Between Spaces – Between Spaces (MLP 6tr)

I’m not 100 % in what genre to place this Gothenburg based band. Opening track “Lies” has a bit of garage rock attitude, almost a new wave vibe and then suddenly a heavy rock break and in comes… a saxophone!? (Sorry, sax is my absolute pet hate). Singer Mikael Lilja sounds like he’s been influenced by anything from Johnny Rotten and Iggy Pop. “A Silent Room” has a different kind of approach with a slightly proggier touch. I honestly don’t really know where to place this band musically. It is quite intriguing and it’s honestly nothing a listen to on a regular basis. The song has quite a lot of different moods and vibes and definitely falls under the progressive banner. Melodic, garagy and progressive. Side A finisher “In Memoriam” takes quite a different turn and starts out leaning more on soft folky piano music. Maybe a reference to Jan Johansson? The vocals are fine, but the Swenglish pronunciation and crammed in sentences is a slight bit annoying to my ears. The song itself is really interesting and the build-up is very dramatic and thought-through. When the crescendo solo part kicks in it’s really really good, with some really cool unexpected chords popped in. Loved that! Side two opens with “At The End” which starts out in an interesting proggy vein, to move into a more straight ahead avant-gardist, almost gothy verse. Quite hard to pin-point where the band has picked their influences. “Fear Of Being Inadequate” kicks off in an almost hard rocking up-tempo style and continues as a really good proggy rocker, clocking in at 8:45. The production is very analogue sounding and works really well with the music. The record finishes with the track “Tempus Fugit” which also starts out with some mellow Jan Johansson:ish piano. An intriguing composition, I must say, with nice strings blending in with the piano. I’m afraid I’m not a huge fan of the vocals, but musically the song is an interesting, well-composed and well-arranged piece, going from the soft folky intro into quite heavy guitar and bass chugging with some interesting keyboard and violin melodies and soloing. It made me think a bit of Swedish proggsters Anekdoten, which is really good in my book.

/Janne Stark

Year: 2021

Label: private

LOMMI – Horse (CD)

2013 saw the debut release “Life In Sepia” by Gothenburg brutality trio Lommi. A self-release in paper pocket format. The follow-up has however received a proper release by Rambo Music. The band follows the beaten path with their brick heavy, riff-oriented groovy metal. They sound a bit like a mix of Black Label Society and Pantera, actually not that far from fellows Transport League. Detuned riffs and crude, but still vocals that have enough melody to make it sound melodic. The sound is heavy as concrete with powerful thundering drums, a bass that fills out every crevice and a wall of guitars (even though there’s only one) right in your face. Outstanding production, by Sven Jensen! So far, so good. My only complaint this time is, the songs. They could have had it all going form them if they had only got me with the songs as well. If only a song like “Back Of My Head” had been the low point of the album. I’ve listened through the album three times and there’s unfortunately not one song I remember after wards. Love the sound, love the band, but miss the memorable hooks.

Janne Stark

Country: Sweden

Year: 2014
Label: Rambo Music

FREAK KITCHEN – Cooking With Pagans (CD)

Freak Kitchen, this institute of Swedish retrofuturisticontemporary musical madness and melodic mayhem, is again back with another collection of mind-boggling songs. Lyrically the band’s ironic, cunning and satirical lyrics are the antithesis of Steel Panther. But the similarity is that you sit there and happily sing along to lyrics you would normally not even speak out loud, such as “(Saving Up For An) Anal Bleach”. However, in this case you actually get a second layer that gets you thinking. Think, yes, as a musician I am thinking when I listen to songs like “I Don’t Want To Golf” and the whacky rhythmic things going on, where you as a “normal” listener just groove to the rhythm. Well, don’t be fooled by the easy going surface, there are weird things happening under the surface. It does however surface a bit more in songs like “Mathematics Of Defeat”, which is proggy to the max. Except for the chorus, which is pure pop melodies. I just love the mix of the wackiness and the simple melodies in perfect symbiosis. “Private Property”, written and sung by bassist Christer Örtefors is another cool straight-ahead ditty. There has often been simple yet really cool simple but effective riffs coming out of Mr Eklundh and you get those here as well, just check out opener “Professional Help”, “Come Back To Comeback” and the catchy “Sloppy”. To me this feels like the most even Freak Kitchen since “Spanking Hour”, and this has quite quickly become my favorite since then as well! The only question mark of the album has to be the odd cover of “Goody Goody”, but what the hell… we’ve heard “La Bamba” coming out of this man before so why should I be surprised? All in all this is a damn great album! 

Janne Stark

Year: 2014
Country: Sweden
Label: Thunderstruck

SKULL PARADE – Sound Of Corruption (CD)

“Sound Of Corruption” is the debut by heavy rockers Skull Parade.  They stem from Gothenburg, just like Mustasch, In Flames, LOK, Transport League and Illwill, and for some reason they actually sound a bit like a mix of all of these. Well, to narrow it down a bit I’d go for a mix between today’s Transport League and Illwill. Heavy, crushing groove metal with a touch of thrash and US power metal (which is what Pantera used to be labelled). Erik Anell has a rough and angry, but still a bit melodic voice that fits the concrete heavy musical delivery perfect. One of my favorite tracks is the heavy and groovy “Man” where Erik really delivers the goods. Great chorus as well! The punchy, heavy production really helps bring out the best of the band, too. I don’t really get the artwork, but I do get the music! Great stuff!

Janne Stark

Label: private

Year: 2014
Country: Sweden