Morten Veland is something of a pioneer in the world of Gothic Metal; he was one of the founder members of Tristania, and went on to leave them to form Sirenia. So it’s fair to say he knows his way around the genre, and it’s not much of a surprise that his solo project produces exactly that. For the sake of continuity, he’s even managed to end the band name in “-ia”.

This is a proper solo project, no messing about with guest musicians or even producers - Veland has done literally everything himself, all of the instruments, music, lyrics, even the recording, engineering, mixing and producing. In his own studios. The one concession he’s made to the existence of the rest of the musical world is to use a choir, but I bet that’s just because he didn’t have time to multi-track himself singing all twenty parts. Yes, this is the Morten Veland show, his musical vision finally put straight from his head to record in its purest form.

The sound is probably most comparable to Tristania’s second album, ‘Beyond the Veil’, if you‘re hoping for a comparison. There’s much less emphasis on the female vocals, though, which only really appear through the use of the choir - this is a deliberate move, apparently, to help differentiate Mortemia from the legions of female-fronted gothic metal bands which seem to have sprung up of late. Hence, it’s very manly sounding choir most of the time to boot. It all comes together giving an odd impression of having your radio tuned somewhere halfway between Classic FM and, well, something like Ragnarok Radio. Classical and metal are by no means the most obvious of bedfellows, certainly not to the extent that Mortemia attempt, but something about it just works.

This is still very much a metal album, of course, and there are loads of examples of cracking ’metal’ moments; ‘The Eye of the Storm’ has a very rockin’ climax, including a ripping guitar solo, as does ‘The New Desire‘. Indeed, every song has a kicking riff and often an extremely air-guitar-able solo - for the most part the driving force, the bass end of the music, is supplied by the guitars, drums and Veland’s growly vocals, while the melody and harmony lies in the strings and choral arrangements. You’ll notice that not only do all of the songs start with the word “The” (what is this, “In Sorte Diaboli”?), they all have very epic titles, like ‘The Malice of Life’s Cruel Ways’. That’s kind of an indicator of the kind of music we’re dealing with here - it’s not exactly going to be shy, retiring stuff. It’s classical-gothic-metal, with a bloody great choir doing half the vocals - we’re going to be running out of synonyms for “epic”, before long. I’ll throw in “majestic” and “bombastic” right now, before the thesaurus runs dry.

There’s not much point in singling out songs to pick apart, really, because they’re all cogs in the same great machine, movements in this grandiose symphony Veland has put together. That’s another thing he’s taken from the classical style - the way I‘ve come to think of it, “Misere Mortem” is not so much a concept album as a suite, in the same way as you’d think of “The Planets” by Holst, or Saint-Saëns’ “Carnival of the Animals”. There’s a definite narrative strain in there, and the songs can easily run together if you’re not actively looking for the gaps.

The production is actually pretty solid, for an in-house job; some of the strings and so forth sound a bit, well, fake, but for the most part it’s a very convincing racket. You’d have to be really, really trying to pick holes in it. The tone is rich and - I was about to say ‘lustrous’, but despite how right it sounds in my head I think I might have learned that word in a shampoo advert, so instead I’ll just go for - atmospheric. There really is an excellent dark atmosphere created in some of the quieter moments of the album. The guitars and the lower end of the sonic spectrum mesh very well with the orchestral stuff, and the piano and choir, which isn’t actually the easiest thing in the world to do in production. It all comes together very nicely, and creates a really epic feel. Epic, majestic and bombastic, even.

Morten Veland. What a man. First he founds two of gothic metal’s top bands, and then comes out with a completely self-produced one-man-band solo effort - and an incredibly epic one at that. And all of this by the age of just thirty-two…it’s hard not to be impressed by that. The sheer ostentatious scope and vision of this album are breathtaking, for one man to have crafted the entire thing inside his head. To say he “knows his way around the genre” (as I did, yes) is a god-damn understatement. I just hope that he finds some way to take this crazy vision of his on the road, because I’d be first in line to see how the hell this madness would sound live.

