It's Stonegard time!

After four years, more than a hundred gigs, rave reviews and ever more ecstatic audiences, it's finally time for the release
of Stonegard's first album. Media insiders are already talking about "the strongest Norwegian rock debut ever".

Their average age is only 26, but the four members of Stonegard have been hard at work on their music for more than 8
years now. They first met in 1997, when three of them were enrolled at "Trøndertun" – the boarding school that in the last
15 years has been a breeding ground for many of Norway's most successful "pop musicians" of all genres.

Three years later, in 2000, they came together as Stonegard. Since the start they have been loved and lauded by
Norwegian hard rock fans and media, but their followers have found it more difficult to agree on a definition of the band's music.

This has not been for a lack of trying: Dirty testosterone rock? Groovy trash metal? Rock 'n' roll with strong leanings towards
doom- and black metal? Or how about this one: Sabbath-meets-Slayer-on-the-way-to-a-jamsession-with-Metallica-in-the-
best-speed-metal-era-(around 1983)-rock?

The reason for this confusion is most likely the fact that this band is constantly developing their material. Most of the time
rehearsing every day. So even though they have recorded on several occasions, they refused any public release until they
felt they could live up both to their own and their audience's expectations.

Now the time is finally right! Stonegard's debut album Arrows was created last summer, during six weeks in the two studios
that top honcho producer Daniel Bergstrand operates in the Swedish university town of Uppsala. Bergstrand has previously
worked his wonders for Norwegian group El Caco and Swedish bands Meshugga and Inflames. To name but a few.

The Stonegard/Bergstrand collaboration has resulted in a stronger album than anyone had dared to hope. The ten best
songs from Stonegard's four years as a band have been taken apart, analyzed, fine-tuned, put together again and built into
a record that is nothing less than a revelation. A debut album that all at once manages to be mighty and melodic, mature
and aggressive, cohesive and complex.

So once again, it will probably be entertaining to see the inventive labels reviewers will come up with. Maybe it would be
sufficient to say that Stonegard with Arrows has given us some of the strongest rock music you can hear anywhere?

Of course, you don't have to take our word for it. As the saying goes, the proof of the music lies in the listening.

Arrows is released on Bonnier Amigo's new Bells Go Clang-label in Norway on January 24th. And in Sweden, Finland and
Denmark in the following months.

Stonegard are:
Torgrim Torve – lead vocal and guitar
Ronny Flissundet – lead guitar and vocals
Håvard Gjerde – bass and vocals
Erlend Gjerde – drums