Some short reviews

Here's some short comments on some new releases. Longer reviews will follow.

THUNDERSTONE - "Dirt Metal" (SPV) - Great new album from this Finnish unit, reinforced with former Sanity/At Vance singer Rick Altzi. In my opinion their best album to date. Heavy and powerful metal!

STORMZONE - "Death Dealer" (SPV) - I've seen this Irish bunch of rockers a couple of times and they always deliver live. The new album has been quite a while in the making, but now it's finally here and it was worth waiting for. Classic melodic metal with great vocals from Harv Harbinson and great guitar work!

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE - "Fever" (Sony Music) - It took me a while to actually even check this band out as I wrote them off as "kiss-ass-nu-metal-popsters". Wrong was I. If you're into bands like Avenged Sevenfold, this should not be missed. Their previous album "Shoot Aim Kill" was very good, but this one really kicks ass! A bit heavier. Great guitarwork and SOLOS, yes indeed!

SCORPIONS - "Sting In The Tail" (Sony Music) - I can actually see why they leave off with this album. It's the best they have produced since their haydays. "Unbreakable" was a good step on the way, but here you get the full monty. This is the Scorps back in their best 80s suite. Great stuff!

Y&T - "Facebreaker" (Frontiers) - OK, my hopes may have been set a little bit too high. It's good, it is, but it does leave me a bit empty. There are some killer tracks here, but there are also some songs that I don't remember even after 4-5 listenings. I'll give it another shot, though, as I do love the band.

Magnolia - "Steg för steg" (CD)

Abramis Brama, Svarte Pan, Horisont, Mouchta and Magnolia. Just to name a few. It’s fun to see our country’s hard rock forefathers November have inspired so many new and great bands. Magnolia have now released three albums, the same amount November made during their short time of existence. The development for Magnolia have certainly progressed, even if I really liked the band even from the start. What hit me is that the production feels so much more solid on this album. It has really nice dynamics, free from all destructively over-the-top in-your-face mastering and mix. Despite this the sound is really fat and heavy with a classically seventies inspired broad stereo sound. Furthermore the guitars are heavy and raw but without being over-distorted. I can almost bet it’s pure tube amplification we’re hearing, it does really sound that way. Also, the drums are nicely liberated from any triggs and added sounds, instead they have gone for a Bonhamish room sound which can only be obtained using real drums in a real room. Just listen to the intro of “Nu får det vara nog”. This, in combination with Ronny’s fat distorted bass á la Felix Pappalardi makes this a sound for sore ears. Ronny is also a great singer and he, of course, sings in his mother language (Swedish if anyone wonders). I also feel the songs on the new album are stronger than ever, with a multitude of killer riffs nicely baked into the groovy songs. In the track “Jag vandrar” they have even succeeded making a Fender Rhodes piano sound heavy, which is an achievement well worth noticing! This album is a treat for us fans of seventies classics like Mountain, November, Cream, Blue Cheer etc. I’m actually quite impressed Ronny has succeeded in writing so many great riffs, that despite this well-explored genre, feel fresh and new. I actually didn’t feel any recognition of any other “oldie” in any of the songs. Of course you will hear traces of the influences, but the songs sounds new. Just like “the elder” is by no means a one track album, but spreads out into other musical areas, such as the cool jazz-bluesy, but still quite heavy “Jag vandrar”, with a killer guitar solo by Mark Tholin (who also handles the piano). Another example is the happy instrumental “Arbetar I solsken”, who also walks its own little path. A truly awesome album which is in it absolute top of all the current November worshippers’ works! Check it out!
Janne Stark
Year: 2010
Label: Transubstans
Country: Sweden
Link: http://www.myspace.com/magnoliarock

Suicide Nation - "Jesus Crisis" (CD)

