METALITE
Biography and full discography of METALITE, with a page for every album, on METAL BOOST.
Biography
METALITE
Biography
Overview
Metalite are a melodic metal band formed in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2015 around guitarist and songwriter Edwin Premberg. What they built is a style in which synthesiser-driven, futuristic soundscapes meet choruses that stay with you and guitars with an edge. The band's own word for it is modern power metal.
Their distinguishing habit is to use synthesisers as structure rather than decoration. Programmed rhythm and synthesised sound hold up the songs, with twin guitars and a female lead vocal over the top. The subject matter drifted towards science fiction as the records went on, and from the fourth album the band have been telling one story per album.
Japan has carried them from the start. Rubicon Music issued the debut, Marquee / Avalon the next three and Ward Records the fifth, and each of the first three Japanese editions adds a Japan-only bonus track that the international pressing does not have.
This site carries six records: the five studio albums and the live EP drawn from their 2022 Sweden Rock Festival set. Those six are exactly the entries the band's own release list labels ALBUM and LIVE EP.
2015 to 2017: starting out in Stockholm
The band began in Stockholm in 2015, started by guitarist Edwin Premberg and vocalist Emma Bensing. Premberg wrote the music and the words and took charge of how the records were made, and that has not changed since.
Premberg explained the name in a 2019 interview: it puts "metal" together with "l33t", the internet spelling of "elite". The word was meant to sound contemporary.
The first single, "Afterlife", appeared on 11 September 2017 with an official music video. "Nightmare" followed on 6 October with a lyric video, and the debut album Heroes in Time came out on 27 October through Inner Wound Recordings. The Danish engineer Jacob Hansen (Volbeat, Evergrey, Amaranthe) produced, mixed and mastered it, with guest contributions from Fraser Edwards of Ascension and Jakob Svensson of Wigelius.
Rubicon Music released the Japanese edition on 20 December the same year as RBNCD-1245, adding a piano version of "In the Middle of the Night" at track twelve as a Japan-only bonus.
2019: a new singer and a new label
A large change came after the debut. Emma Bensing became a mother in 2018 and decided she wanted her time for things other than Metalite. By the band's account she played exactly one show with this line-up, their release gig.
Finding a replacement was hard. Several singers were tried without success until Premberg saw Erica Ohlsson performing at a rock show in Stockholm. He asked her to record a few songs in the studio, found she had everything they had been looking for, and offered her the job on the spot; she took it. Erica had barely listened to heavy metal before.
The label changed at the same time, and the second album, Biomechanicals, came out on AFM Records in Germany on 25 October 2019. It pushes electronic texture and programmed rhythm a step forward, and "Far from the Sanctuary", "Apocalypse" and "Social Butterflies" went out ahead of it. Marquee released the Japanese edition on 20 November as MICP-11522, with "Riders of the Storm" added as a Japan-only bonus track.
The line-up around Premberg and Ohlsson at this point was Robert Örnesved on guitar, Robert Majd on bass and Lea Larsson on drums. Örnesved had played in a covers band with Premberg fifteen years earlier and had been in Castillion; Majd also fronts Captain Black Beard; Larsson came from Imber.
2020 to 2022: two covers and a live EP
The third album, A Virtual World, arrived on AFM on 26 March 2021. From the title track's virtual world outward, its eleven songs all face the near future. The singles began with "We Bring You the Stars" on 2 October 2020 — which never reached the album and remains a standalone single — then "Peacekeepers" on 27 November, the title track on 15 January 2021 and "Cloud Connected" on 26 February. Marquee released the Japanese edition two days ahead of the rest of the world, on 24 March, as MICP-11616, with "Aftermath" added as a Japan-only bonus.
They also took on two songs by their Nordic elders in this stretch: Stratovarius's "Hunting High and Low" on 8 April 2020 and Sonata Arctica's "Full Moon" on 18 March 2022, each released as a standalone single with an official music video, and neither of them on an album.
Live, 2022 was the turning point. On 9 June they played Sweden Rock Festival in Solvesborg, in the south-east of their own country. AFM took four songs from that recording, put out an official live video for one at a time through September and October, and gathered them on 28 October as the digital EP Live At Sweden Rock Festival 2022. No CD was manufactured and there is no Japanese edition. That same summer they also played Sabaton Open Air.
2024: the story of Expedition One
The fourth album, Expedition One, came out on AFM on 19 January 2024 and is the first record the band built as one story. It is set in 2055, in a world where the "transparent citizen" has become real and physical and mental health increasingly decide how a life goes. A renegade team of former intelligence and military personnel and breakaway tech executives, led by five commanders, plans an escape to distant planets; the mission is to carry humanity off a dying Earth.
