Bathory’s Blood Fire Death, album closer “Son Of The Northern Light” introduced the Norse mythology and Viking themes that would become a staple of Scandinavian metal. Full Speed At High Level wasn’t a mainstream hit, but it made a splash among Swedish hard rockers, who until then had relied mostly on music from the UK and US to get their heavy fix.

In the early ’80s, the band dropped the trilogy of releases that would secure their legacy: 1981’s Metal Conquest EP, 1982’s Death Or Glory, and 1983’s Stronger Than Evil. The somewhat tentative hard rock sound of Full Speed At High Level evolved into a swaggering, forthright heavy metal thunder. Ragne’s vocal performances grew stronger and more confident, and he started to develop a supernatural melodic chemistry with his new co-guitarist, Eddy Malm. Styrbjörn was becoming an unstoppable force behind the drum kit, and the Wahlquists’ cousin, Torbjörn Ragnesjö, joined the band and anchored their songs in sturdy, groovy bass lines. There still wasn’t much of a local metal scene to support what they were doing, but they carried themselves like they were the biggest band in the world, putting on infamous shows throughout Sweden with homemade pyrotechnics and explosions.

Metal Conquest and Stronger Than Evil are both great, but if you listen to just one Heavy Load album, make it Death Or Glory. With timeless beer-hoisting anthems like “Heavy Metal Angels (In Metal And Leather),” “Bleeding Streets,” and “The Guitar Is My Sword,” it’s become an inner-circle cult classic, the kind of record that’s talked about in reverent tones by those who know it. I just heard “Heavy Metal Angels” at a DJ night here in Columbus last week, and I promptly lost my mind and started belting along and drumming on the table. That’s the kind of power Heavy Load wielded at their peak. (Speaking of power, the early power metal scenes in the US and Germany certainly couldn’t have developed the way they did without Heavy Load’s ’80s catalog.)

Heavy Load hit a rough patch after the release of Stronger Than Evil. A big mainstream breakthrough never came, and outside of Sweden, they remained a frustratingly underground concern. Contrary to popular belief, the band never officially broke up. The Wahlquist brothers shifted their focus to their production work at Thunderload Studios, the Stockholm recording space where they helmed sessions for future legends like Candlemass, Morbid (fronted by Mayhem’s Dead), and Yngwie Malmsteen. They kept writing music for Heavy Load, but it would be 40 years before they’d release Riders Of The Ancient Storm, the true follow-up to Stronger Than Evil. At the time of Ragne’s death, they were working on a yet-to-be-announced fifth Heavy Load album. Styrbjörn says he fully intends to complete and release it.

After Ragne died, remembrances flooded in from the subsequent generations of Swedish musicians who followed in Heavy Load’s footsteps. Arch Enemy’s Michael Amott called him “a pioneer.” Candlemass bassist Leif Edling, who recorded several classic albums with Ragne, wrote, “I’m heartbroken. A wonderful person and musician is gone … He was an inspiration to me and Candlemass and he will be sadly missed. Our summer garden parties will not be the same anymore.” Ghost’s Tobias Forge (aka Papa Emeritus), arguably the biggest star the Swedish metal world has ever produced, was one of the mourners at Ragne’s funeral.

One of the most poignant tributes came from Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt, who had become close to Ragne and Styrbjörn in recent years. He recalled listening to the rough mixes for Riders Of The Ancient Storm with the brothers at Thunderload, eating cinnamon rolls and drinking coffee while the first Heavy Load album in four decades roared out of the speakers. For a Stockholm-born music nerd and Swedish metal icon in his own right, it’s hard to imagine a more surreal scene. “It was awesome to the point of absurdity,” Åkerfeldt wrote on Instagram. “The brothers were so proud (as they should be). They treated me with such respect and warmth that day (and every other time we met). I will never forget it.”

Åkerfeldt and his Opeth bandmate Fredrik Åkesson were invited to play “The Guitar Is My Sword” at Ragne’s funeral, and it’s hard for me to get through the leaked snippets of their performance without choking up. Ragne’s guitar was his sword, and the Swedish metal musicians (and people from all over the world) who followed him into battle stand as a vindication of what once seemed like a quixotic campaign. The spirit of that song lives on in Opeth and Ghost and Arch Enemy, bands who have reached many millions more fans than Heavy Load ever did. For that, Ragne is immortal.

Today, a robust crop of young Swedish metal bands is dedicated to carrying Heavy Load’s sonic legacy into the future. Tyrann and Century, both from Stockholm, are critical darlings and two of the scene’s leading lights, and Century have even toured America, something Heavy Load never managed to do during Ragne’s lifetime. Tyrann have a song called “Don’t Make Fashion Of Our Heavy Metal Passion,” which has to be the most Heavy Load-y title that Heavy Load never came up with.

