WRAPTORS - Held High (CD)

Now here’s a band I can’t make heads or tails of. It’s actually quite funny, since I haven’t heard anything like this in a long time… actually never I guess. Wraptors mixes so many different elements, from seventies hard rock, sixties rock to quirky pop to pure musical insanity. Sometimes I hear a little touch of Them Crooked Vultures or Foo Fighters, but with a totally different sound, mostly in the way they turn rhythms and riffs around. There’s almost a touch of Devo mixed with Zappaesque weirdness, but all held together with a hard rock attitude and a powerful delivery. The guitar sound is quite clean, but still edgy enough to sound rough and raw. It’s very dynamic, but if you’d try to dance to a track like Stoked On Stakes you’d only last for four bars before you’d get stuck in a twisted rhythm pattern and fall over. It’s by no means music for the faint hearted and I don’t expect Wraptors to be on the radio’s A-list, but I really enjoy the album. I can’t even seem to skip to the next track as I can’t wait to hear what will happen next, which is a good thing. This is definitely an album that will grow by every listen, and I assure you it’ll take quite a few to get to grips with the Wraptors’ musical schizophrenia.
Janne Stark
Country: Sweden
Year: 2011
Label: Rakamarow 
Link: www.wraptors.se