Janne Stark’s Top 15 of 2023

So here’s my Top 15 of 2023 (with some extra honorary mentions). If you miss some stuff it may actually be because I actually haven’t heard it (or maybe it wasn’t to my liking enough to make the Top 15). 

Wytch Hazel – IV: Sacrament – Outstanding proggy hard rock, like a mix of classic Demon and heavy Jethro Tull with a NWoBHM touch.

Cloud Catcher – Return From The Cauldron – Ball busting US powerful riff rockers do it again! 

A.C.T – Falling – My favorite Swedish pop-progsters never disappoint! 

Blindstone – Scars To Remember – Martin sure knows how to riff!!

The Cold Stares – Voices – US blues rockers that deliver yet another killer album!

Dirty Honey – Can’t Find The Brakes – The 70s rules! Dirty Honey proves it!

Beastmaker – Body And Soul – Previously unreleased demos, yet, bloody great stuff! For fans of classic Black Sabbath.

Vandenberg – Sin – Mats Leven has sure brought a new touch to this excellent classic band!

Timechild – Blossom & Plague – The Danes manage to follow up their debut with an even better album! 

Prins Svart – Till vårt försvar – Mats Leven, again, delivers the goods with these excellent Swedish riff rockers!

Tania Kikidi – Wings Of Freedom – Tania has leather coated vocal cords, perfect for this bluesy metal album!

Ego Planet – Ego Planet – More outstanding heavy riff rock! A KILLER debut!

Bloody Dice – Bloody Dice – A new Danish power combo that shows that Danish Dynamite is still highly explosive!

Zhiva – Into The Eye Of The Storm – Excellent heavy melodic Swedish rockers!

Future Elephants? – The Past Was A Blast… - Just love these slightly quirky Swedish progy rockers!

Honorary mentions:

Care Of Night – Reconnected – Killer AOR!

Sour Cream – Sour Cream – More killer retro riffing!

Sass Jordan – Live In New York Ninety-Four – Sass rocks! What a killer live album!!

TANIA KIKIDI – Wings Of Freedom (CD)

Greek vocal powerhouse Tania Kikidi follows up the excellent 2021 album “Rock & Roll Paradise” with a new belter of an album. The album kicks of with the rockin’ “Rise” that almost touches on classic 80s metal and bands like Riot or Metal Church, but with a more 70s sounding chorus. All the instruments, mixing and mastering are handled by the multi-talented Stavros Papadopoulos who does a killer job sounding like a whole band of different musicians. The title track continues and again I have to say vintage Riot does come to mind, and that is in my book by no means a bad thing. On the contrary, the early discography of Riot are among my favorite records. This is definitely classic metal with a new touch. “Loud And Proud” touches on 70s heavy rock and made me think of bands like Rockicks and Hydra, with Tania taking the vocal department to a whole new level. A killer track! “Broken Dreams” is a cool up-tempo classic rocker keeping the pace up going into a kickin’ cover of Sass Jordan’s “High Road Easy”. Tania and Stavros do a great job with it, but it’s almost impossible to surpass the unearthly energy and power of Sass, Brian Tichy and Stevie Salas, but a great version, nonetheless! “Heart Painted Blue” is a cool, heavy bluesy number giving the album another touch of color. “Confession” takes us into a Dio:esque landscape with a touch of Sabbaths “Heaven And Hell”, while “Breaking It Down” kicks off with riff heaven. Heavy, funky and rockin’ with Tania’s voice as the icing on the cake. “Bleed” keeps the riff machine going, while “Pain” revvs up the metal machine again, going back into vintage Riot territory.”Foolish Lover” is a cool, bluesy ballad kicking off with a killer solo from Stavros. The album finishes with the beautiful acoustic ballad “Sea Of Tears”. A very nice ending to a kick-ass album! Killer vocals, awesome playing, killer production and a cool cover to match it! Get it! 

