Von Benzo come from Sweden, the country at the heart of hard rock, classic rock, punked up rock and roll revival of late, call it what you want, there are either death metal bands or these hard rock bands either way, no middle ground. Formed in 2005 in Helsingborg with a vision to play “rock n’ roll without compromise”, they have already notched up a Sweden Rock appearance and the Roland Music Awards in Sweden.

When it comes to the music, the band have re-created a sound akin, to my ears anyway, to a mix between Nickleback and Seether (vocally) and high octane rock n’ roll like Hate Gallery when more up-tempo or the ‘Use Your Illusion I’ style of Guns N’ Roses. But I would mainly say the Nickleback arena is a more comfortable portion of the album. ‘Poison’ is quite upbeat; the drums just keep you revved up if not that inspired by the music. ‘I’m On My Way’ has a slight “southern” charm, bouncy rhythm and a cool Hammond organ solo that makes it beat around the “bush” (well they are smoking weed allegedly!) similar to the UK’s Sons of Merrick, musically that is, not with the weed smoking comment! The southern blues swagger continues on ‘MTV Killed rock n’ Roll’, and this stylistic approach is much more appealing than the high energy/speed stuff they are doing to be honest, its earthy, ballsy and more classy.

The album is pretty much a very American sounding affair, there are plenty of blues inspired anthems and a few simple fast paced rock and roll numbers taken from their fellow Scandinavian’s Hanoi Rocks and a couple of modern ballads that are good in retrospect, but not really the power ballad that I am used to (yeah ok I know!). Not a bad listen, but worth checking out on myspace prior to purchase.

http://www.vonbenzo.net/
http://www.myspace.com/vonbenzo
http://www.myspace.com/orangehazeswe

Paul Maddison

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