Cast in Steel is the tenth studio album by Norwegian band A-ha. The album was released on 4 September 2015 by We Love Music and Polydor. It is their first studio album since Foot of the Mountain, following their second reunion in early 2015. Cast in Steel is the first a-ha album to use the original band logo since Memorial Beach from 1993, and the first album to be produced by Alan Tarney since Stay on These Roads.
Background and recording
Following the release of their ninth studio album, Foot of the Mountain, a-ha announced that they would retire as a band. In 2015, however, the band announced that they would re-unite for a two-year period and release Cast in Steel, followed by a world tour to promote the album. Cast in Steel was released on 4 September 2015, shortly before a-ha performed in Brazil at Rock in Rio on 27 September for the festival's 30th anniversary. Initially Pål Waaktaar-Savoy and Morten Harket began recording the album in New York without Magne Furuholmen. Waaktaar-Savoy said of the process: "It began quite small with Morten dropping by my studio now and then, and I played some of my new songs for him. Then he recorded his vocals on the songs he liked and the rest we didn't use. That continued until we had ten to twelve songs." He also revealed that the three members of a-ha were never present in the same studio during the recording of the album, and said: "It often ends up like this, and many bands do it this way. But I do miss the feeling of us being in the same studio, working on the same song in real time." Furuholmen has said the reunion wasn't his decision: "The other two wanted to do it, and I had to decide: do I block it, let them do it without me, or make a fool of myself, with my statements about this being the end."
Singles
"Under the Makeup" was released as the album's first single internationally on 3 July 2015. The music video was shot in Telemark in Norway and stars Danish actress Sofie Gråbøl and Swedish actress Frida Farrell. On 19 August 2015, "The Wake" was premiered on BBC Radio 2. The song was released as the album's second single in the United Kingdom on 28 August 2015. A-ha performed the album's third single "Forest Fire" on 3 September 2015 at the 2015 Radiopreis-Gala in Germany. On 15 September 2015 a lyric video was released on YouTube. "Forest Fire" was added to the BBC Radio 2 playlist on 28 October 2015 as the third single from the album in the UK. The Steve Osborne remix of "Cast in Steel" was released as an international single on 12 February 2016. On the same date, the Osborne remix of "Objects In The Mirror" was released as the fourth single in the UK.
Commercial performance
Cast in Steel debuted at number eight on the UK Albums Chart, selling 7,828 copies in its first week. It is a-ha's sixth Top 10 album in the United Kingdom. The album debuted at number four on the German Albums Chart, and became the 99th best-selling album of 2015.
Recorded by: Peter Kvint, Janne Hansson, Erik Ljunggren, Steve Osborne, Eliot Leigh, Chuck Zwicky, Kai Andersen, Dag Erik Johansen, George Tanderø, Max Ross, Even Enersen Omnestad, John Brant and Bobby Shin.
Recorded at: Studio Brun, Atlantis Studios, Buret, Alabaster Room, Real World Studios, Electric Lady Studios, Athletic Sound, Albatross Recorders, Systems Two Recording Studios and Little Big Sound.
