FREDRIK PIHL – Silhouettes (CD)

Swedish guitarist Fredrik Pihl now releases his first solo effort. The six track CD starts off with the track Above The Surface. It immediately strikes me that the main riff used is an Indian scale often played by Freak Kitchen’s Mattias Ia Eklundh as an exercise. The aforementioned guitar hero is making a guest appearance on the track so I presume it’s fully legit. Fredrik has a good tone and his playing is fine, but the production is actually quite poor. Quite bad sounding programmed drums, at times overplaying quite a bit, and a mix that sounds like it was done in a laptop with no monitors. I’m sorry, but in this day and age when the possibilities are endless and you can find someone to mix your recording at a fair price. A bad production is not a good excuse. The Demonic Masquerade has a nice melodic verse. I’m a bit surprised the keyboards are so dominant for a guitar album. The track features nice soloing from Fredrik, showing a melodic side as well as a more technical flare. Most of the songs have a fusion-oriented touch with odd rhythms which is nice. The title track, which at times has an almost folky feel, features a guest solo from Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (now in guns ‘N Roses). It’s however a bit too long to keep the interest intact without having any major changes. By The Blue Horizon is a nice melodic keyboard based piece with a guest appearance by keyboardist Lalle Larsson. Unfortunately the programmed drums are again overplaying quite a bit. Nice acoustic guitar melodies, though, while the electric guitar solo feels a bit too jazzy and scale-based to really fit the song. All in all, some nice guitar playing going on, but the songs are in my opinion a bit too dissonant to really catch my attention. I do like fusion, but I still want some nice hooks and melodies, and sure there are, but they come and go quite quickly. Also the production is an issue that really should be put in focus next time around.
Label: self-released
Year: 2011
Country: Sweden
Link: www.fredrikpihl.com <http://www.fredrikpihl.com/>
 

NEVEREVEN - The progress Of Disaster (MCD)

I love discovering new talented band. Today’s discovery goes under the witty anagram Nevereven and is an American four-piece. I immediately hear some really nice King’s X overtones, and while doing this I read the name Ty Tabor on the cover. Well, the fact that the band used the talents of King’s X guitarist/singer Tabor to master the disc was probably no coincidence. The opener on the MCD, The World Of Tomorrow, has a bunch of King’s X in the main riff, but apart from that they do have a sound and touch of their own. Strong melodic chorus and a great sound. Gary Pickard has a great voice, too, the guitar work is great and I really like bass player Damian Peters’ intense playing. Remainder keeps the flame burning and is another great melodic piece, only small grains of the X-men here. Third track Give continues in the same vein, also with some really nice harmony vocals. They actually remind me of another excellent American band, .end of story, which is a good thing. Winterkill is a slightly darker and heavier track, but still with the really nice harmony vocals. This is a really enjoyable release that will spin a lot in my player. Finishing track Orpheus leaves off in the same vein. I like the tempo change, which is a nice touch and makes the song a bit more interesting. Great stuff indeed! My only criticism would be that if the band makes a full album they should add some tracks that varies a bit more from the format. On this release the opening track is the strongest one, while the other four tracks are great, but a bit too similar in shape and form. Highly promising, though!
Janne Stark
Year: 2011
Country: USA
Label: Self-released
Link: http://www.neverevenmusic.com/

BLACKRAIN – Into The Black (CD)

It all started under the name Just A Quick Stop, at the time as a duo featuring guitarist Ronny Blylod (Destynation) and singer Daniel Söderberg. They released a pretty promising CD. The band was reinforced by bass player John Vigebo and drummer Henrik Söderqvist and they now became – Blackrain. I first saw the band at the Rock Out Wild festival in 2011, and was truly blown away by the band’s live performance. Into The Black is an outstanding debut, I must say! If you’re into melodic hard rock with a touch of King’s X meets Alter Bridge, but with classic hard rock elements in the mix, this is a must. Heavy, groovy and melodic with singer Söderberg really taking it to the next level. The sound is very organic, in your face, honest and may as well have been recorded live in the studio with some additional overdubs added afterwards. It’s by no means over-produced and even though I really like it, I think it’s here it shows it’s a self-produced production. The song material is really great with lots of cool groovy riffs and nice hooks. The band sounds tight and they really deliver on all levels. It’s very even album with no low points, and no extreme highs either. This is however not a bad thing. I much rather have an even, strong album, that one with 2-3 killer tracks and the rest below average. This is an album you can fully enjoy start to finish. Well done! Already looking forward to the next one!
Janne Stark
Year: 2011
Label: JAQS
Country: Sweden
Link: www.myspace.com/blackrainsweden <http://www.myspace.com/blackrainsweden> 

