Swedish hard rockers Dead Lord were clearly born too late. Formed in 2012 in Stockholm, Sweden, members Hakim Krim (vocals/guitars), Olle Hedenström (guitars), Martin Nordin (bass) and Adam Lindmark (drums) are clearly more at home with 1976 (the year Thin Lizzy’s Jailbreak hit stores) than they are with 2017. As time machines don’t exist, however, the members are stuck in the present, where they decided to form the hardest working, hardest sounding rock band since The Hellacopters took off with Grande Rock at the turn of the millennium. With three albums to the wind—the band’s newest In Ignorance We Trust hits stores worldwide in late August—Dead Lord aren’t hoping you’ll join them, they’re demanding you join them. Riff by riff. Hook by hook. Just don’t call their brand of rock retro. New album, In Ignorance We Trust, naturally picks up where 2015’s lauded Heads Held High left off. Dead Lord’s third full-length then pelts it with Six Million Dollar Man action figures, Venom choruses (think “Witching Hour” or “Die Hard”), and moustaches meaner than Phil Lynott’s famed lady tickler. The end result is a 10-track hard rock affair that sees the Stockholmites breaking strings and hearts with aplomb and unmatched style.  Written over a mess of rehearsals between 2015 and 2017, In Ignorance We Trust was a collaborative effort from the start. Guitarist Olle Hedenström is the band’s file cabinet, crafting demos and persisting them for posterity. Meanwhile, Krim crams everything he’s thinking—music-wise—into his own organic hard drive. The high-spirited frontman then explains his ideas riff first as if he’s Jimmy Page. The rest of the band, drummer Adam Lindmark and bassist Martin Nordin, then tell Krim if he’s locked in or off his rocker. Like on In Ignorance We Trust’s ripping opener “Ignorance”, or the bluesy introspect of “Leave Me Be”, or the twin-guitar anthem of “They! Thematically, In Ignorance We Trust conspicuously plays on the United States motto In God We Trust. Clearly, the political swings (to the right), as well as the continual disregard and public contempt President Donald J. Trump has for science and the arts, have influenced Krim’s pen greatly. The frontman calls the trend in anti-intellectualism “terrifying”. But that’s not all In Ignorance We Trust is about or was inspired and informed by.