Misere Mortem is available to buy or download at Play.com

Genre : Death Metal, Gothic Metal

Article by Phil Sim

Post from: Ragnarok Radio

It’s hard to believe that it’s coming up on three years since the last High on Fire album was released. That founder, guitarist and vocalist Matt Pike takes this long to produce an album is always going to instill a note of fear in his fans, most of whom are still traumatised by the saga of “Dopesmoker”. Pike’s old band, stoner metal legends Sleep, attempted to release “Dopesmoker” in 1995, but it didn’t see the light of day until eight years later, by which time the band had long since broken up. Pike has actually been busy with a Sleep reunion in the last year or so, but fear not, High on Fire devotees: “Snakes for the Divine” has actually been released, at long last!

Notably, “Snakes for the Divine” was produced by Greg Fidelman, famed for his peerless work on Slayer’s “World Painted Blood” and Metallica’s “Death Magnetic”, when he rescued both of those legendary bands from sounding like nu-metal ponces. He’s once again gone for the crisp, precise, dry kind of sound he brought to those albums, so it’s a slight departure from the explosive High on Fire sound we all know and love. However, if you take a moment to get used to it, this new style actually works really very well.

Des Kensel’s drums are in more of a supporting role than usual, with Pike’s guitars and vocals - riding high in the mix - providing the main driving force. At times, you can even almost comprehend some of what he’s singing! That’s not to denigrate Kensel’s contribution, of course - he still provides some mind-blowing stick-work, and his double-bass adds still more weight to the album’s already insanely heavy sound. It’s just that more than ever before, this is a High on Fire album driven by Matt Pike - which is by no means a bad thing.

It’s a punishing, relentless behemoth of an album. The uninitiated will be quickly swayed by thrash-attacks like first single ‘Frost Hammer’ and the breakneck ‘Fire, Flood and Plague’. Pike’s guitar work is off the hook throughout, in particular the tight, thundering riffs that make up the core of the music, but there are also some excellent melodic moments to savour - such as the guitars in ‘How Dark We Pray’. Titular opening track ‘Snakes for the Divine’ features a cracking lead part which I believe I noisily proclaimed to be “bitchin’” even during the first listen, but which sadly only occurs at opposing ends of the eight-and-a-half minute song. The rest of it, as with the album, consists fairly solidly of chugging down tuned riffs, vicious drum-work, and Matt Pike’s growly shouting. One thing to note: I mentioned earlier that you can actually make out some of the lyrics, and about the best word I can think of to describe them is “barmy”. A good example might be “Gladiators ring / Sharpening my blade to sting / Son of a bitch your fate I’ll bring”, although to be fair that’s one of the more coherent moments.

‘Bastard Samurai’ (what a name, by the way!) harks back to Pike’s days with Sleep, as the band lift their collective foot from the accelerator at least for a moment. While being a comparatively slow number, it still however manages to feature one of the album’s best guitar solos. You‘d do well to rest up for its duration, though, as you’ll need plenty of energy to headbang along to ‘Ghost Neck’, which reignites the frenetic pace of the album. It sits perfectly among the ‘thrash-attacks’ I was talking about earlier, and to be honest there isn’t a weak point in the album, not a chink in its armour. It’s solid, heavy, brutal, and just generally bloody ace.

‘Holy Flame of the Fire Spitter’ wraps things up in a fashion you should have become used to by this time; if the previous 45 minutes hadn’t convinced you as to how good High on Fire are at their job, it offers a microcosm of the whole. The chorus features what sounds like some kind of demonic army chanting “hoo-hah!”, presumably on the march to wage war on an Elven kingdom somewhere. “Snakes for the Divine” is the perfect soundtrack to such a mythical war; it’s a punishing compilation of crushing riffs and searing hooks, music that makes you want to sharpen your axe (or indeed Frost Hammer) and slaughter Orcs, or something similarly Warcraft-ish. It’s certainly an early contender for heaviest album of the year.

Snakes for the Divine is available to buy or download at Play.com

Genre : Metal, Progressive Metal

Article by Phil Sim

Post from: Ragnarok Radio

The racket Orange Goblin specialise in tends to be referred to as ‘stoner metal’. Indeed, they’re reputed to be the UK’s premier exponents of that particular sub-genre. They epitomised that style on their standout third album, 2000’s ‘The Big Black’, but since then have been moving in a more traditional heavy-metal direction. By the time their sixth album, 2007’s ‘Healing Through Fire’ rolled around, staple traditional stoner tracks like ‘Scorpionica’ were a thing of the past. Sure, there are hints of it at various points on ‘Healing Through Fire’, it’s definitely still an influence, but to be honest you’d be hard pressed to actually define this as a stoner metal record. I don’t know what you’d call it, really…it’s just really fucking metal.

