CLARK LANE - Smalltown Misery (CD-R)

Clark Lane is a Swedish band I’ve kept my eyes on for some time. Their previous demo showed tremendous potential, and I was actually quite surprised to see yet another demo instead of a debut album. These guys really deserve to get their album out. It’s not easy to describe the band’s sound as, even though there are influences from various places, they do have their own sound. Opener Smalltown Misery is a great melodic rocker with nice biting guitar work that reminds me a bit of TNT, while the songs fits in somewhere between Dizzy Mizz Lizzy and 3 Doors Down. Alive continues with a cool vibe that makes me think of Canadians Tonic in their heavier moments, still very contemporary and melodic. This band is definitely radio material. Great vocals, great musicians, killer songs with great arrangements and top notch production. What I really like is the quirkiness that pops out now and then in the riffing, melodies and arrangements. Expectations made me think of Hoobastank in the initial riffing, but this is actually a bit heavier, and this band takes quite different ways melodically, plus there’s a great guitar solo. This is really, really good stuff! Kharma and especially Wreckingball are even heavier with a touch of King’s X in the riffing, but with a totally different vocal vibe. Both are outstanding songs! All five tracks are actually killer and this band deserves all exposure they can get! This is new and fresh with a nod to the (semi-) old school.
Janne Stark
Country: Sweden
Year: 2012
Label: none (CD-R demo) 

SOMEONELSE – The Doomed (CD)

New modern rockers Someonelse hail from New York. Two of the members were previously part of Juniper Sky. At a first glance I felt The Doomed was a bit too “modern” and slick for me, but after a few spins it did grow on me. Songs like Wake Up makes me envision what a threesome between Coheed And Cambria, Deftones and Hoobastank would result in. I think the offspring would be – Someonelse! They have energy and post-hardcore touch of the two latter, while I hear some vocals resemblance of Coheed And Cambria’s Claudio Sanchez at times. The, quite proggy, track Comatose also has some musical hints of the aforementioned. Maybe it’s the New York air. The title track does have it’s C&C vide as well. I love the powerful heavy riffing going on here. The overall melodic vibe is actually a mix of all three bands I mentioned, plus I do find some hints of later days Avenged Sevenfold, which is also great in my book. Someonelse is however by no means any copycats, but do have a touch of their own. The production, by the band themselves, is powerful, dynamic and nice. All in all this is a really nice album that I’d be happy to recommend to fans of modern, melodic, proggy and interesting metal.
Janne Stark
Label: D.I.Y
Country: USA
Year: 2011
Link: http://www.someonelserocks.com/

SUBTOPIA - In What Do We Trust (CD)

In the steps of modern melodic American acts like Hoobastank, Nickleback, Shinedown and Swedish colleagues like Blindside and Takida there has developed a new line of interesting domestic acts. Subtopia is one example of a new Swedish name to check out. Ok, they have a lot of “modern” overtones, but in tracks like “Feed Your Mind” there are traces of Metallica, as well as Avengend Sevenfold, while “Squinch” actually reminds me a bit of Black Sabbath’s “Am I Going Insane” in its half-note elevation. The songs are quite varied without losing the theme. It’s melodic and modern, yet not too slippery or ass-kissing, which should make these guys interesting even for fans of traditional metal. The song material is really good, not earthshaking (which doesn’t happen that often), but it’s really promising! The production by Jonas Ekström and singer Antz is really strong for an indie production. A great band with great promise for the future!
/Janne Stark

Genre: Modern melodic metal
Label: private press
Country: Sweden
Year: 2009
Website: wwwsubtopiamusic.com