Janne Stark

Label: Grooveyard Records

Year: 2023

Country: Greece

Link: https://grooveyardrecords.com/

RUFFYNZ – III (CD)

What could go wrong with a line-up boasting guests like Pat Travers, Pat Thrall, Bumblefoot, Tony Franklin, Dave Meniketti, Derek Sherinian and a line-up featuring the legendary Carmine Appice, Lizards’ bass player Randy Pratt guitarist JZ Barrell and singer Ed Terry? Judging from the heavy funky opening track “Street Corner High” – nothing it seems! Ed has a really cool gritty rock voice with fits perfectly with the heavy funky rock vibe. Killer solos by the two Pats as icing on the cake! Great heavy and analogue sounding mix by JZ Barrell further enhances the experience. “Looking For The Edge” introcuces an almost psychedelic vibe to the mix and Ed actually reminds me a bit of Eric Martin in the verse. With a mix of Bumblefoot and Derek Sherinian adding their vibes to the song it really gets far out (in a good way). “Malevolent Fool” feels like a blues for the new decade. Heavy, chunky and brutal with a modern touch, and Tracy G adding his guitar weirdness to it pushes it yet another bit. “Red Lines” is another heavy and funky rocker with Randy’s fuzzed out power bass leading the way. This one is also adorned with a bit of Bumblefoot geetar majik. “Playhouse” is a slightly softer, almost soul funk-oriented, number that sees Carmine re-unite with his old Blue Murder colleague Tony Franklin. It also features some cool harp playing from Randy (who used to help out in Cactus as well). “Electric Mind Control” takes us back into the heavy funk mode with Randy adding some cool nasty wah-wah to his bass. On this one Vinnie Moore adds a solo. The cool shuffle number “Cadillac Walk” features former Cactus colleague Jim McCarty on guitar, adding some cool slide vibes to the album. “Far Too Long” takes us back into the heavy riff territory. The mix is ultra-heavy with bass taking lead and fuzzing it out into oblivion! Dave Meniketti delivers a rippin’ solo. “Warm Oasis” is kind of an odd number with an almost jazzy touch. The album finishes with the heavy and brutal “Hanging” featuring Tracy G. Ruffynz is Randy Pratt’s baby and it does show in the heavy bass department, but it fits perfectly with the heavy funky vibe of the songs. It’s not your run of the mill funky rock album, but has a lot of interesting twist and turns and the vocal and musical contributions are top notch! A highly interesting album to really sink your teeth into!

Janne Stark

Label: Hyperspace

Country: USA

Year: 2023

Link: https://www.hyperspacerecords.com/

KING MOUNTAIN – Wrath Of The Gods (CD)

This is the fourth physical album (their sixth in total) in that many years by Greek bluesy stoner rockers King Mountain. On guitar and vocals, of course, the multi-talented Stavros Papadopoulos. The album starts out pretty cool and calm to burst into some really heavy, almost doomy riffs. It evolves into a really nice semi-soft, heavy bluesy number, the ones you usually find in the second half of an album. It almost has kind of a King’s X vibe to it, as well. Interesting! “Firebringer” brings in a bit of classic metal into the mix. “Evil Deadly Nights” is as slow and doomy as they come, while “Midas Touch” is a nice acoustic ballad that turns into a slow epic heavy number. “Until the Day I’m Gone” is another crushing metal number. “Axecalibur” is crushing riff monster featuring some killer bass playing from John Christopoulos and brilliant soloing from Stavros while “Retribution” is another heavy rock hitter. I’m not sure why this band is often labeled as a “stoner” band. This is classic heavy rock with some heavier passages and quite a nice variety in the song writing. A great album indeed!

Janne Stark

Label: Grooveyard Records

Country: Greece

Year: 2023

Link: https://grooveyardrecords.com/

REMUDA DUST – The Speedball Years 1999-2001 (LP)

