Charizma is a family band. The three members (before Sonny Larsson) are brothers. Bosse, Janne and Goran Nikolausson make up the nucleus of Charizma and now Sonny Larsson adds vocals. Bosse, 23 years old, plays bass and sang lead vocals before Sonny joined. Janne, 25, plays drums and does background vocals. Goran, 19, plays guitar. They couldn't afford to pay for their Rock the World album themselves, so they went to Sparbanken in Oskarshamn where they live and borrowed 100,000 Swedish crowns and the album was reality. Sweden's biggest rock magazine, Okej, chose Charizma as "band of the month" this spring. This Rock the World album doesn't do the band justice anymore, due to their growth as musicians. This is a real compliment, because Rock the World is hot. Tomas Einarsson, the editor of a Swedish Christian metal magazine called Holy Metal, has recently seen Charizma with Sonny on lead vocals and says, "I tell you, this is one of the hottest bands in Sweden now." Their music is melodic, much like a lot of the commercial metal bands that are making it big today. They don't get soft and pretty, but they do have a polished sound. My favorite of theirs is "We Are the Knights," which is an urgent call to battle. The rhythm is headbangin' and is fast throughout the song and the chorus presents an anthemic harmony that kicks the grills off your car speakers. The music adds real emphasis to some of the strong statements made in this song. For example, Bosse sings, "Satan is the loser," and the instruments hit some rapid-fire chords that seem to add three exclamation points to the sentence. "We're running out of time/ There's no time to lose." Charizma displays a dedication to doing their best at their craft. EMI in Sweden has the distribution contract on their LP and single, but only for Scandinavia. To order from the USA: Charizma, Sondagsvagen 19, S-572 00 Oskarshamn, Sweden.