‘Healing Through Fire’ is all brash, swaggering aggression, a rousing drunken salute to heavy music. That lively, stomping tone is set right from the outset with ”The Ballad of Solomon Eagle“, which is by no means a ballad in the traditional sense. Although from Orange Goblin, I doubt you were expecting “Total Eclipse of the Heart” anyway…which isn’t to say I wouldn’t give a kidney to hear them cover that. It’s hard to explain, really, but listening to this album makes me feel like my hair isn’t nearly long enough, and gives me a sudden impulse to grow a large mountain-man style beard, behind which I can stomp around glaring at people. Tracks like “Ale House Braves” and “Hounds Ditch” typify this kind of feeling; it’s the kind of song you expect to find playing in one of those dingy bars populated entirely by bikers and stereotypical ‘road people’ out of Kerouac novels who hop freight trains. Even the barman has a denim jacket, and tattoos on his face, and there’s probably an underground fight club in the basement. It’s pure attitude music.

There’s something deeply ingrained in the blues in Orange Goblin’s sound. Not the pitiful modern attempts at blues that tend to hang around the charts nowadays, but proper, down ‘n’ dirty old-school blues. The sort of music that gestated in a swamp in Louisiana for decades, before hauling itself from the ground to some sepulchral beat, stomping its way down Beale Street in Memphis through a haze of roll-ups and bourbon. The dark, moody blues that inspired Sabbath and played a pivotal role in the birth of metal itself. That’s the spirit that Orange Goblin manage to tap into.

This is most evident on epic closing track “Beginner’s Guide to Suicide”, which features plentiful slide-guitar and an actual honest-to-goodness harmonica solo. There aren’t a heck of a lot of metal albums you can say that about. This bluesy effort also flirts with a slower, more doomy style in the verses, proving that Orange Goblin have more than one string to their bow; although more striking evidence of this is available earlier on the album, on “Mortlake (Dead Water)”. It wouldn’t be out of place on a classical acoustic guitar album, if such a thing exists, and gives guitarist Joe Hoare a chance to show he’s capable of much more than downtuned power-chords and wailing solos. Not that there’s anything at all wrong with power-chords and wailing solos, obviously.

Vocalist Ben Ward sums much of the Orange Goblin style; he’s bloody enormous to start with, a giant bear of a man, and gives a performance of similar stature. His deep raw growl is a kind of blend between Motörhead’s Lemmy and Neil Fallon of Clutch, and suits the gritty style of the music down to the ground. He roars away convincingly to the faster, more balls-out tunes like “Cities of Frost” and “Hot Knives and Open Sores”, and adopts an almost comically deep clean voice for the bluesy verses of “Beginners Guide to Suicide”. It’s a performance marinated in copious volumes of attitude, and if I was to have to choose one word to describe it, it would probably be “badass”.

The production really brings out the heavy bass-orientated nature of Orange Goblin, which is perhaps the closest link you’ll find to their stoner roots - the fuzzy bass tone is at times deeply reminiscent of Kyuss. This album actually marks the first time I’ve ever felt compelled to turn the bass woofer on my sound system down. I feared for the structural integrity of the building. And you can stop thinking that I could have just turned the volume down! This is an album best enjoyed loud, the kind of loud that your doctor keeps warning you about. It’s a rampaging sonic beast of an album, that only takes prisoners if they’re buying the next round.

All in all, Orange Goblin never really disappoint, and I’d say they’re as good a standard bearer for British metal as they come. They should have a new album out any time around about now, and if ‘Healing Through Fire’ is anything to go by, it should be an absolute belter.

Healing Through Fire is available to buy at Play.com

Genre : Metal

Article by Phil Sim

Post from: Ragnarok Radio

Photos from the Mastodon show in Newcastle on February 21st. We also met the folks who caught Brann Dailor’s drumstick see the first picture! Photos by Victoria Baker and Ewan McNulty.

