Marking the 23rd album of his career, LARS ERIC MATTSSON returns with 18 new compositions on his most personal album to date entitled Epicentre, due for release on September 20th via Lion Music.

With a vast repertoire of music under his belt, whether under his own name, MATTSSON, BOOK OF REFLECTIONS, VISION, CONDITION RED, or ASTRAL GROOVE, this new release sees Lars handle almost every aspect himself, with the exception of drums by Christer Jansson.

On the new material Lars comments, "There are 18 tracks on this album, a few more than one might expect but I felt like it could not have been any shorter. Musically the album would not have been complete with fewer tracks as I wanted to paint a full picture of who I am and where I am today. I am also singing myself rather than working with someone else. During the writing process I think I came to find my own voice and felt that it was time for me to develop this to its fullest and here I am, a reborn veteran! It took about a year to finish this album and if this will be my last recording ever I would be happy with that. I have put all of my heart and soul into this album which I believe should be seen as an entity, just choosing one song is not going to be very representative as they are all different, yet all have what I guess is now considered a signature sound."

Contained within are songs that long-term Mattsson fans will be used to such, as the driving intricate time signatures of opener 'Wait For The Sunrise' or the instrumental 'Freedom Fighters' which Mattsson describes as "Perhaps the most intense track. I really don’t expect to ever hear this one performed by a cover band (laughs) A full 7/8 time prog metal attack with some cool bass/guitar tapping interplay," yet new textures are served in the likes of the driven 'Cinnamon' which fuses acoustic guitar with electric sitar and 'Andalucía' which mixes acoustic guitar and violin in a jazz fusion setting.

More traditional metal waters are visited (with the expected Mattsson twists) for 'A New Devil' and 'No More War' whilst 'No One Else' harks back to Mattsson 1980s works (albeit updated with 7 string guitar) and '70s hard rock is the influence behind 'No Way, No Surrender'.

Yet perhaps one of the biggest aspects of change between this and preview releases is Mattsson’s decision to take on lead vocal duties as well, "I tried singing on a few rare spots in the past but to be honest I didn’t really find my voice until I was halfway though this album, which made me start all over once I got the hang of things".

Another notable change is more streamlined songs. "I decided early on that I should try to make shorter songs and cut out as much as I could and see how that would come across. I think this makes the tracks more direct and perhaps easier to listen to than some of my past ultra-intensive tracks".

Epicentre tracklisting:

'Wait For The Sunrise'

'A New Devil'

'Cinnamon'

'Land Of Dreams'

'Melting Down'

'No One Else'

'South Of The Border' (instrumental)

'No Way, No Surrender'

'Mirror'

'So Far Away'

'Freedom Fighters' (instrumental)

'Too Late'

'I Don’t Know'

'Cold Inside'

'Andalucía' (instrumental)

'No More War'

'Scratch My Back'

'Clouding My Eyes'