The very first time I heard Last Days of April was in a dark pub. They had us sitting on the floor on pillows and the only source of light on stage was an enormous amount of lit candles. It was an acoustic show and mark my words it was out of this world. I was knocked off my feet for several days; it was one of those magic shows where everything just feels right. Sure, I’ve seen them a lot of times since then, but never without feeling a little bit disappointed in the end since it wasn’t acoustic and it wasn’t in that same pub where the magic once emerged from nowhere. When I got to hear the new album I was overwhelmed and grateful. It’s loaded with the same kind of feeling I got from seeing the band in that dirty old pub some years ago. To find that special something, look at the structures of their songs. There you will find those nighttime feelings, those candlelight and pillow-feelings. One can’t help thinking that their music aims for and ends up somewhere on the border between darkness and light, between the beam of a candlelight and the surrounding darkness. Or even the bittersweet experience between happiness and sorrow.

For seven years now Last Days of April has existed as a productive unit and I get the feeling that the sound on their earlier releases has continuously evolved in the direction of the sound they have now achieved. It’s what the music has reached for; like a plant turning its leaves in the direction where the light is coming from. The first single was released as a collaboration between two independent labels in Sweden, the band then made a quick stop at Trust No One Records who released their first full-length and then ended up with us here at Bad Taste Records.

Karl Larsson formed this group originally and he is still the creative engine in the band. The fact that he and the rest of the band has found their way back to that perfect balance that got me all excited a couple of years ago feels like a guarantee that this album will be appreciated by fans and media to maybe an even larger extent than “Angel Youth”, their previous full-length release. I believe this newfound energy or balance may be due to the band’s intensive touring during the last couple of years. In 1999 they supported The Promise Ring (U.S.) for 3 weeks across Europe and since then they have toured Europe more than a handful of times playing festivals such as Southside and Hurricane in Germany (40,000 people), supported Chris Cornell from Soundgarden in Amsterdam, played a showcase gig in combination with the Eurosonic convention in Holland and another showcase gig in London about a year ago.

Fall last year they traveled across to Australia for a 7-week tour with the double platinum selling Australian band Superjesus. Before returning back home to Sweden they played an incredible set at the Livid Festival - an event that attracts approx. 40,000 people a year.

During all this time the media presence has intensified constantly and after releasing the ”Angel Youth” album on license in Australia, Japan and the U.S. LDOA has received amazing reviews and tons of radio airplay from all corners of the world! The previous video was on rotation on the German TV-channel Viva 2 and MTV in several European countries aired it as well. Australian MTV featured the band in one of their afternoon shows and they were also featured in MTV Road Rules in the U.S.

As with “Angel Youth”, “Ascend To The Stars” was recorded and produced by Fireside guitar player Pelle Gunnerfeldt at his studio Gröndal in Stockholm (The Hives, Int. Noise Conspiracy, Randy etc). The differences between “Angel Youth” and “Ascend To The Stars” are both small and grand depending on which angle you choose to look at it from. Last Days of April’s unique ability to put together breathtaking melodies is intact, but the production takes a step back to put more focus on the songs themselves, thus creating a much more honest and naked album.
 

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