Post from: Ragnarok Radio

‘Fuck me, not another band covered in tattoos.’
- Christopher Persuad-Jagdhar, The Wildhearts

Originality seems to be something of a problem in music these days; regardless of which genre a band are considered to be a part of, more often than not there will be older acts with whom they share similarities. This is largely true of the recent wave of Swedish rock och roll seen on Ragnarok of late, but is it true of Mama Kin?

Named after a track on Aerosmith’s first album, they play soulful melodic rock. The album starts with a police siren (like Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Appetite For Destruction’) and goes on to paint a sleazy picture of the rock ‘n’ roll city of… erm, Karlstad (like Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Appetite For Destruction’). The band’s personnel have a cool glam image (like Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Appetite For Destruction’). However, it sounds very little like Guns N’ Roses’ ‘Appetite For Destruction’, and to be fair, it would be extremely difficult for a band to live up to such a seminal work - but hey, no one said they were trying to, and who says that unoriginality strictly has to be a bad thing?

One really would be forgiven for thinking Kiss’ Paul Stanley is the vocalist for this album; the actual singer, known simply as Ward, sounds remarkably like him. His heartfelt rage comes across on opener ‘Badge And A Gun’, a tale of the deception of undercover cops. ‘You Belong To Me’ kicks off with the line of ‘Can’t make up my mind pretty baby, ’cause you’re only seventeen’ and one can’t help but think ‘Oh man, here we go…’. But the track is vindicated by one of those gorgeous life-affirming choruses and a jagged guitar riff that AC/DC would be proud of. ‘Mrs. Operator’ is similarly suspect; a lust-fuelled ode to a female telephone operator… unless it’s tongue-in-cheek, or she works for one of those lines that quickly drain a lonely man’s bank account, it seems pretty stupid and lacks the air of truthful admission found in other ‘telephone songs’ - Faster Pussycat’s ‘Bathroom Wall’ or Tommy Tutone’s ‘867-5309/Jenny’ for instance.

By the time the record gets to ‘Higher & Higher’ and ‘Too Much’, the Kiss comparisons are getting scary, both musically and in terms of song titles. These sound like they could be b-sides in the painted legends’ catalogue, but unfortunately, when Kiss were bad they were pretty damn bad; ‘Superman’ is full of misogynistic shite last heard being spouted from the mouth of Gene Simmons. But Kiss’ music was all about drive and freedom, and ‘Fortune & Fame’ - which could be the theme of a Rocky film - is the sort of get-up-and-go anthem that makes you want to get the fuck up and GO.

Sweden can’t be experiencing the same recession problems that we have, since Mama Kin are having champagne with their chicks and rock ‘n’ roll on the closing track, which is a fast-paced, reckless, boozy shout-a-long and really takes things out with a bang. And this high-class imagery is true; the seeds of a fantastic band have been sown in this piece of work, and if watered with the right amount of Jack Daniel’s (oh sorry, champagne) and pruned of the leaves that mar this offering in places, it could grow into something beautiful indeed. They wear their influences on their sleeves - when they haven’t removed their shirts to show off their skinny frames and tattoos - but manage to create a hearty sound reminiscent of the greats that probably won’t make you want to turn it off before the end.

In The City is available to buy or download at Play.com

Genre : Metal, Sleaze metal
For fans of: Paul Stanley, The*Ga*Ga*s.

Article by Andy McDonald

Post from: Ragnarok Radio

Its an American invasion on this month’s Ragnarok Radio with our interviews with Cauldron and Bonded By Blood.

Toronto’s NWOTM band Cauldron talk to Gordy in Glasgow about Chained To The Night, record collecting and playing at Germany’s Keep It True festival in 2007.

Bonded by Blood formed in 2005 hailing from the Californian Thrash Metal scene naming themselves after the 1985 Exodus album ‘Bonded by Blood’. Exiled to Earth is set to be the bands second full length album to be released this year on Earache Records.

Episode 48 features the following metal tunes.

