First play of the new Atlas Losing Grip track, featuring new vocalist

By Ben Tipple

Atlas Losing Grip made the surprise announcement towards the end of last week that long-time frontman Rodrigo Alfaro had parted ways with the band. Alfaro joined the Swedish melodic punks in 2009, recording an releasing ‘Watching The Horizon’ and ‘State Of Unrest’. A rigid tour schedule followed, which ultimately saw the band part ways with the vocalist, citing different outlooks that would affect their time on the road.

Alongside the announcement, Atlas Losing Grip quickly confirmed new vocalist Niklas Olsson. “It has been a challenging process and it’s not easy to break with a person whom you have had so much in common with and shared a big part of your life with, but this change was necessary for us as persons and for Atlas Losing Grip as a band,” founding guitarist Gustav Burn notes on recent developments. We’ve done this band for ten years, and we’ve changed singer before. We are happier, more harmonic than ever and excited to have the future in front of our feet. New album, new tours, everything, we are SO ready!”

Atlas Losing Grip are forging ahead with the release plans. ‘Currents’ remains set for a 16th January 2015 release, retaining Rodrigo’s vocals. New track ‘Cynosure’ is, according to Burn, a showcase of the new vocalists style more than a definitive musical statement. For now, the focus remains firmly on ‘Currents’.

“We might do more stuff, and especially new stuff ASAP because we are just so hungry and excited right now! This album has taken to long to finish, and we’re so glad that it’s only a little more than a month to the release,” Burn exclaims. “This new album is just so much wider and bigger sounding. We’ve worked and finished all the ideas that came to us, not scratching anything – trying to make the best song of whatever tiny riff we came up with from the beginning. I think you can hear all our different influences across the album, it’s a long album, and I’m sure that people are gonna think it’s been worth the wait!”

Speaking of ‘Cynosure’, and Olsson’s induction into the band, Burn is extremely positive. “Except for a great voice, Olsson is a super great guy, really calm and down to earth, fun, positive, intelligent and caring. And a superb musician, he just feels so right – right away. It makes stuff so much easier for us. ‘Cynosure’ as I remember it was one of the first tracks we finished for the new album. I remember Stefan showing me the riff, and it’s one of those riffs where you feel SO FUCKING COOL while playing it, like you’re really bad ass you know. We’ve played a bunch of times live, and yeah, it’s just a super bad ass song.”

With ‘Currents’ set for an early 2015 release, and plans to tour Europe and the UK extensively in support of the record, things are looking bright for Burn and co. come 2015. “It will be a new era for the band definitely,” Burn says with sheer anticipation. “We are releasing the album in CAN/US/MEXICO for the first time, we are working with getting the album out almost everywhere, we are going to tour a lot, see new places, get inspired, write and record something new REALLY soon, I can tell you. We are so stoked on getting this album of ours out there. I went through my old computer today and found the first demos we did, and I can’t tell you how long ago that was,” he laughts. “Enjoy Cynosure!”

Hear the new version of ‘Cynosure’, featuring new vocalist Niklas Olsson, exclusively below.

For more on Atlas Losing Grip, and to keep up to date with their forthcoming tour schedule, check out their Facebook page and Twitter.