Watcher, the Skövde project led by former Lethal Steel vocalist Viktor Gustafsson, just released a new EP called Glory Or Agony — if not in direct homage to Death Or Glory, then certainly unconsciously influenced by it. “Heavy Load has meant a great deal to me,” Gustafsson wrote to me in an email. “Stronger Than Evil was one of the first records I ever bought, and it had an incredible impact on me. It actually was the album that inspired me to create heavy metal myself. Without Heavy Load, the Swedish metal scene would not be the same. They paved the way and became a source of inspiration for so many bands. The Swedish metal scene has lost a true pioneer and role model. We owe so much to Ragne.”

Niklas Holm from Wanton Attack, an old-school metal duo from Norrköping, echoed Gustafsson’s sentiments. “Few bands can claim to be as ahead of their time as Heavy Load,” he wrote. “In many ways, they unearthed the spirit of Swedish heavy metal and never bent to trends or time. We are proud to build on the foundation they laid.”

Heavy Load is deeply embedded in the DNA of Gothenburg trad metal warriors Helvetets Port. When I connected with the band’s vocalist and guitarist Tomas Ericson, he told me he had just had a dream the night before where he was playing music with Ragne in 1979. I wasn’t sure if that was a crazy coincidence, or if jamming with Heavy Load is something he dreams about all the time.

“The first time I went to Stockholm after having discovered this notion of classic Swedish heavy metal ‘that wasn’t on the radio,’ I came home with Metal Conquest, Death Or Glory, and Stronger Than Evil on vinyl, without having heard Heavy Load before,” Ericson wrote to me. “Putting the first record on was the most ‘hand in glove’ music listening moment I’ve ever had. There was no question as to what kind of music I was going to listen to thenceforth. Heavy Load have instilled in me a penchant for what I would best describe as ‘earnest, melancholic power’ in music. And whenever one writes music and turns to E minor, the spirit of Heavy Load is there.”

I reached out to Styrbjörn Wahlquist a few days after Ragne’s funeral, and frankly, I didn’t expect him to get back to me. I just wanted to express my condolences and let him know I was planning to write something about Heavy Load. But Styrbjörn surprised me by saying he’d be happy to answer any questions I had for this piece. Out of respect and gratitude for the time he took to do an interview while grieving his brother and musical soulmate, I’m going to publish our email interview in its entirety below. The text has been lightly edited for clarity.

You and Ragne have talked about the life-changing experience of hearing Deep Purple’s Machine Head as kids. What was it like in your house in those years, when you were first getting excited about this music and learning to play together?

STYRBJÖRN WAHLQUIST: Ragne and I had been playing instruments for quite a few years. Our father was a singer and had a grand piano in our home. Ragne started with piano sometime around the age of six. After that, he took guitar lessons. Due to his great interest in music, he also had trumpet and violin lessons for a while. I began on father’s piano as well, and then went on to guitar lessons and drum lessons. As for Deep Purple’s Machine Head: The only record player we had the first year was Ragne’s mono travel record player, with just one speaker placed in the player’s plastic lid. The sound must have been awful. However, on this player, we played Machine Head at least once a day for a whole year — often twice a day. Before long, I happened to find Made In Japan in a record store, and then we played that record at least once a day for a whole year as well. I got my first drumkit when I was eight years old. Quite soon, Ragne and I did some attempts to play together with just acoustic guitar and drums. It did not work well, because the drumkit was too loud. After some time, Ragne bought his first electric guitar and used dad’s mono tape recorder as an amplifier. That worked much better. The neighbors complained about the noise in our apartment, however, so we moved down to the cellars, three stories underground. Ragne bought his first real amplifier and a better guitar, and we jammed away. However, there were new complaints from neighbors living on the first floor, four stories up: “Your noise is making waves in our coffee cups!”

Full Speed At High Level is now widely considered the first Swedish heavy metal album. Were you conscious of the fact that you were pushing the boundaries at the time?

WAHLQUIST: Absolutely! Full Speed At High Level was recorded over five days and mixed in two days during the summer of 1978. However, we played and wrote songs in the same style long before this. Our first concert was during the winter of 1976. This kind of music was more or less banned by the media at this period. During all of the ’70s, hard rock bands or heavy metal bands were never played on the radio and never shown on television. This music was taboo due to, among other things, the current left-wing paradigm in Sweden. Whenever a hard rock concert was reviewed, the bands were accused of being macho, sexist, and capitalist. The only exception was a short film sequence showing Jimi Hendrix setting his guitar on fire. When it was time for us to try to get a record deal, we went to several record labels who all turned us down. They wanted us to play pop songs with Swedish lyrics. When we had a meeting with a label manager who, among other labels, handled Vertigo, with Black Sabbath and Nazareth, he said the following: “Forget about it, guys. Hard rock is dead and will never come back. The media will refuse to write about it. The only music that will work in the future is punk and disco.” Well, you could say that we proved him wrong. Ragne and I financed the recording and the making of the album cover ourselves. Full Speed At High Level was released during the fall of 1978 and it did quite well. During the same fall, we did some touring in Sweden. A common reaction was that people was astonished by the fact that there was such a thing as Swedish band playing a kind of music previously only played by British and American bands

Heavy Load shows were spectacles from the very beginning, with walls of Marshall stacks, your huge drum riser, and lots of pyrotechnics. Why was it important to you and Ragne to present the band in that way?