Cauldron - Chained up in chains
Bonded by Blood - Feed the beast
Rotten Sound - Blind
Necronoclast - Vultures
Without Thought - In Your Hands
Wolves in the Throne Room - Wanderer above the Sea of Fog
The Howling Wind - Virulence
Hellbound - Swamp Blues
The Bombs of Enduring Freedom - Beware the Bombs

Post from: Ragnarok Radio

‘Where the Eagles Fly’ and indeed the band responsible, Dark Illusion, inspire a strange conflict within me. I’m almost perfectly evenly divided between two opposing forces, and I really can’t decide which side of the fence to fall on. To that end, I’m going to do something a bit fruity and effectively write two reviews of this album. Each side will make their case, and I’ll leave it down to you, the reader, the civilian jury, to decide who wins. To start with, here’s the case from the prosecution, led by the part of me that’s an angry misanthropic shit of a man.

I don’t want this to turn into a philosophical debate about the nature of creativity and originality, but let’s face it, your classic melodic power metal isn’t a genre steeped in fresh ideas and innovation. Dark Illusion are a perfect example of this. I mean, to start with the first thing you saw up there, all of the songs are just named after the most-repeated line in the song. The album itself is named after a line from the chorus of the first song. They didn’t even have enough inspiration to come up with a couple of extra words. What makes it even worse is that all of said lines are pure cheesy filth as well.

And then we get to the music itself…well, there’s really no need for a description here. All I have to say is “bog-standard melodic power metal”, and you’ll never be surprised in the slightest by anything Dark Illusion produce. They make absolutely no effort to stray outside the boundaries of pure stereotype. ‘Predictable’ isn’t even a strong enough word, I feel like I should make a better one up. That would be a betrayal to the Dark Illusion style though - nothing remotely creative should ever be attributed to them. They’re the incestuous bastard child of every power metal band you’ve ever listened to, contributing the square root of bugger all to the gene pool.

There’s absolutely nothing on ‘Where the Eagles Fly’ that you can’t get on any album by HammerFall, or Helloween, or Blind Guardian. Maybe, if you already had all of the albums by those bands (and indeed their legion of established sound-a-likes), knew them off by heart and back to front and were craving additional material…well, maybe then Dark Illusion would be the chaps for you. Otherwise, I don’t suppose there’s any real reason for them to exist. They’re just joining the legion of bands trying to be HammerFall, who can’t be HammerFall because HammerFall are already HammerFall. In case I didn’t make that clear…there’s already a HammerFall. Dark Illusion are a purpose-built candidate for a job that’s already been filled. In any case, go listen to ‘Crimson Thunder’ and forget about these copycat pretenders.

OK, and now making the case for the Defence: the part of me which really loves power metal, and has done ever since I first popped a (largely) metaphorical boner to a duelling keyboard/guitar solo about a decade ago.

*sigh*. Oh, Angry Phil, when will you learn? This isn’t a rip-off of that HammerFall/ Helloween/ whatever style, it’s a tribute. You take a band made up of power metal fans, influenced by all the great power metal, and what do you expect them to produce? It’s going to be something very similar to great power metal, anyway. I mean, my first band was made up of guys who listened almost entirely to Sonata Arctica and Iced Earth, and guess what kind of music we played? ’Where the Eagles Fly’ is just simple, straight-up power metal, and it’s impeccably executed. Everything slots exactly into place, from the catchy riffs and hooks to the seamless melodies and solos. In terms of classic power metal, you’d struggle to improve any single element of this album - Dark Illusion have created a record that sits perfectly at the heart of its genre.

Who cares if it’s cheesy? I dare you to listen to any song from this album and not be singing along to it in your head half an hour later. The melodies are beautifully crafted and stunningly executed, not to mention well polished in production, and the overall impression is of an album that works, that has met every goal it set out to achieve. The fact that you can compare it so closely to some of the legends of power metal is a compliment - how can it be a bad thing to be likened to the bands at the forefront of your genre? A lot of bands would kill to achieve a sound that draws such flattering comparisons.

The war of originality is not one which needs to be waged on every front, anyway. Let the prog bands push the boundaries, only terminally weird people listen exclusively to music that’s challenging and experimental. From time to time, pretty much everyone wants what’s safe and predictable, something they can tap their foot and howl along to. Dark Illusion provide perfect foot-tapping singalong material for any fan of power metal, and they’re doing absolutely nothing wrong in supplying that. Who cares if it’s easy, repetitive, predictable, unoriginal, whatever - none of that makes it intrinsically bad. Dark Illusion never claim to be anything they’re not, and are good at what they do - if you can’t accept that, maybe you shouldn’t have bought a power metal album in the first place. The defence rests.