Swedish heavy thrashers Suicide Nation made their debut in 2005, entitled “Evilution”, and the follow-up “Vaya Con Chaos” came two years after. Keeping the two-year sequence, they unleashed their third effort late 2009. It’s however definitely not too late to review it! I hadn’t heard their earlier releases when their third effort ended up in my mail box. Now I have to get those, too, because this friggin’ rocks!!! Imagine a mix of Black Label Society, Mustasch, Spiritual Beggars and Soilwork. Heavy, raw, skullcrushing metal with a touch of thrash mixed with a fat stonerish vibe. These guys know how to write earth shattering riffs! It’s however not without dynamics which shows already in the second track “Holy Book, Holy Lies, Holy Water” with its clean guitar parts thrown in. They’ve also got a really cool heavy groove going on, which they prove in stomper “The Load”. The track “Hypocrite” sounds quite a lot like LOK but with more melodic vocals and in English and with a guitar solo. Killer track, indeed! Daniel Löfgren is a rough edged singer with a broad vocal spectrum, from cool soft almost bluesy vocals, like in the melodic “God Is Not The Answer” (hmm… do I sense a lyrical theme here?) to pure brutal gutsy roars like in opener “Remains”. At times he reminds me a bit of Spice (ex-Spiritual Beggars) but with a bit more variation. This is all in all a really evenly strongs album. No classics maybe, but definitely not any fillers. Each track has its own right to be there and fills its purpose, which is to make this one solid rocker of an album. Great production, too! Highly recommended indeed!

Janne Stark

Year: 2009

Label: Godsize

Country: Sweden

Link: http://www.myspace.com/suicidenationswe

John Norum - Play Yard Blues (CD)

Talk about a CD with postponed release date, almost competing with Guns ’N Roses ”Chinese Democracy”! The big difference is however that this one was really worth waiting for! When I did a gear-interview with John, at the time the new Europe album was released, he revealed his new solo album would be of the ”bluesier kind”. His last solo album ”Optimus” was more in the same vein as Europe’s reunion-platter with detuned riffs and a more modern approach, an album that didn’t fully hit home with me.

Ok, John, all is now forgiven; ”Play Yard Blues” is the album we (at least I) have been longing for. Here he shows his love for the seventies, both in his own songs and in his interpretations of Frank Marino’s ”Ditch Queen”, Mountain’s ”Travellin’ In The Dark” and Thin Lizzy’s outstanding ”It’s Only Money”. If we start with the cover songs, he hasn’t strayed away too much from the original versions. For example in ”Ditch Queen” he sounds very much like Frank both in his vocals approach and in his lead guitar playing. The influences really shine through. The opening track of the album, “Let It Shine”, also could have been penned by said Marino with its heavy and slightly funky verse riff. If John had to hold back on his solos on the Europe album, he’s really compensated it here. I’m not saying he’s over-playing, but where there’s place for a nice lick, he sure doesn’t rob us of the moment. In “Red Light Green High” he also shows a slightly cooler side, which made me think of bassist Tomas Torberg’s ordinary band Plankton. Norum also sings really laid back and nice on this one, something he also does in “Over And Done”, which stylewise made me think of some of Glenn Hughe’s better solo albums.

A singer John has used on some of his earlier recordings is Leif Sundin, a sadly rarely heard killer vocalist these days. Here he puts his vocal flair on the classic hard rocker “Got My Eyes On You” and the CD’s heaviest and most modern sounding track “Born Again”, the only track with detuned guitars. It however doesn’t stick out in a negative way, but more completes a great collection of tracks. The album ends with the title track that, as the title may suggest, is a play yard for guitarist, an instrumental improvisation number in the sign of blues with Europe colleague Mic Michaeli adding some nice Hammond organ to the brew. I’d also like to give some praise to John’s tasty rhythm boys, the outstandingly groovy Tomas Broman on drums and the aforementioned Plankton bassist Torberg, not forgetting percussionist Peer Stappe. These guys really put the swagger in On-mode in this killer retro-journey. Hats off to a first-rate craft and an album that has found its way nicely into my car stereo and will surely stay there for a long time ahead.