WAHLQUIST: Our music is usually quite bombastic and dramatic, expressing strong feelings. Our credo is that a concert should be a Gesamtkunstwerk. The music and the visual expression should be in harmony with each other in order to render a strong emotional experience. During the late ’70s and early ’80s, there were quite a few crazy incidents. For instance, on one occasion, the fire brigade stopped the concert, frantically searching for a fire, since the fire alarm had gone off, despite the fact that we had informed them with a long notice that we would use pyrotechnics. On another occasion, the bombs were overloaded, and there were burning projectiles flying up to the balcony. The color filters in the spotlights came falling down like snowflakes, together with pieces of the ceiling. After that, we became more cautious.

1981 to 1983 was a period of furious productivity, with Metal Conquest, Death Or Glory, and Stronger Than Evil all coming out in that short span. How would you characterize those years? Did it feel like the band was on the verge of a breakthrough?

WAHLQUIST: Metal Conquest did rather well. Death Or Glory did much better and sold also rather well outside Sweden. It was written about in the British magazine Kerrang! quite a few times and was placed quite high on their playlists. French magazines wrote about us as well. It was released in Germany by the German label Corona, and also in Japan by the label Nippon Flamingo, if I am not mistaken. [Ed. note: Death Or Glory was released in Japan by Seven Seas, and you can currently get a copy on Discogs for $65.] When we were about to record Stronger Than Evil, the pre-orders in Sweden only gave us an advance that financed the whole project. The record did rather well and sold halfway gold in Sweden.


It was period of quite intense activity, and we were very focused. All of a sudden, the interest for heavy metal had increased enormously and there were many bands starting up. People everywhere began to wear patches and other merchandise for various metal bands. And the big British and American bands played at arenas instead of concert halls and theatres. The media could not ignore this music genre anymore. On some occasions, heavy metal was also shown on Swedish television (exclusively run by the state at the time), including Heavy Load a couple of times.

In the latter half of the ’80s, the band made a couple more attempts at getting things going, but you ultimately decided to break up. What was that time like for you?

WAHLQUIST: Well, it is actually a common misconception that Heavy Load broke up. Ragne and I started the band, financed the band’s projects, wrote most of the songs, and designed our artwork, and we never said that we would break up. As a matter of fact we always had the plan to come back. What happened was that Eddy Malm left, after a very successful summer tour in 1985, since he wanted to play more commercial music. After about six months, Andreas Fritz, our new bass player, joined him in this mission. Ragne and I kept on writing and recording songs for a new Heavy Load album from 1985 up to the first of January 2001. At this date the second, and biggest, studio we built together in our lives was flooded. During the same period, however, we had made a lot of recordings with other artists, so we were not exclusively working with our own songs.

You worked with Ragne for many years, recording other bands at Thunderload Studios. What stands out about your time as co-engineers and business partners?

WAHLQUIST: There was always a feeling of excitement and creative drive when working with Ragne and those early metal bands. Ragne was a genius sound engineer and producer, besides his being a genius artist himself. As far as recording goes, everything I know comes from him. The same goes for the business side — he was my mentor.

You were able to meet and work with bands like Candlemass and HammerFall, who cited Heavy Load as a formative influence. When did you start to get a sense of the impact that Heavy Load had on the Swedish metal scene?

WAHLQUIST: Well, when we began playing concerts after our first album, Full Speed At High Level, it became clear that about 95% of the audience was guys our own age or younger. Out of them, about 40% were playing instruments, or aspired to begin themselves. During the ’70s, there were no such thing as a Swedish metal band, but a lot of people bought albums and went to concerts with mostly British bands. I guess having seen that a group of Swedish musicians could go against the trends and play heavy music, others became inspired. Soon after Metal Conquest, there were more and more Swedish metal bands popping up.

When the studio flooded in 2000, what was the status of Heavy Load? I understand you lost some tapes that were intended for the new album. At that time, were you considering a comeback?