I apologise, incidentally, that this hasn’t exactly been your traditional album review. The thing is, with an album like this, you’re either going to love it or loathe it - I seem to be able to do both in near equal measure. If you’re a fan of melodic power metal, I’d recommend you get it and make your own mind up, as it’s certainly not going to disappoint you in its content. However, if you don’t like power metal, this is the kind of album that’s going to remind you of why - and probably reinforce that feeling significantly. I think right now I might be leaning in favour of the defence (it‘s hard to side with Angry Phil, he can be such a dick), but I’ll throw myself on the mercy of the court and leave the jury to decide on the verdict.

Genre : Power Metal

Article by Phil Sim

Post from: Ragnarok Radio

I’ll get it out of the way right from the start - Switch Opens are a Swedish metal band. Yeah, I know, you’re probably scuttling for cover toward the stereotype of all those identical ‘Gothenburg scene’ melodic death metal bands…but fear not. To start with, Switch Opens are from Stockholm, some 300 miles away from Gothenburg. And when it comes to metal, their sound too is a comparable distance away.

No, this isn’t another melodeath screamathon. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what it is. It’s really quite fascinating to dream up a list of Switch Opens’ probable influences while listening through this album - they create a haze of fuzz that screams Kyuss, but some of their riffs sound more rooted in Southern Metal, with the likes of Down or Corrosion of Conformity. Their down ’n’ dirty groove kind of puts you in mind of Motörhead, albeit a more doomy Motörhead, maybe on Valium…and on top of that, they appear to share a name with a Soundgarden song. Putting all of that together, I suppose, makes this seem like the work of hairy stoners.

Before we delve further into that, a clarifying note; this technically isn’t the first album from Switch Opens. They released two others under the name ‘Fingerspitzengefühl’, before opting for a change of moniker as well as record company for this release. Probably a good move, as frankly a band with an utterly unpronounceable name playing weird psychedelic metal isn’t going to be conquering the world. How are they going to woo the crowd when they‘ve scored that big support slot? “Hello Stockholm, we’re Fingerspitzengefühl! No, Fingerspitzengefühl. F, i, n, g…”. It’s no surprise their old Myspace only attracted 2,000 fans.

Anyway, I was mumbling something about hairy stoners…it’s true that Switch Opens make noises like they live in a permanent cloud of pot. But a lot of the time there’s also something a lot more intelligent going on in their music. They combine the fuzz and bassy grit of stoner bands like Kyuss and all those mentioned above with the more progressive leanings of Mastodon or Opeth. There’s something bold and creative lurking in Switch Opens, and not bold and creative in that hairy-stoner way. Which usually seems to involve crisps.

The musicianship throughout is proficient, but with no offence meant to drummer Anders Bartonek and guitarists Thomas Bergstrand and Mikael Tuominen, I’d like to single out one member of the band. Vocalist (and bassist) Jesper Skarin puts in a fantastically diverse performance, melding seamlessly from melodic clean singing in songs like ’Express Death’ and ’The Electric Hour’ to frankly mad growled phases, such as in ‘Paper Walls’. The latter shows perhaps the most progressive side of the band - it features a weird, growling intro, building into a fast, heavy verse riff and bizarre chorus, with Skarin still roaring away convincingly. However, all of a sudden there’s an almost tranquil acoustic interlude, complete with synth strings, before the fuzz distortion kicks back in through the lead guitar and we end with heavy riffage again. Mad.

That song is put side-by-side with ‘He Dives Down’, which is much more straightforward and frankly groove-based - it basically sounds like Orange Gobin with a theremin intro - and for a second, you almost wonder if you’re listening to the same band. Only Skarin’s distinctive vocals and that fuzzy sound that’s starting to become familiar by that point keep you right. Switch Opens can go through a terrific amount of ideas just in the space of a single song, as I might have alluded to earlier when describing ’Paper Walls’, and this is noticeable in most other tracks on the album; go get lost in the nine-minute expanse of ’Terra Incognita’, for a further example. At times, it almost seems like they’re trying too many different things - I often decry the lack of imagination and inspiration in albums, but it’s also good when a band actually know what style they’re gunning for. That said, I think Switch Opens just about do enough to restrain that rampaging creative beast at their heart and present a unified front - no matter what kind of madness they’re weaving, you really can tell it’s the same band.

