Transubstans Records have a nice tendency of picking up all the great retro bands of our small but fruitful country. Mangrove made their debut in 2009 with “Endless Skies”, a great debut indeed. The follow-up does not disappoint, on the contrary. “A Distant Dream If Tomorrow” continues where the debut left off. Heavy riffs, great melodic vocals, great musicians and a more classic seventies hard rock sound than stoner. The dead heavy riff in “Never Again” reminds me a bit of bands like vintage Sabbath with a touch of Sir Lord Baltimore. They even have the Black Sabbathian simultaneous dual guitar solo, one in each channel. You don’t hear that too much these days. In the true Sabbath/Zeppelin manner they also mix it up with some nice mid tempo balladry in tracks like “I’ve Been Seen Upon The Sun”. I think I said this in my review of the debut, but I’ll say it again, singer Kataja reminds me quite a lot of Magnus Ekwall of The Quill, which is top notch in my book. They do turn a bit more stoner in some tracks, such as “Mean Woman Blues”, but they still keep their high standard. I also really like the earthy, analogue sounding mix of the album. It’s an album where it actually does happen something when you turn it up! It hasn’t been deviously destroyed in some malicious mastering process where compressors and limiters make everything sound louder than everything else. I hear dynamics, something that unfortunately a lot of albums of today lack. This is a great sounding power trio with all individuals making a serious musical imprint in each and every song. Great stuff indeed!
Janne Stark
Label: Transubstans
Year: 2010
Country: Sweden
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