Ozium keep chugging out great stoner/retro hard rock. Next up is Swedish retro/stoner band Remuda Dust. The band released the three-track EP “Superhighway" in 2000 and then nothing more happened. Now Ozium is finally releasing an album with the bands collected work. Eight tracks, recorded between 1999 and 2001 (as the title suggests). Remuda Dust is a pretty rough-edged, slightly garagy unit. The guys look and sound quite young (which they probably at the time) and especially the vocals have that young and unruly touch to them. “Facing The Engine” on the other features some really mature sounding guitar solos. “Cactus Canyon” is almost punky in its attitude, with a touch of Sator at times. The first three tracks were featured on the band’s only release, and you can clearly that the track “Bleed”, produced by Janne Bark, that ends sida A, is recorded at a different occasion. The guitars are fat, fuzzy and really brutal. A great high-energy track. The tracks on side B were produced by Johan Carlsson and the opener “Baby Blue” opens with some pure barbwire guitar. This is definitely garage stoner in its purest form. Raw and unpolished with a punkish attitude. I came to think of that this is probably what it would have sounded like if The Sonics had reunited as a stoner band. “Emotional” continues in a more boogie-oriented vein. The guitars sound like they have been in a frying pan for about four hours! “Tijuana” continues in a heavier vein, and is probably my favorite on the album. “18-wheeler” ends the album in a more up-tempo stoner-shuffle vein. This is raw, rough, juvenile, powerful, crunchy, fuzzy stoner rock straight from the crotch!

Janne Stark

Label: Ozium Records

Year: 2023

Country: Sweden

Link: https://oziumrecords.bandcamp.com/

Future Elephants? – The Past Was A Blast… (CD/LP)

Future Elephants? Current Dinosaurs? I don’t know about the elephants, but these guys sure aren’t no dinosaurs. They may have been in the game since Jeebo walked around in shorts, but these guys manage to find ways to up the old game of prog-infused rock. This is the third outing from this band, and it sure doesn’t disappoint. Singer/guitarist Roger Holegård (of Neon Rose fame), guitarist Dante Holmberg (formerly of Uppåt Väggarna, Strix Q etc), bass player Anders Lundguist and drummer Sigvard Frenzel again being out a really nice slab of music. We get a nice variety of sounds and colors We have rockers like “Shake The Snake”, passing semi-soft almost pop-folksy songs like “Ground Floor Man” on to the classical sounding intro of “Walking With a Dead Man” that goes into some really cool heaviness with a touch of Jethro Tull. Side one of the vinyl ends with the odd semi-ballad “Rain” with moody, yet slightly proggy twists. Side two starts with another cool slightly proggy semi-heavy number named “Bring In The Judge” with a really powerful chorus. “The Planet’s Crusaders” goes in a different direction, bringing in some blues rock with a quirky guitar melody that really gets stuck in your head. For some reason it made me think of Dire Straits “Money For Nothing”, but better. “Peter’s Demons” takes us back to the proggier regions with a touch of vintage Blue Öyster Cult. Really cool guitar solo from Dante, too. The album ends with another killer straight ahead rocker entitled “Drink” with more of Roger’s excellent lyrics. He mixes tongue-in-cheek stuff with some deep meanings, which I really like. I’ve been a fan of his lyrics since back in the Neon Rose days. I also really like the analogue sounding production, very modern retro. The sound is great, the playing is stellar and Roger’s vocals fits the music like a glove. What’s not to like? Get it!

Janne Stark

Label: Rock Music Production
Year: 2023
Country: Sweden

Matti Norlin & Anders Norudde – Blåställ (CD)

Matti Norlin started his career in metal bands like Wizard and Ninja, but soon slided into the blues with solo releases and the excellent band Badge. Here’s another release in the blues school. This time together Anders Norudde on violin, bagpipe, cow horn (?), Willow flute and various odd instruments. ”Håll käft” (shut up) starts off with its cocky attitude dealing with the current machine based music. Cocky up-tempo blues with odd musical coloring. ”Aldrig riktigt nöjd” (never completely satisfied) reminds me of ”Come On In My Kitchen” by Robert Johnson, but when I checked the credits it was actually an old Muddy Waters number. “Flaska kär” (bottle dear) is a classic porch blues, where I kinda feel the fiddle is more in the way than helping. The guitar would be enough here. All in all I really like the songs, I love Mattis vocals and his guitar playing, but I do feel there are sometimes a bit too many instruments, where I feel some don’t really fit in, or at least get a bit too much space in the music. 

Janne Stark

Label: private release
Year: 2022
Country: Sweden