Premberg has said where the idea came from: people kept telling the band their songs sounded cinematic, so he set out to write something that would arch back over Heroes In Time, Biomechanicals and A Virtual World and tie all three together. He says it was awkward at first and that once the shape of the story was settled they were happy with it. In the same announcement he notes that the band's sound had moved a long way in four or five years, the production quality above all.
The sixteen songs hold both halves of the band: the tight, familiar "Blazing Skies", "Aurora" and "Free" alongside "Sanctum Of Light", "Outer Worlds" and "Paradise", which were meant to surprise. Track fourteen, "Utopia", is the first instrumental they have ever recorded. Jacob Hansen mixed and mastered again. Marquee Inc. released the Japanese edition two days ahead of the international one, on 17 January, as MICP-11842.
Erik Junttila Johansson joined on drums during 2024. His first show with the band was at Hell Yeah Rock Club in Linköping at the very start of 2025. From there the band supported Pain on their Scandinavian tour, played with Leaves' Eyes, and joined The Night Flight Orchestra's European tour in February 2025, alongside festival appearances including Sweden Rock Festival and Masters of Rock.
2026: Discovery, and a third label
The fifth album, Discovery, is released worldwide on 25 September 2026 by Perception, a division of Reigning Phoenix Music — the band's third label after Inner Wound Recordings and AFM.
The story picks up where the last one left off. It is set in 2058, three years after the departure from Earth that Expedition One described in 2055, and follows what became of the people who left. Its twelve songs work through human evolution, dependence on technology, survival, liberation and hope. The band's own announcement puts "Starchild" at the centre and describes it as a song about renewal and healing, and as the arrival of a mysterious figure who brings hope to broken worlds. Jacob Hansen mixed and mastered, as he has on all five albums.
Five songs went out ahead of it: "Our Time Has Come" on 26 February 2026, "Starchild" on 24 April, "In Case Of Emergency" on 29 May, "Echoes Of You" on 24 July and "The Metal Elite" on 4 September, three weeks before release. Ward Records issues the Japanese edition the same day as GQCS-91784, with a Japanese booklet and translated lyrics, and its running order is the international twelve.
Away from the albums, a standalone single called "We Stand Tall" appeared on 2 May 2025 with an official music video. It is on no album either.
Current line-up
| Member | Role |
|---|---|
| Erica Ohlsson | Vocals |
| Edwin Premberg | Guitar |
| Robert Örnesved | Guitar |
| Robert Majd | Bass |
| Erik Junttila Johansson | Drums |
Discography (the records carried on this site)
| Year | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Discovery | Studio album |
| 2024 | Expedition One | Studio album |
| 2022 | Live At Sweden Rock Festival 2022 | Live EP (digital only) |
| 2021 | A Virtual World | Studio album |
| 2019 | Biomechanicals | Studio album |
| 2017 | Heroes in Time | Studio album |
The standalone singles are not carried here: "Afterlife" and "Nightmare" (2017); "Afterlife (Piano Version)" and "Nightmare (K - Line Sandmaniac Remix)" (2018); "Far from the Sanctuary", "Apocalypse" and "Social Butterflies" (2019); "Hunting High and Low", "We Bring You the Stars" and "Peacekeepers" (2020); "A Virtual World" and "Cloud Connected" (2021); "Full Moon" (2022); "Hurricane", "Take My Hand", "Disciples of the Stars", "Blazing Skies", "New Generation" and "Aurora" (2023); "Blazing Skies (Live at Skogsröjet)" and "Cyberdome (Live at Skogsröjet)" (2024); "We Stand Tall" (2025); and the five drawn from Discovery.
A note on sources
This article was written from the band's own site, metalite.se — its press text, its release list, its show list, and its news items of 3 July 2023 and 25 June 2026, both of which carry a label press release in full; Ward Records' product page for Discovery; RAMzine's interview with Edwin Premberg, published 7 December 2019; Blabbermouth.net's announcement of Discovery on 30 May 2026; the Tower Records Online product pages for each Japanese edition; the release data MusicBrainz holds for artist 18231ca5-d244-436b-9642-b2d4442c14b9; and the iTunes Store Japan catalogue. Release dates, labels, catalogue numbers and prices for the Japanese editions come from the Tower Records product information and the international ones from the MusicBrainz release rows, with running orders checked against those rows and the band's own release list. Every video was verified by its uploading channel, and no fan re-upload is included.
Trivia
Each of the first three albums has a Japanese edition with one song the rest of the world did not get. The band's own release list files those editions as separate entries and marks the extra song "Japanese Bonustrack" in each case: a piano version of "In the Middle of the Night" on Heroes in Time, "Riders of the Storm" on Biomechanicals and "Aftermath" on A Virtual World. The two bonus tracks on Expedition One are on the international digital edition as well, and the Japanese Discovery holds the same twelve songs as everywhere else — so the run of Japan-only songs turned out to cover exactly the first three records.