Janne Stark

Genre: Seventies hard rock

Year: 2010

Label: Mascot Reacords

Jack In The Box - Live at Gamla (Concert)

Reviewed by: Janne Stark
The bill: Jack In The Box
City: Oslo
Venue: Gamla
Date: March 19, 2010

Jack in the Box, a Norwegian band probably quite unknown to the majority of the metal fans. Hopefully not for long. The band released one EP entitled "Rockjumping" in 1993 and one CD, "Stigma", two years after. When I first heard the album I though it was pretty decent, put in the CD shelf and forgot about it for a few weeks. After a while I decided to give it another try. This time it hit me quite hard, and it just kept growing and growing. I was in quite a King's X phase at the time, and Jack in the Box was the perfect complement. They were sort of in the same genre, but at the same time had something completely different. Heavy, quirky hard rock with great and pretty odd harmonies. Being a musician and a guitarist myself, I immediately fell for the way they arranged the songs. It often meant the song was based on a riff, which at times was played in unison, bass and guitar, but in the verse the guitars played something completely different, with the bass keeping the riff going, like in "Butterfly" or "French Fries For Breakfast". I longed for the second album, which unfortunately never came as the band parted ways with singer Erik Si, changed their name to Autopulver and changed their style to an easier accessible, and to me way less interesting shape of rock/hard rock. I however never grew out of "Stigma", on the contrary. It was, and still is, one of my top 10 albums EVER. So, when I read Jack in the Box was re-uniting for a show in Norway I booked the trip, hotel and bought the ticket in a split second. I just HAD to see them.

Gamla is a small, but nice club in the centre of Oslo, only a few blocks from the central station, and only a three minute walk from our hotel. Perfect! Never been there before, but I'd sure like to back. I was a bit worried about what it would sound like when I saw the seemingly under-dimensioned sound system and the, after a while quite annoying intro tape which was more like synth noise increasing in intensity to finally decrease... and then start again. It kept going for over an hour and it didn't sound good over the PA. I was concerned. However, as the band entered the stage and the first tones of the excellent "Challenge Chamber Champagne" entered my ears, all doubts were totally blown away. The sound was surprisingly enough - Outstanding! I had forgotten my earplugs, but there was no need for them. The sound was well balanced, fat and heavy and with every single instrument, AND vocals, coming over crystal clear and at a perfect level. Hell, I can't even remember when I said that the last time! All hails to the soundman!

So, re-unions can go either way, sound really good, or sound dated, lame and like the band is fighting to remember the songs and moves. Forget that, Jack in the Box looked and sounded like this was a couple of gigs into their first tour after the release of "Stigma". Every T was crossed, every i dotted and the band looked as relaxed as ever. These guys were well rehearsed, that’s for sure. They had also made some really cool re-arrangements to some of the songs, which really surprised me in a positive way. The place was packed, these people were fans, and most of them even knew all the lyrics and would follow all the hints of singer Erik, who, besides sounding slightly strained at times, has a killer voice. Like the intro of the outstanding "Butterfly", where he had the audience scream the intro-scream. In my humble opinion the "Rockjumping" EP was really good, but the album way better. However, when the band played the tracks from the EP, like “Incapable”, “Funeral Fake” and "Dancing With Ethel", I realized they now sounded as they had been raised to the level of the album.

Jack in the Box was missing guitarist Espen who had broken his elbow in a snowboard accident, but had instead been reinforced with guitarist Bjørn Rummelhoff-Hansen, who had only been rehearsing with the band for three weeks. Well, I didn't notice and I don't think anybody else did either as he did a killer job. The remaining members were Lars “Eric Si” Eikind on vocals, Victor Borge on bass, Frode Lamøy drums and Rune Lamøy on guitar.

Of course there were encores, two of them. One being the really cool track “Cascades Of Light” from the band's first demo, even before the band was blessed with singer Lars. Well, it was no different in sound and quality from the rest, pure Jack magic! If (when) they come to Sweden, I’ll be there again, banging along and singing along!

