THE QUILL - Full Circle (CD digi)

Holy crap! The Quill is back, and they are BACK with a vengeance with a capital V! I’ve always been a fan, but when things were all changing in the line-up and my favourite singer Magnus left the ranks I was a bit worried. Well, I needn’t be. Magnus Ekwall was replaced by Magnus (Arnar) and this guy sure fills his predecessor’s shoes to the fullest. Arnar has previously recorded with heavy rockers Ground Mower, where he did a great job, as well. He actually has some vocal overtones which reminds me of the band’s previous frontman. He does however put his own stamp on it, and that’s good. So, songs then? Well, some of the stuff on this album, the title track being one prime example, is among the strongest I’ve heard the band produce ever! Period! Crap, there are riffs that give me a mental hard-on here! The current line-up features Arnar on vocals, Christian Carlsson on guitar, Jolle Atlagic on drums and new bass player Rob Triches, who also does a great job laying down some killer heavy bass riffs! The album was produced by the band and Petter Diamant and the sound is really killer! Heavy, fat and organic - me like! In some moments I hear stuff that reminds me of Grand Magus in their best moments, which I haven’t heard before, and that’s not a bad thing. Conny Bloom (Jolle’s formed Hanoi Rocks colleague and Electric Boys' frontman) guests on some citar in “Black Star”, another really cool rocker. These boys sure have swagger and groove as well, where “Bring It On” is one helluva groover. This album has tons of great riffs, stuff that may not be a reinvention of the wheel, but they work and nothing feels like rehashing of old stuff, but they are fresh in a cool retro-way. No, I haven’t been smoking herbs, I promise! I’ve been looking, but I can’t find one single weak track on this album. A killer! Highly recommended!

Janne Stark
Label: Metalville
Year: 2011
Country: Sweden
Link: http://www.thequill.se/

EVILSEVE - Don't Fall Asleep ....It's (CD)

Sweden has produced a whole armada of retro metal bands lately, mostly ranging from the vaults of the seventies to the eighties. In the eighties department we find names like Steelwings, Enforcer, Helvetets Port etc. Add Evilseve. Not really sure about the seriousness of these boys, though. Judging by some of the song titles it seems like it’s pretty tongue in cheek. Well, judge for yourselves: what does titles like “Mosquito Balls”, “Rapist With A Blowtorch” and “Spank Me!” tell you? Musically, and lyrically, I find a lot of parallels with Göteborg metal clan Dream Evil. Just listen to a song like “Incompetence Is Bliss” where singer “Puss Peckard” (yeah, right…) sounds very much like Dream Evil’s high pitch god Niklas Isfeldt, which is great in my book. “Puss” is actually a damn fine singer (and I know he does appear in other bands as well). If Evilseve would’ve had the same big and fat production as the aforementioned this album would have been elevated a couple of steps. It’s by no means badly produced, I just wish…. Anyway, the songs are classic metal straight out of the book of heavy metal, and I like it! The band does it really well. It’s well-played, the musicians are great, the songs are really good and I can take a bit of humour in metal, no problem. I actually enjoy this album, I do. One thing I miss is the wigs. Boys, you could either take it all the way like Steel Panther, or go serious. You are great enough to go serious, that’s for sure. I’d go for the Steel Panther road as there MUST me more groupies there!

Janne Stark
Label: Manora
Year: 2010
Country: Sweden
Link: http://www.evilseve.com/

THE GLORIA STORY - Shades Of White (CD)

OK, I’m not sure if it’s a bit charming or if I get pretty annoyed. But, come on, the opener “Valentino” is such a Thin Lizzy rip-off it makes my skin crawl. Opening phrase “Valentino’s got a friend or two” may as well have been “Valentino’s got a booky shop”, both melody and phrasing, “waiting for me honey” may well have been “waiting for an alibi” – plagiarism or tribute, it’s a bloody fine line. Well, the band does step out of the ”tribute” corner and prooves to be more original than that. However, the album shows quite a lot of influences, such as the guitar harmonies and the way they are recorded, the Phil Lynott influences in the vocals. But, they do find their own ways in the songs. Tracks like When Hearts Cease To Bloom and Highway sounds like if you’s thrown Lizzy, The Hellacopters and Swedish glam-poppers The Ark into a blender. The Gloria Story has a strong pop oriented side, which becomes a bit too much for me. What they do, they do good, though. A decent enough album that should attract fans of the aforementioned bands as well as fans of vintage Kiss, T Rex and even Bowie in his more rocking 70s outfit.
Janne Stark
Label: Rambo Music
Year: 2011
Country: Sweden
Link: http://www.thegloriastory.com/

BADMOUTH - Heavy Metal Parkinglot (CD)

Now we’re talking major shape-up here! The band’s self-titled debut received a highly lukewarm review from yours truly. The only song that made some type of impact was album closer “Supersassy baby”, which is quite a lame result. Furthermore, the mix by Paul Sabu was anything but powerful and didn’t do the band’s sleazy hard rock any favours whatsoever. Undynamic and weak. Forget that, all is now forgiven. Sator main man Chips Kisbye understands how great rock ’n roll is supposed to sound. Fat and with the perfect punch. The pick-up also applies to the song material. Badmouth still produces straight ahead, no frills sleazy hard rock, but this time they have found the right hooks and songs that really stick. There’s also little production details that elevates it all, such as the nice upper harmonies in “Silver Lining”. Detials, but oh so important. I also complained about Randy’s untight guitar solos. Even here – great improvement! Sure, the dude hasn’t become a shredder, bu the doesn’t do more than he can handle and what he does he does really well. Even the vocal department has got a slight facelift, even if the prerequisites were there before. It all glues together perfectly and I’m happy to say, this is an album that will pay visit to my CD player several times again. Well done, boys!
Janne Stark
Label: Rambo Music
Year: 2011
Country: Sweden
Link: http://www.badmouththeband.com/

