"I have had a recurring mental image of people rushing down the pit, into destruction. One morning as I awoke, I saw like a mental movie that lasted for about an hour. I saw in details all the shots for the music video. The night before, the Melody and lyrics for the song had come to me in a matter of minutes. I knew this was important, and not to be kept to myself."
Stupid me for thinking that America had the monopoly on apocalyptic religious nuts making terrible, yet bizarrely intriguing music.
Quality punky new-wave rock'n'roll from Slangbella, a new project created by drummer/producer Anders Alexander (Alice in Videoland, Melody Club). Def worth a listen!
This album in one sentence: Crusty grindcore d-beat from Bergen that sounds like crusty grindcore d-beat from everywhere else in Scandinavia. "Livstid" is a decent example of how all the good albums in this genre sound, although it is a genre that's severely marred by its limited scope for experimentation. That limitation inevitably means that the mark of a good album within this Skitsystem-ruled world is simply the ability to keep up with the Joneses. It also means that unless you're either a devoted follower of all things crust or someone brand new to the genre, pretty much everything will sound the same to you. "Livstid" is a little cleaner and makes more use of melody than a lot of the stuff out there and there's enough tempo variation within the album to keep it interesting, but it's still predominately blistering fast and nasty, like all of these albums are. If that's your bag and you're either the devotee or the novice, you'll dig it. - John Norby
I'm not a big fan of supergroups; throwing a bunch of celebrities in a room usually results in extreme hype and ambiguous substance. Half-formulated or compromising in studio = lacklustre songs. Such is not necessarily the case with latest addition Casablanca, featuring Alice Cooper's guitarist Ryan Roxie, Erik Stenemo from Melody Club, Swedish football star Mat Rubarth, Josephine Forsman from Sahara Hotnights on drums, and Anders Ljung from Space Age Baby Jane on vocals. It's the kinda Guns'n'Roses-cum-Journey revival Swedes adore, thrown in a typical 80's epic love battle between hair product and tight jeans brand. The album art directly mimics The Warriors, in that New York 80's spray-painted "Apocalyptic Youth" type. The music's less raw then Alice Cooper or Thin Lizzy that's for sure, and a bit more predictable like Whitesnake or Rod Stewart. If you're into that sort of thing, it'll probably get yr head nodding. The title track's got a formulaic radio rock feel, while fast-paced next track and sugary chorus-friendly "Downtown" echoes a path the Hotnights were once on. The album's production hums big, fat and Eighties, and Josephine's solid, tasteful rock drumming shines brightly, serving as a strong backbone. They definitely show some experienced songwriting; "The juggler" is a smart, feel-good tune. But in general, the cheesy bandana-riffing and melodramatically sung verses such as on "Love and desperation" are a bit overly harry for me. I mean it kicks off with, "HUSH, NOW, THUNDERCHILD", and by track 9, "Last of the Rockstars", I'm experiencing déjà vu. Get the picture? But hey, I ain't gunna rag on something some people, especially in the backwoods country, might clearly enjoy. - Ann Sung-an Lee
The most succinct way of describing Sweden's Mordant is to say that it's like a 3-way blend of Watain, Nifelheim and Carpathian Forest with a hint of the rhythm guitar sound from "Slowly we rot" and miles of Melody in the mix. If that sounds like it might float your boat, then I would suggest you buy this right away. If, like me, you find the aforementioned bands quite patchy in their output then I would be wary of parting with your hard-earned for this. There are some really killer moments on "Black evil master", with all of "Council of evil" as a prime example, but the flipside of that is that a lot of the material sounds the same, despite the wealth of riffage on offer. There are also some subpar moments on the album, such as "Retaliation of the dark" which -- if you were to replace Bitchfire's (yes, I know!) vocals with John Tardy's -- would sound like a bonus track on Obituary's "Back from the dead" stinker. Despite its initial promise and many cool moments "Black evil master" is a pretty average album that doesn't have a hope in hell of standing the test of time. - John Norby
More often than not I could usually care less about remix tracks, but watching a video of the actual production underway makes it far more interesting. The cribbed Kate BushMelody still kinda irks me though.