The band began in Stockholm in 2015, started by guitarist Edwin Premberg and vocalist Emma Bensing. Premberg wrote the music and the words and took charge of how the records were made. The band's own press text says they have been pushing at the edges of the genre since they formed, and names the 2017 debut Heroes in Time as where that started. One of the two founders left two years after the debut; the other is still doing the same job.
The Danish engineer Jacob Hansen has worked on all five of their albums. He produced the debut, Heroes in Time, outright and has mixed and mastered every record since. The band's own press text and the announcements from both AFM and Reigning Phoenix Music all introduce him the same way, by naming Volbeat, Evergrey and Amaranthe. Three labels, a change of singer and two changes of drummer later, the one person finishing the sound has not moved in a decade.
The debut has two guests on it. By the band's own press text, Heroes in Time carries contributions from Fraser Edwards of Ascension and Jakob Svensson of Wigelius, both of them from Swedish melodic bands. No later album introduces an outside player by name, so this is the only Metalite record with guest contributors on it.
The fourth and fifth albums are one story told three years apart. AFM's 2023 press release for Expedition One sets it in 2055: in a world where health increasingly decides how a life goes, a renegade team of former intelligence and military people and breakaway tech executives, led by five commanders, plans an escape to distant planets. The 2026 announcement of Discovery places it in 2058, three years later, and says it follows what became of the people who left Earth. The end of one record is the premise of the next.
Track fourteen of Expedition One, "Utopia", is the first instrumental in the band's history. AFM's press release introduces it as exactly that, and goes on to say the album holds both the tight, familiar Metalite of "Blazing Skies", "Aurora" and "Free" and the unexpected "Sanctum Of Light", "Outer Worlds" and "Paradise". One reading is that carrying sixteen songs through a single story is what finally made a song without a voice necessary.
What pushed the band into writing a concept album came from their audience. In AFM's press release Premberg says people kept telling them their songs sounded cinematic, so he set out to write something that would arch back over Heroes In Time, Biomechanicals and A Virtual World and tie all three together. It was awkward at first, he says, and once the shape of the story was agreed they were happy with the result. In the same announcement he notes that the band's sound had moved a long way in four or five years, the production quality above all.
The 2022 live EP was released one song at a time before it existed as a record. Four songs were taken from the band's Sweden Rock Festival set of 9 June, and AFM put out an official live video roughly every two weeks — "We Bring You The Stars" on 15 September, "Far From The Sanctuary" on 29 September, "Peacekeepers" on 13 October and "Cloud Connected" on 27 October. The EP itself, Live At Sweden Rock Festival 2022, followed on 28 October. No CD was made and there is no Japanese edition. Of the four songs, only "We Bring You the Stars" is on no album at all: it is a standalone single.
News
METALITE Share A Visualizer For Their New Single “The Metal Elite”
The single is taken from the Swedish melodic metal band's new album “Discovery”, out on September 25 via Perception, powered by Reigning Phoenix Music.
Play MVCurrent Members
Current line-up as published by the official site, verified on 2026-09-20.
Albums
The fifth Metalite album, released worldwide on 25 September 2026 by Perception, a division of Reigning Phoenix Music. It is a concept record set in 2058, three years after the departure from Earth that Expedition One left off in 2055, and runs to twelve songs. Ward Records issues the Japanese edition the same day with a Japanese booklet and translated lyrics.
The fourth Metalite album, released by AFM Records on 19 January 2024. It is a concept record set on Earth in 2055, following five commanders and a renegade crew trying to carry humanity off a ruined planet, and it runs to sixteen songs including "Utopia", the band's first instrumental. Marquee Inc. put the Japanese edition on sale two days earlier, on 17 January.
A digital-only live EP of four songs from the band's set at Sweden Rock Festival on 9 June 2022, the largest open-air festival in their own country. AFM Records put the songs out one at a time with a video each through that autumn and gathered all four on 28 October. No CD of it was ever manufactured.
The third Metalite album, released by AFM Records on 26 March 2021 and the second with Erica Ohlsson singing. Its eleven songs push the science-fiction themes further out. Marquee put the Japanese edition on sale two days earlier, on 24 March, with "Aftermath" added as a Japan-only bonus track for twelve.
The second Metalite album, their first for AFM Records and the first with Erica Ohlsson singing. Electronic texture and programmed rhythm move a step forward across its eleven songs, released on 25 October 2019. Marquee issued the Japanese edition on 20 November with "Riders of the Storm" added for twelve.
The debut album, released by Inner Wound Recordings on 27 October 2017. These are the first eleven songs of the band guitarist Edwin Premberg and vocalist Emma Bensing started, with Jacob Hansen producing. Rubicon Music released the Japanese edition on 20 December with a piano version added for twelve.