True to form, CRUEL FORCE from Germany burst onto the scene in 2008 with Into the Crypts... While many have tried to imitate the old German (black)thrash sound, CRUEL FORCE overflowed with undeniable authenticity, as well as songwriting that reinforced this noble tradition rather than lazily poking at its corpse. Their two successive albums, The Rise of Satanic Might in 2010 and Under the Sign of the Moon in 2011, made CRUEL FORCE a CULT name in the international underground metal scene. Unfortunately, the band went on hiatus after this second album, but returned reinvigorated with the 7" EP Across the Styx in 2022 and, a year later, the glorious full album Dawn of the Axe released by the new label SHADOW KINGDOM. Continuing to make up for lost time, CRUEL FORCE comes back with a bang, swords shining high on their fourth full album, Haneda. Where one could draw a line between the band's "first era" with The Rise of Satanic Might / Under the Sign of the Moon, this Second Era that began with Dawn of the Axe continues – an era that recalls the "Jurassic period" of heavy metal, when everything was rawer, less polished, and more energetic and powerful. As this pivotal predecessor showed, Haneda further proves that CRUEL FORCE is rather an old-school speed metal band, largely devoid of that blackened edge from their First Era. The trade-off is that a marked mysticism runs through this speed, and the working-class aspect of Dawn of the Axe is now polished to a deadly fluidity that makes Haneda even more powerful.