Here's a nostalgia trip that never tires -- Let's Say We Did happily reminds of all things flannel, Big Muffs and youngsters paying dues to the 'Youth. This 7-track album has some killer easy songs, and its straightforward songwriting style minus shoegazer ripping makes it an endearing choice of recent Nordic 90's revival bands. This sound definitely had its time in the American indie underground -- hoarse, mumbling vocals like Cap'n'Jazz or The Weakerthans, and heartfelt choruses (avoiding the evil "E" word) of early acts. I could probably list a million bands from this era off the top of my head -- there's definitely one for every American suburb -- regardless, what I am getting to is the golden Teenage Fanclub rule: a good Melody, is just a good Melody, no matter how many or how few chords you use. Standout tracks, "It's OK" opens with a somewhat familiar riff but sticks some teeth around the edges; "Straight back to you" opens with infectious guitar duelling that'd perfectly fit your favourite (fill in the blank) 90s TV series. "On the day" and "Blue skies" have a saintly sweetness long associated with maybe youthful romance or innocence. Not a poor pop-pleaser for those with a weakness for guitar-music, easier on the ear then overproduced frilly, mathcore hits dominating the charts, at least. - Ann Sung-an Lee
The nominees for the 2012 Manifest Awards, Sweden's alternative/indie Grammy, have been announced:
Folk/Ballad: Marin/Marin – Småfolket () Merit Hemmingson – EQ () Navarra – Nya fönster () Siri Karlsson – Gran Fuego ()
Dance: Skudge – Samlad årsproduktion () Jonsson/Alter – Samlad årsproduktion () The Field – Looping State of mind () Pallers – The Sea Of Memories ()
Punk: Sju Svåra År – Storma varje hjärta () Obnoxious Youth – The Eternal Void () Vånna Inget – Allvar () Black Feet – Black Feet ()
Hip-Hop: Mofeta & Jerre – Briljanter & Smaragder () Ison & Fille – För evigt () Mohammed Ali – Vi () Roffe Ruff – Barrabas ()
Experimental: Hans Appelqvist – Sjunga slutet nu () Hanna Hartman – H ^ 2 () Ophir – Opus Operatum () Midaircondo feat. Michala Østergaard-Nielsen – Reports on the Horizon ()
Hardrock: In Solitude – The World. The Flesh. The Devil () Opeth – Heritage () Terra Tenebrosa – The Tunnels () The Haunted – Unseen ()
Rhythm: Syster Sol – Kichinga! () Simone Moreno – Planetas () Kapten Röd – Fläcken Som Aldrig Går Bort () OK Star Orchestra – The Beat and the Melody ()
Pop: Azure Blue – Rule of thirds () Jonathan Johansson – Klagomuren () Korallreven – An album by Korallreven () Loney Dear – Hall Music ()
Rock: Pascal/Mattias Alkberg – Allt det här () Kajsa Grytt – En kvinna under påverkan () Bob Hund - Det överexponerade gömstället () Tramp – Indigo ()
Synth: Henric de la Cour – Henric de la Cour () Necro Facility – Wintermute () Mr Jones Machine – Monokrom () Covenant – Modern Ruin ()
Jazz: Jonas Holgersson – Snick Snack () Parti & Minut – Från klart till halvklart () Priming Orchestra – Deep Blue () The Splendor – Delphian Palace ()
Best Unsigned: Death By Armborst Storskogen Schizo and the Personalities Farsta
Singer/Songwriter/Country/Americana: Brothers of End – Mount Inside () Ane Brun – It All Start With One () Promise & the Monster – Red Tide () Lars Bygdén – Songs I Wrote ()
Best live act: Kriget () This is Head () Graveyard () Mattias Alkberg ()
Livstid is the rare example of a band that is actually too raging, so much so that I can't make it through the album in one sitting. It's not just wall-to-wall noise either -- there's still plenty of Melody and such -- but they are absolutely relentless in their arena-crust/d-beat attack. When a track comes up on shuffle at the gym, I'm stoked (in fact, I just did a set of 30 pushups while pondering this write-up), but there's no way I'm gonna fit this into my regular listening repertoire. So consider this a hesitant recommendation -- you'll know pretty quickly whether or not you need Livstid in your life from one short sample track.
Casablanca, the new Swedish supergroup featuring members from Sahara Hotnights and Melody Club, have confirmed that their debut full-length "Apocalyptic youth" will be out on March 16, 2012 with the new single "Love and desperation" preceding it on January 20.
Norwegian newspaper Morgenbladet polled 100 musicians for their favorite Norwegian albums of all time and has compiled the results into a list 100 long and here's the top 10:
10. De Press - Block to block
09. Röyksopp - Melody AM
08. Jan Garbarek, Keith Jarrett, Palle Danielsson, Jon Christensen - Belonging
07. deLillos - Suser avgårde
06. The Aller Værste - Materialtretthet
05. Knutsen & Ludvigsen - Juba Juba
04. Kjøtt - 12"
03. A-ha - Hunting high and low
02. A-ha - Scoundrel days
01. Radka Toneff/Steve Dobrogosz - Fairytales
There's a lot to like about the new Firefox AK album "Color the trees", but "My sister and I" is a definite standout, the first tune that made a strong impression on me besides lead single "Boom boom boom". It's got a great moodiness to it, both in terms of Melody and words, and I also appreciate how its relative sparseness provides contrast against many of the record's other tunes, especially in the drum sequencing. It's a detail I've been paying much more attention to as I've taken a renewed interest in pop as of late. It's always the little things that make the biggest difference.
Quality trallpunk from Fubbix, a new (?) band on whose album "Utanför systemet" was just released this week. I'm into it, totally achieves the right balance of rawness and Melody.
Livstid
Casablanca
Mordant
Let's Say We Did