WAHLQUIST: At that precise point in time, late at night on Jan. 1, 2001, it was just me and Ragne working on new songs, besides from working with other bands. Yes, we were considering a comeback, although not that precise year. We were experimenting a lot with our sound and songwriting. And yes, there were a lot tapes, instruments, and equipment that were damaged. Actually, there was one meter of water in the studio for about five hours, until they managed to stop the water from coming in.

You ultimately did return in 2017, and your reputation had grown massively in your years away. What surprised you most about the reunion experience?

WAHLQUIST: Well, we made our first reunion concerts during the spring of 2018, but I believe we rereleased Stronger Than Evil with bonus tracks in 2017. In 2016, Eddy Malm and I were invited to the Up The Hammers Festival in Athens, in order to receive the festival’s Medal of Honor onstage. The experience of meeting such an overwhelming number of dedicated Heavy Load fans from various countries, with Heavy Load tattoos and newly made T-shirts we had never seen before, was fantastic. The signing session was endless and were signing numerous bootlegs of our old albums. The latter was a very strange sensation. Those things exceeded our expectations and prepared us for what was to come when we returned to the stage. It was magic!

You finally released the near-mythical fourth Heavy Load album, Riders Of The Ancient Storm, in 2023. What did it mean to you to be able to release new music to such a warm response, 40 years after the last album?

WAHLQUIST: It was a fantastic experience. The drive of Ragne and myself to compose, record and play live – besides our own need for emotional stimuli – is to reach out to other people. That is, to share our emotions with them and feel together with them. To receive that kind of response meant tremendously much to us.

It seems the band was very active even in Ragne’s final days. Was he planning to continue to write and perform?

WAHLQUIST: Absolutely! We were working intensely on our next Heavy Load album. We were extremely inspired. In addition, Ragne had, in November, two months before his passing, released the first two parts in his novel series set in the Viking era called The Wahlgaard Saga. On Jan. 2 this year, we had celebrated New Year’s Eve at separate places for once. At 11:43, Ragne called me, and we spoke about what we should do in the studio. I was supposed to compose the drums for one of Ragne’s songs and present one of my new ones by just playing guitar and singing. About 30 minutes later, I received a phone call informing me that he had been found unconscious outside his villa and that they had called for ambulance. Three minutes later, the ambulance personnel called and informed me that he was gone. My big brother, my very best friend, my companion in our mutual lifelong project of making music, was no more. I was, as I am sure you can imagine, shocked and devastated. I still am. By Ragne’s side at the hospital, I promised him that I will make sure that his music will come out and reach the audience, because I know, one hundred percent, that this is what he wants me to do. Moreover, I intend to go on with Heavy Load. Ragne and I have written and recorded a great number of songs during so many years. These songs, and newer ones that I have composed, will be released when I and the rest of the band are ready.

At Ragne’s memorial in Stockholm, Mikael and Fredrik from Opeth performed an acoustic rendition of “The Guitar Is My Sword.” How did that come about, and what did it mean to have them there?

WAHLQUIST: Mikael and Fredrik are very dear friends of Ragne and me. Ragne’s passing was very hard on them as well. I called Mikael and asked him if he and Fredrik could make a tribute to Ragne by playing this precise song. There are several reasons for this: Ragne loved to play guitar, and his solos were always composed and played from the deepest parts of his heart and soul. The chorus of the song conveys his motto: “The guitar is my sword/ I will fight ’til I die/ Rock n’ roll is my lord ’til the very last sigh.” A striking passage, in the context of his funeral, is the break, with the words: “Life, I love you/ And one day you won’t be/ Life, I love you/ And one day you won’t be.”

“The Guitar Is My Sword” became a kind of motto for the band, and for Ragne in particular, who got it embroidered on his cap. What made that song so powerful and so important to Heavy Load?

WAHLQUIST: Well, I feel that we have a lot of other important songs as well. And this song, although very popular, is actually not our most popular one. It is, however, significant for what Ragne stood for. “The Guitar” could be seen as metaphor for music in general, as this was our mutual passion all through our lives. Music is our weapon of choice to deal with the world, and to create something passionate and positive for ourselves and others.

What can you say about the forthcoming fifth Heavy Load album?

WAHLQUIST: To some extent it will in the same spirit as our last one, Riders Of The Ancient Storm. The songs will vary in style and mood. Ragne and I always let the songs themselves decide what they should be like — they guide our way.  Moreover, the mood of the music begets the lyrics. There will most likely be a few songs that are only written by me. In addition, I will be the lead singer on more songs on the new album than our last one. On our last album, I did the lead vocals on just two songs, and Ragne on five. The topics and settings of the lyrics will most likely be typical for Heavy Load — existential and dramatic.

TEN NAILS THROUGH THE NECK

JOURNEY TO THE WORLD BEYOND

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mille Petrozza (@mille.petrozza)