Rock Blog #40: Dynazty, JÄST and a few words about other stuff...

 A few new things I’ve been listening to…

DYNAZTY released their latest album "Game Of Faces" (RRRRr) last week, and once again it's a brilliant slice of modern melodic metal. The Swedish songwriting tradition is evident in these songs - the melodies have top priority and almost every song has serious hit potential. Some "True Metal" fans are probably going to hate the pop elements and call this "disco metal", but as a proud False Metal person, I think this might just be the best Dynazty album so far. Some of my favourites include "Fire To Fight", "Call Of The Night", "Devilry Of Ecstasy" and "Dark Angel". The latter sounds a bit like a metal version of "Let It Go" from "Frozen"... come on, you secretly like that song too!  

The curiously named JÄST is a new band from Germany, and they have a mission: "Bring Rock Back To Radio!". Behind the strange monicker there are 3 seasoned musicians from well-known metal bands such as Orden Ogan, Grave Digger, Domain and Freedom Call - Steven Wussow, Axel Ritt and Tim Breideband. Fronting the band is young singer Jessica Conte, and she's indeed a discovery, possessing a voice that could be described as "silk and steel". A beautiful voice with a perfect amount of grit, reminding me a little bit of Debbie Davis (Witness). The band has recently released an EP called "4" which features 6 songs, all good melodic rock tracks. My favorites are "Heartlight" and "I Can See Clearly Now". As for the name, apparently it is in tradition of ABBA, the first names of each member... the umlauts are just an extra metal touch, I guess? Rating: RRRR, and I'm looking forward to a full-length album!

What else... the last time I wasn't sure about the rating for CRAZY LIXX, but I think I'm now confident that it's RRRR, not more. A good album once again, but there a few songs that don't really work for me.

MANTRIC MOMENTUM's "Alienized" I've only played once, but it sounds very promising. Same with RAY OF LIGHT, their Harem Scarem-influenced stuff isn't half bad either. As for HAREM SCAREM, they've released a second taster from their next album. The song "Chasing Euphoria" sounds good, I like it more than the previous one. MARKO HIETALA's "Roses From The Deep" has a couple of gems ("Frakenstein's Wife" and "Tammikuu"), maybe more of that later... BAD HABIT (Sweden) has also released a new single "Breaking My Chains", well worth checking out. 

Rock Blog #39: The Swedes are at it again… The Night Flight Orchestra, Captain Black Beard and Crazy Lixx

 

Yeah, this entry is dedicated to three new albums and as it happens, they’re all from Sweden. First up, the new album from THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA, ”Give Us The Moon” (RRRRr). The band rarely disappoints, and this new album is definitely a very good one again. 

Even though one of the main writers, guitarist David Andersson, passed away in September 2022, the band’s distinctive sound hasn’t changed. They’re still very much stuck in the late seventies/early eighties AOR, with touches of disco. Lots of percussion, swirling retro synths and great melodies! My favourites include ”Runaways”, ”Shooting Velvet” and ”Paloma”. 

You’d think that CAPTAIN BLACK BEARD would be a pirate metal band, right? They’re not, and have more in common with the band mentioned above than Running Wild. New vocalist Fredrik Vahlgren does have a voice that could be very suitable for power metal too. In fact, at times he sounds very much like Sonata Arctica’s Tony Kakko.

CBB are obviously somewhat influenced by TNFO, but their sound isn’t as retro. The modern scandi-AOR/Hard Rock stylings of H.E.A.T. , Eclipse etc can be heard on these tracks. ”Chasing Rainbows” gets RRRR from the Finnish Jury (okay, it’s just me but anyway…) . My top picks would be ”When It’s Over”, the hard-hitting ”Where Do We Go” and vintage-sounding ballad ”Piece Of Paradise”. 

I just got my hands on the new CRAZY LIXX album ”Thrill Of The Bite” today, so this is a ”first impression” type of a review. I don’t think I’m ready to give it a rating yet.

The album opens with ”Highway Hurricane”, which unsurprisingly is a hard rocker. Can you imagine a mix of Mötley Crüe and Bonfire (”Point Blank” era)? ”Who Said Rock N’ Roll Is Dead” is a shout-along anthem and again I’m thinking of Bonfire… or maybe it’s songwriter Jack Ponti? Great stuff anyway. The Alice Cooper’ish ”Little Miss Dangerous” is one of the singles already released, as are ”Midnight Rebel”, ”Call Of The Wild” and the awesome ”Hunt For Danger”, so let’s check out the new songs. ”Recipe For Revolution” is a slightly slower track, not necessarily one of my instant favourites but not bad by any means. ”Run Run Wild” has a bit of a bluesy swagger and goddamn it, I hear a bit of Baton Rouge and Jack Ponti there again. The frantic ”Final Warning” has some fantastic, very metallic guitar work and an anthemic chorus, while the last track ”Stick It Out” hints at Crazy Lixx’ sleaze rock roots, again with a big chorus. 

So there, after one and a half spins or thereabouts, I think I’m safe to say that my rating is at least RRRR… I’ll get back to this in the next blog entry.  

Rock Blog #38: January 2025 summary

 Hello, it's the last day of the first month of 2025, and as I haven't written any reviews this month, I thought I'd do a quick summary of 2025 so far. 

I just listened to the new W.E.T. track "Where Are The Heroes Now", the second song released from the next album. It's a good song, but just like the previous one ("Believer"), it doesn't have blow me away like the best W.E.T. songs have done. Hopefully these songs work better in the context of the album.

Only a handful of new albums have been released so far, and I've checked out a couple of them. First up, one of my all-time favourite bands, BONFIRE. Yes, back in 1989 I spent hours drawing their logo to the back of my denim jacket, while listening to their first three albums. They're all classics in my books, and the band has released decent material during their latter years as well. The recent remakes of the aforementioned classic albums were totally unnecessary though.

"Higher Ground" (RRRR) is a good album, with some classic Bonfire elements mixed with a heavier vibe.  At their heaviest the band remind me of Black Sabbath and Accept, which isn't really what I want to hear from Bonfire. Most of the material is melodic and catchy enough, with the anthemic "I Died Tonight" and "I Will Rise" as my favourites. The ballad "When Love Comes Down" sounds like a vintage Bonfire ballad, offering a bit of a breather among the metallized new Bonfire songs.

WILDNESS have been steadily working on their craft, releasing one decent album after another, and I feel that "Avenger" (RRRRr) is their best effort so far. It's full of hook-filled, big hard rock songs, some of which are more in the power metal territory. The title track and especially "Stand Your Ground" are two such tracks, but strangely enough they don't stick out among the more AOR-friendly material. 

My favourite songs include "Broken Heart", "Wasted Time" and "Poison Ivy", but all in all, this is a very solid album with no real weak spots among its' eleven tracks. The first contender for "The Best Album Of 2025"!

LANDFALL's "Wide Open Sky" (RRR) is described as a mixture of Journey, Extreme, Dokken and White Lion. I don't know, I do hear the Journey influence, but to my ears they sound like a progressive, more complicated version of that band - Journey meets Rush maybe? These Brazilian guys are obviously super-talented musicians, but as always, it's the songs that matter the most to me, and the ones on this album leave me a bit cold.

I've got a few albums still to be checked out (The Night Flight Orchestra, Enbound, The Big Thrill, The Ferrymen), but I'll get back to those later. As for new singles, Wig Wam released their "Human Fire" recently, and while it's darker than some of their party-type of tracks, I do like it. The next album from Perfect Plan promises to be a good one, the two singles released so far have been very good, especially the latest one, "The Heart Of A Lion".