Alright, before we wrap this thing up, I’d better apologise to Sweden. I know they’ve brought us more than just melodic death metal, which I don‘t actually have any beef with. In fact, they’ve done very well indeed for a country shaped like a penis. There’s a proud tradition of cracking Swedish bands - Amon Amarth, Opeth and Meshuggah kind of speak for themselves. This album is a bit mad, and at times a bit disjointed, top-heavy with ideas, but Switch Opens have a bit of creativity about them, and are trying something different. As such, I’d definitely say they have the potential to someday be joining that list of luminary Swedes.

Switch Opens is available to buy at Play.com

Genre : Progressive Metal

Article by Phil Sim

Post from: Ragnarok Radio

Sweden has given us some great things over the years… meatballs… Vikings… that’s all I can think of at the moment. It has also produced the likes of Arch Enemy, Opeth and Bathory when it comes to extreme metal, and then there’s the more straightforward rockin’ bands like The Hellacopters, Backyard Babies, and Europe (hey, they were pretty good when you listened past ‘The Final Countdown’). Von Benzo fit into the latter of these two camps, but don’t quite inspire in the same way.

Opener ‘And The Dead Said No’ has a very cool intro, and a lovely feeling that something spectacular is about to be unleashed; like slowly taking the lid off of a box marked ‘FREE SWEETS’. Sadly, the song is a less-than-memorable rock standard, what would be a very nice pre-chorus turning out to be the chorus itself; like looking inside the box to discover the sweets are all mint humbugs or coffee Revels. This sets a precedent for a what is largely a whole album of cannon fodder.

‘Poison’ kicks in with adrenaline-fuelled sleaze and swagger, but never escalates to what it could be, and doesn’t live up to the greatness of the Alice Cooper song with the same name, or that band who look like chicks. One may let out a giggle when vocalist Jay says ‘bitch’ at the end as the guitars fade out. Everything gets stripped down a bit for the grungy ‘Sad Dead Me’ which rolls along nonchantly, a flower blowing on the hills of the Soundgarden. Not what one would expect from a ‘pure rock ‘n’ roll’ band. ‘I’m On My Way’ starts with the sound of a motorcycle revving up (hmm, original) but then sounds more like the Proclaimers song with which it shares a title than ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ (not that there’s anything wrong with the speccy Scottish twins). Some wah wah fun is introduced on ‘I Don’t Give A Good God Damn’, but the lyrics of ‘Though you said my soul is rotten / Well if it is, I don’t give a good god damn’ sound like everything they’ve said in the last few longs and leaves the heavy metal statement of rebellion seeming a little hollow - especially when it ends with ‘bitch’ again…

And that’s the main problem with the record; it all sounds like something you’ve heard before, and when it comes to ballad ‘Bad Father, Bad Son’, probably something that was playing on afternoon radio in Asda. The musicianship is strong, and the foundations of a very good band are there, but what it ultimately produces comes across as insincere. Every typical rock idea is present, all the boxes checked, but these guys aren’t a tribute or piss-take like Steel Panther, or even Spinal Tap. ‘MTV Killed Rock N’ Roll’ is the best part; a typical statement that manages to sound comically like The B-52s’ ‘Rock Lobster’ and suspiciously like Faster Pussycat’s ‘Arizona Indian Doll’. ‘How long can we let this shit go on?’ they ask about the channel… does that include the extreme metal shows that it broadcasts on Friday nights? Either way, it is strange that a band surely in line for Nickelback’s throne are anti-MTV.

The almost NIN-esque stomp of ‘Demolition Man’ carries the album out, and is an oasis of promise in a desert of mediocrity. If you don’t like classic-sounding new music, stick with Guns N’ Roses. If you like classic-sounding new music, put this in the maybe pile.

Von Benzo is available to download at Play.com

Genre : Metal
For fans of: Bullets And Octane, Avenged Sevenfold

Article by Andy McDonald

Post from: Ragnarok Radio

I have a hard time believing that Bonafide are actually Swedish. There’s something deeply 80s Americana about them. This is a band who fantasise about fast cars, sleep in leather jackets, and use a gang chant of “hell yeah” as about 40% of their backing vocals. Everything about their image and their music suggests they’re probably from California…but they’re not. They’re just trying really, really hard to be.

