Norwegian solo metal artist Anniken will be releasing her debut album Climb Out of Hell on May 13, 2022 via Rockshots Records.

Today, she shares her tribute to one of her teenage influences, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park. She explains further.

"This song is an homage to Chester Bennington. I tried to give the sound some hints of nu metal. The riff is more rhythmical. The lyrics are about how Chester’s voice was a light in the darkness of difficult teenage years. I loved Linkin Park, especially their album Hybrid Theory. After Chester’s death, I couldn’t listen to their songs for a while. It was just too sad. Then one day I listened to their album One More Light on a flight back home from a holiday in the UK. The sound was quite different than that of Hybrid Theory, but I loved it. And the song ‘One More Light’ is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking songs I have ever heard. I decided then to write some sort of response to that song, as a message to Chester. Just to say Thank you!"

Anniken has been a part of the Norwegian heavy metal scene for years with her band Darkest Sins, the studio project Ana – Metal for Charity, as well as being a part of her husband Marius Danielsen’s trilogy Legend of Valley Doom, both in the studio and with the live band. While in Darkest Sins she opened for bands such as Anthrax, Jorn, TNT, and UDO along with Legend of Valley Doom she has worked with legendary musicians such as Ralf Scheepers, Amanda Somerville, Roland Grapow, Matt Barlow, Doogie White, Jennifer Batten, and also actor John Rhys-Davies from the Lord of the Rings and Indiana Jones movies.

Writing her own songs and having a profound love of lyrics, Anniken is now progressing into her solo endeavours. Anniken's debut album "Climb Out of Hell" features nine tracks, a few of them co-written with her husband Marius Danielsen.

It is a varied metal album that is melodic, raw, and catchy with different types of songs for every kind of metal fan. Some slow, some fast, most of them heavy. Some of the songs have a deeper meaning to them, while others are just exactly what you think they are.

Anniken adds:

"Firstly, I want people to enjoy the music. Secondly, I want them to notice the lyrics. I love listening to music while reading them and trying to understand the stories that are being told. I hope that the listeners feel the same way. I like to also add, that some of the songs were written a while back. I had others that didn’t make the cut. Overall, it is fun to write with other artists and see how the songs turned out both in the studio and live. But writing with others also means compromising. And that is one of the main reasons behind starting my solo project. I wanted to show what I could do, without the guys (yes, the bands I’ve played with always consisted of all guys and me). It is, unfortunately, easy to underestimate female artists in metal. At least, that is my experience. There aren’t as many women within the genre as there are men. Very often I experienced that people just assumed everything was written by the men in the group. I don’t mind being ‘just the singer’, but I would love to show the world that I am, in fact, more."

Climb Out Of Hell can be preordered at the Rockshots Records webshop.

Tracklisting:

“Spotlight”
“Climb Out Of Hell”
“Back Then”
“Just Walk”
“Keep The Light”
“Star”
“No Name”
“Save Us”
“Amplified”

“Keep The Light” video:

Album Credits:
- All songs are written by Anniken, tracks 6,7 and 8 are co-written with Marius Danielsen.
- Cover/art is a compilation of two paintings by Sylvie Rasmussen, Anniken’s grandmother.
- Album is produced by Marius Danielsen.
- All lyrics are written by Anniken, except for the lyrics for Star, which are co-written with Marius Danielsen

Vocals: Anniken
Guitar and Bass by: Marius Danielsen
Orchestrations by: Gabriels (Tracks 1,2,3,4,6,7,9), Peter Danielsen (Tracks 5,6)
Drums by: Alessandro Kelvin
Choirs by: Marius Danielsen, David Åkesson
Growl vocals by: Brandon Bordman
Solos by: Gabriels (Track 1), Bill Hudson (Tracks 2,5), Nick Giannakos (Track 3), Fredrik Enochson (Track 4), Tommy Johansson (Track 5), Jimmy Hedlund (Track 6), Nils Courbaron (Track 7), Marius Danielsen (Track 8), Terry Wapram (Track 9)