Coste Apetrea is a Scandinavian music legend with a history dating back to the early 1970’s and involvement in some of the most challenging music to come out of this region since that time. Coste’s new album “Surprisingly Heavy” follows up his 2006 Lion Music release “Rites Of Passage” - yet as the new album title hints, it’s a release that may well raise an eyebrow to those familiar with Coste’s more usual style, yet the album shows how versatile this legend is.

The new album "Surprisingly Heavy" is a derivative of Coste’s early years combined with the person he is today. On the album Coste comments, “I thought my previous release "Rites of Passage" was heavy and rocky but mostly it got regarded as a Jazz rock CD by the media and music fans at large; still it made me curious to explore this side of my soul. My ears have been opened to the modern day Metal and Prog Metal scene, so to my delight I’ve found I’ve really got into this sound at this stage of my life. Most of the tracks are based around big riffs, an art form in itself which has influenced me from as far back as the late 60’s and early 70’s. My main goal was to create powerful Heavy music close to Metal and add melodic parts in order to make the Heavy parts heavier as they come on after the melodic parts, I also allow all kinds of different emotional content, I don’t mind if it becomes extremely noisy or extremely sentimental, as long as it’s real feelings”.

The music on “Surprisingly Heavy” shows that not only has Coste Apetrea got into this music as a listener but has also become a fine purveyor of the genre. Backed by a rich, heavy and open production, the album shows an artist that continues to evolve whilst others stagnate, and deserves to be discovered by a new generation of fans for this is one of progressive music's most worthy performers.