Seriously, has anyone informed Bonafide what decade it is? This album really sounds like it should be playing over the end-credits of a rubbish 80s road-trip movie. I can’t listen to opening track ’Dirt Bound’ without seeing a slow-motion high-five, and maybe a red sports car tearing off into a California sunset. And it goes on in the same fashion, attempted hard-rock anthem after attempted hard-rock anthem. You barely even notice the gaps between songs, it’s just a montage of spandex-clad riffs, facepalm-inducing backing vocal harmonies and predictable guitar solos. Now, I’ve never said a bad word in my life about guitar solos, and yet here Bonafide are trying to make me be that guy. You just see theirs coming a mile off. A lot like everything else in their music, really.

On the one hand, I suppose for what it is, it’s an effective enough performance. The riffs are solid enough, and singer Pontus Snibb hits all of the appropriate notes…it’s all just so, so predictable, though. I’m reasonably sure Bonafide decided to form a band after watching the film ‘School of Rock’, and went to the extent of using it as an instructional DVD. You’ve got the incredibly basic structuring - vaguely foot-tapping riff, simplistic drumbeat, singer attempting to sound gravely and enigmatic, occasional light tapping-solo. Absolutely nothing inspired or innovative in the slightest. I’d even go so far as to describe them as sounding ‘stock’, as loathe as I am to quote Lars Ulrich. It all sounds like theme music if not from that 80s road-movie then a PlayStation racing game. I suppose it’s a good soundtrack to driving around unreasonably fast…so the best thing I can say about this album is that it encourages automotive crime. *sarcastic thumbs up*. Thing is, they’re not even anywhere near the best at that game…you want driving music? Get some Fu Manchu on the go. They’ve got this lot eating their dust.

I actually thought they’d started cheating and just repeating songs after a while - ‘Fill Your Head With Rock’ bears an uncanny resemblance to ‘Dirt Bound’. I think they might have just changed the words a bit. I pride myself on being able to listen to just about anything, at least a couple of times through, but I was seriously, seriously struggling with the boredom by the last few tracks of “Something’s Dripping”. And when I finally made it to the end (after finding that closer ‘Sicker Than I Think‘ again bears an uncanny resemblance to ‘Dirt Bound‘), it felt like I’d just listened to the same song eleven times in a row. I don’t mind that song, to any great extent…but there are precious few songs I’ll listen to eleven times consecutively.

I mean, I like cheesy 80s-rock. UFO’s ‘Strangers In The Night’? Genius. (yes, yes, I know, 1979, still). And I’ve never been drunk in a club without at some point requesting the DJ play Journey. I’ll even sit through a crappy road-movie, as long as I’ve got a decent beer supply. People are probably going to listen to a couple of Bonafide songs and think this review incredibly harsh…but hey, taken in extremely small doses (as in maybe a single song), I too could probably enjoy Bonafide. But a whole album of it? I’m sorry, I’ve tried, I really have, but it bores me practically to tears. It’s just so repetitive. My ears rebel and start looking for more interesting noises in the room to focus on, like the worrying little humming noise my PC’s monitor makes, which is probably the cathode ray tube about to explode. Yes, I put ‘Something’s Dripping’ on the CD player and ignore it, focusing instead on a miniscule background hum. So I’m going to go way out on a limb here, and say that maybe, just maybe, in my humble opinion of course, it’s a load of crap.

Which brings us to the final verdict. I’m kind of torn between giving the album one out of five, or two out of five. One out of five seems harsh, as in isolation, these are not dreadful songs. However, I’m probably going to go out of my way to never listen to this CD again, and going on all the terrible things I’ve said so far, two out of five might not reflect the overall tone of the review. Maybe one and a half out of five? At the end of the day, I guess I don’t really care. This non-album inspires nothing more than ambivalence in me. Let’s just leave it at that, and I can go back to living my life as if none of this had ever happened.

Something’s Dripping is available to buy or download at Play.com

Genre : Metal

Article by Phil Sim

Post from: Ragnarok Radio