.end of story - .self-propelled (CDR 11tr)

US band .end of story has released one official CD and some very promising demos. One album that was only half-finished was entitled .self-propelled and sounded really great already as an unfinished album. Now guitarist/singer Skot Reed and bass player Dave Eichman have finally finished up the album with the help of drummer Troy Hagar. If you’re into King’s X style hard rock with cool, and quite odd harmonies, detuned riffing, great melodies and heavy grooves, this band is a MUST. There’s not a weak song on this platter, instead it goes between good, great and killer! Among the last category there’s the heavy One Mrs. Hippie, the funky/heavy Reaper Sublime with killer bass work from Eichman, not forgetting the outstanding cool Blue Sun with cool vintage King’s X style variations and harmonies. This is music porn! Besides being a killer guitarist with great feeling and technique, Skot is a formidable singer with a really cool tone to his voice. I sure hope some label picks this one up and gives it a proper release, coz it sure deserves it!
Janne Stark
Country: USA
Year: 2011
Label: none
Link: http://www.endofstory.com/

SCREAMER – Adrenaline Distractions (CD)

Now here’s yet another combattant in the New Wave of Swedish Heavy Metal. We already know Enforcer, Helvetets Port, Steelwing and Portrait as young bands who have listened to their fathers old tape collections and quite successfully recreated the sounds of the classic 80s heavy metal with all the little charming flaws. Well, add Screamer to the lot. If they had recorded this with a slightly thinner sound, maybe recorded it to cassette and copied it a couple of times to make it lose a bit of quality, man I would’ve been fooled! Quite authentic I’d say. This type of stuff really brings you back to those days of tape trading and plays on the nostalgia nerve. Fans of nu-metal should pay no attention whatsoever to this, but all ye old metal fans out there should definitely add Screamer to your list of CDs to buy. The band sounds pretty tight and good, with a potent singer that deliver the classic eighties lyrics very convincingly. This sounds really good, boys!
Janne Stark
Label: High Roller
Country: Sweden
Year: 2011

BLISTER BRIGADE - Devastating Smile (CDR 3tr)

We're off to Skellefteå and Blister Brigade. Man, that’s some pretty cool odd riffing straight in your face already in the opening track Devastating Smile. Then it goes into some weird sleaze vein. The band sounds really good and the style quite is quite original. Nice opening indeed. Second track, Rock ‘N Roll Grave, is sort of a semi-ballad which sounds more like Hanoi Rocks, but didn’t really hit me that hard, even though the chorus is pretty strong. Last track, Worst Case Scenario, picks up the pace again, again with some pretty cool riffing mixed with traditional sleaze-oriented metal. The band has a good tight sound. The singer is not a high pitch screamer, but sticks to the lower registers. He may not be the world’s most exciting singer, but he does do the job pretty well. Not bad at all.
Janne Stark
Country: Sweden
Year: 2012
Label: none
Link: http://sv-se.facebook.com/blisterbrigade

BLACKOUT METAL - demo (CDR 3tr)

Swedish metal merchants Blackout Metal is musically way more exciting than their name. There must be at least a couple hundred bands called Blackout. Tip no 1: Change the name boys! I saw the band live at the Rock Out Wild festival in northern Sweden last year and they did very well live. Opening track Addict starts it off with some really heavy, crunchy riffing topped with clean but powerful vocals. Second track starts out a bit weird, where it sounds like the bass and guitars are either not tuned the same or someone is playing something differently, or it’s just for effect. Anyway, the track reminds me of vintage thrashy Metallica, think Four Horsemen or Whiplash. Final track, Never Again, continues in the same vein. Tight, powerful and good! This band should definitely appeal to fans of good old thrashy metal in the vein of Anthrax, early Metallica, Megadeth, Testament and Vicious Rumours etc.

Janne Stark
Year: 2011
Label: none
Country: Sweden
Link: http://www.blackoutmetal.com/