Another week, another supergroup. This time the truants are all from the Swedish scene, spilling guys from General Surgery in Johan Wallin, Thomas Daun (Dismember, ex-Insision, etc), Daniel Ekeroth (ex-Dellamorte, and of course author of the excellent "Swedish Death Metal" book) and Grga Lindström (Ghost, ex-Repugnant) into the mix and love of punk and rock 'n' roll is what they've done it for. No doubting the pedigree here or the steeped-in-the-scene credentials. So, yeah, this is Motorhead with barked vocals then, right? Well kinda.
Now when I was a teenager, the word ' punk' was new to us, so I looked it up in a dictionary. It was an old word for rotten wood. Which just so happens to be the title of the first song that steamrollers in. Cute. It's a bouncy little blast and no mistake, rattling windows as it shoots past in a blaze of riffs and lead breaks and snotty punky vocals. The kind of opening that makes you think this is going to be a riotous fun ride. I mean you need to take it as obvious that this lot know their way around a great riff and that there's punk aplenty in their roots but it's still a cool way to launch.
It's just the post launch party that somehow fails to totally ignite for me. The next three songs follow the exact same template but without that initial impact they fall into that odd place where if any one of them came on at a party, you'd be bouncing around and spilling your beer everywhere but one after another they become a kind of cloud. Don't misunderstand; the title track has one of those great ' where have I heard it before' No Class riffs and Dubious Preacher spits more punk into the mix with the kind of riff that harkens back to the seventies but they fail to hold me for some reason, some ingredient missing. Perhaps it’s the lyrics? Take Dubious Preacher; the lyrics seem so desperately retro, archly first wave naive punk that in this age they seem oddly stripped of any social or political intent. The unvaried vocals begin to irritate to, maybe, or perhaps the pace is too constant?
When the riff for Motorhead's 'Poison' uncoils my attention returns but the voice doesn't suit for me and it's in need of more weight at the bottom end to bring up the blues at its heart.
'I Don't Wanna Be Like You' is the best song here to my ears, a real blast of the late seventies all punk nihilism and cynicism with the voice spot on perfect for the feel. Really good.
Look, I don't know what else this album could have offered and loads of you will really get off on it but that doesn't change the fact that it's moments like 'I Don't Like You' that grab me here and too long an exposure to the songs in-between wears me down as I find too little passion to hang on to, oddly. And the old 'can you dig it' sample from the Warriors was wheeled out to no good effect too, alas.
Sigh. Again, not a bad album by any stretch and it will be lapped up by many and quite rightly so. Just too much of a thing for me I'm afraid and far too little of the emotion seeps out of the speakers and into my blood. The punk here is the sound not the fury and at a time of the mindless events in the UK or real struggles elsewhere in the world I so want anyone using this musical form to be railing and raging against their frustrations. I want anger.
So, yes, I admit. Part of me wonders if my problem is that I want this to be something else other than what it is and what it set out to be which is neither a valid criticism by me nor my job here. So: Just don’t approach it expecting any more than catchy riffs and it may well suck you right in at the next party.
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Gizmo
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