Set list:
Challenge Chamber Champagne

Incapable

Sleep

Sister

Funeral Fake

Butterfly

Dancing With Ethel

Stigma

In2 1000 Pieces

Rockjumping

Not Yet

Lilac

RoadYellow

In Tune

---extra---

Cascades Of Light

French Fries For Breakfast

Check out the band at: http://www.boxreborn.com/

Treat - Coup De Grace (CD)

In the eighties Swedish melodic rock scene there was Europe, there was 220 Volt and there was Treat. First one out to re-unite was Europe, soon followed by 220 Volt, both returning with a vengeance and still rocking, even though the latter has been a bit more in the quiet. Well, a few years ago it was time for Treat! Most of the original line-up, reinforced with ace bassist Nalle Påhlsson set out to return, do some shows and release a compilation with a couple of highly promising new tasters. Shows were played and the interest kept growing. Finally, a new, pure and fresh sounding rocker of an album has been released. The return of Treat now has a proper statement. I did like the early works of the band, but I really fell in love with the band on “Organized Crime”, when the guitars were sharpened and the skills were honed. “Coup de Grace” is like the perfect mix of the two styles, still as melodic as the early works, but with the guitars in the forefront. The sound is anything but dated, but they haven’t gone as far as Europe did to update the sound. Treat indeed stays more true to their legacy and I feel that was definitely the right thing to do. However, as I stated, it doesn’t sound dated, and what it does, thankfully, lack, are the 80s sing-along football choirs, which would really have killed the album (“Tangled Up” has some tendencies, but it still passes with flying colours). Instead it sounds like a Treat that has been rolling with the years, accepting that times are actually changing, but still staying true to the legacy. I think this album will definitely attract new and young listeners of melodic rock. Just like with returning bands such as label mates Giant you immediately recognize the band’s sound and style, but at the same time it doesn’t sound like any repetition of lost glory. Fresh and vibrant, as Gordon Ramsey would’ve put it. I was also a bit afraid Anders/Gary Vikström would bring in some of the vibes from his song writing skills unually aimed for some of the international modern pop/rock acts (N'Sync etc). Thankfully he’s recognized the difference and left these tendencies out of the picture. This is a really nice slab of great sounding melodic rock/AOR that I can highly recommend for both old fans and new.
Janne Stark

CRAZY LIXX - New Religion (CD)

Boy, this sure feels like a nice step-up! I’d lie if I said I was a big fan of this Swedish sleaze/glam unit. However, this time they have really got a tight and great sound, songs that work and a singer that don’t promise more than he delivers, and he really does deliver! Crazy Lixx is by no means inventive or unique. Opener “Rock In A Hard Place” reminds me a bit of Bon Jovi’s “Dead Or Alive” here and there, while the subsequent “My Medicine” starts of with a riff that could be a cousin of Poison’s “Unskinny Bop”. “Blame It On Love” may as well have been a lost power ballad by Pretty Maids and the choruses on the album oozes of John “Mutt” Lange’s classic Def Leppard production. Well, it sounds like I’m complaining, but I’m actually not, as this is a really good album! It doesn’t sound like anything Swedish. My guess, without knowing, would have been a lost gem from the mid/late eighties with unusually great production (especially the pleasant lack of the horrible BIG drums). What surprises me is that this album is less glammy than I expected, that there’s more AOR in the choruses and that this is closer to classic melodic hard rock, than glam. It actually wasn’t until the cowbell entered in “Lock Up Your Daughter”, not that the track is any less good because of that. “She’s Mine” is however a bit too poppy for me, almost sounding like something Bryan Adams could have written. The album of course has the classic powerballad in “What Of Our Love”, which could have become a huge hit if the almanac read 1986, instead of 2010. A short, but sweet, slide thingy opens the road for my favourite track on the album, the stomping riffster “Voodoo Woman” which closes the album in the perfect manner. This album was a nice surprise and I suspect this may well be THE party album of 2010.
Janne Stark


Category: Melodic hard rock
Label: Frontiers
Year: 2010
Country: Sweden
Website: http://www.crazylixx.com/