GORDON FIGHTS - Gordon Fights (CD)

The album starts off with a slight nod to Black Sabbath’s “Warpigs” in the drum intro but then takes it in an entirely different direction, to suddenly slow the tempo down and get into a heavy riff, which then smoothes out and we are lead into a really soft, almost 60s influenced verse. The song then goes back and forth between heavy 70s riffs and smooth 60s psychedelica with some cool backwards guitars. Interesting indeed! Funnily enough the subsequent track, "Birds & Flowers", starts off very close to AC/DCs “Have A Drink On Me”, but like the the first track these guys are just pulling our legs (or ears) and we head off elsewhere. Here they go all boogie instead. Here they actually remind me a bit of The Hellacopters at times, in a good way. “Dance Quite Well” has some really killer southern style bluesy riffing going on and draws my mind to bands like Preacher Stone, Cry Of Love or Lynyrd Skynyrd in their heavier moments. A killer track indeed. This is a pretty versatile album in all its simplicity, I must say. The sound is quite clean, but still really heavy and with great dynamics. These guys sometimes sounds like they were at their height way back even before they were born. Very authentic indeed and I really like it! Singer Viktor Balkewitsch Persson has a cool voice, quite clean but still a bit gritty when he needs to. A prefect fit for the music. I think this will definitely attract fans of bands like Graveyard, Witchcraft etc as well. Back to the songs, Gordon Fights also do a really killer, southern acoustic porch style blues in “Brothers And Sisters” with some great female gospel style backing vocals giving it an even more authentic feel. I tell you, when these boys bring out guns like “No Rope Around Me” it’s damn well impossible to sit still. These guys rock and they groove! With a capital G! After having let this platter spin a few times I tell you, there’s not one single weak track on this album! It’s all a perfect match, the music, the songs, the sound, the vocals and the musicians. Together with the new The Quill album, they are at the top of my “Best Of The Month” list. I just can’t make any sense of the name,  but that’s another story.
Janne Stark
Label: Transubstans
Country: Sweden
Year: 2011
Link:  http://gordonfights.se/
 

RAWBURT - Tropheus (CDR 7tr)

Rawburt is a pretty new Göteborg (Gothenburg) metal unit lead by former Human Race guitarist Robert Hansson. The band also features bass player Jörgen Raneström and drummer Jörgen Tjusling. On the first, outstanding, demo the vocals were handled by Björn Larsson (Two Rocks, Ride The Sky etc), but on this effort Robert has brought back his old Human Race colleague Stefano Marchesini. I really loved Björn’s vocals and was at first a bit worried how Stefan would fit this instalment, which is a bit more metal than his previous work with Robert. Well, after having heard the opening bass crusher In For The Kill, my worries were totally shattered. Stefano does a killer job! In the verse of second track Burning he actually reminds me a bit of Jorn Lande. Holy crap, that song has some devastatingly heavy riffs! The cool thing is that the verses are really smooth. I don’t know what band to really compare to, it’s more that Rawburt (not so convinced when it comes to the band name though…) has picked some bits and pieces from here and there. There’s a bit of Zakk Wylde in some guitar parts, some Jorn in other parts, a bit of Primal Fear in some more metal moments, a touch of Rammstein in one song, but there are also some parts I can’t really place. The songs aren’t complicated or extremely unique, BUT holy crap – they ROCK! The song material is top notch and in combination with the outstanding mix of Solan Gundersen (who?? – this guy should be a star!) this could be one hell of an album! So, my tip of the day – let Stefano re-record the vocals of the first tracks and release this as the album of the year! Yes, it IS that good! …and I want a ManDelKubb amplifier if they all sound this good!
Janne Stark
Label: private
Country: Sweden
Year: 2011
Link:http://www.rawburt.com

DREAMCATCHER - Souldesign (CD)

Man, it was actually a while since I heard any new interesting prog metal bands with the classic old Queensryche touch, but Dreamcatcher was a really refreshing acquaintance with a nod to the old school! The guys and girl however do look quite young. I must say this is a really classy production, both sound-wise and visually, for being a private release. This is something I would expect to see on a label like AFM or Massacre. Dreamcatcher fall in somewhere between bands like Symphony X, Andromeda and old school Queensryche, but with a strong touch of modern melodic bands like Within Temptation and Nightwish. The big difference being that Dreamcatcher are equipped with male singer Lucas Jackson, who reminds me a bit of Geoff Tate (back when he could actually sing well) and Midnight (R.I.P). What also makes me think of these bands are the way the keyboards are used, to create an ambient wall of sound more than the Rudess, Johansson style twiddling. The production is quite big and rich, where my only complaint would be the heavily trigged drums (which has more to do with me being an old school analogue fart). The songs are really good, well-written and flawlessly performed without feeling too technical or pretentious. This is a really good album I must say! Highly recommended for prog metal fans!
Janne Stark
Country: UK
Label: Private
Link: www.dreamcatcherofficial.com