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Interesting late 90's Scandi-rock

Paul Lawrence | Australia | 06/05/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Careful with this one - punch in Southpaw and you'll get two releases, one is the full length album and the other is an EP. Alas the EP has the cover of the album on it's listing. Weirdly, the EP is vastly more expensive. Anyway, now we've got that public service announcement out of the way...





A Swedish group - or maybe we should call 'em a project - that comprises some pretty experienced hands. Mats Leven (ex of Yngwie), Talisman guitar slinger Fredrik Akesson, drums by Richard Evensand and Europe bass basher John Leven join forces on this 1998 album and author Martin Popoff describes their sound as 'a creative post-metal alternative AOR thing, if such things exist, reminding me of the underrated Freak Of Nature, sorta glossy hair metal meets Alice In Chains'.



That's a fair enough description to my way of thinking as there is a definite flavour here that's different to the day jobs of these guys, the production is bulked up yet clear and biting riffs are all over the thing - see tracks like The Great Unknown and Permanent while keyboards are also used to flesh some of the tunes out and on Vertigo they positively swirl all through the track but not in a prissy way.



The band are also unafraid to drop the tempo on numbers like All That I Want which is still full bodied and also keeps the aforementioned creativity tacking along. Other personal faves would be Oh Yeah (a rocker) and Holy Water (a ballad kinda thing) where Svante Henryson chimes in with some cello.



It seems this can be picked up fairly cheaply and therefore fans of any of these guys should get their hands on a copy, as should anyone partial to hard rock that travels unusual paths but retains clear production, which by the way was done by Fredrik Akesson and Mats Leven."