JORN: "Live In Black"

Label: Frontiers 2011

Review by The Bailey Brothers

We are not going to go down the “he just sounds like the late great Ronnie Dio” route because RJD was a one off a lovely guy and sadly missed. RIP Mr Dio. To be compared is to be type cast and Jorn is very much his own man but with a similar talent, able to tell mystical stories and deliver them with power and passion. There’s still a copy of Jorn’s debut album “Starfire” to hand at the office. He was a little bit more melodic and had a higher vocal range back then but still did a powerful cover version of Deep Purple’s “Burn”. From there he went on to really carve out a respected name in the rock world with brilliant albums with Masterplan plus endless solo albums that have left his trade mark vocal pipes embedded in rock n roll history.

The “”Live In Black” album was captured at the Sweden Rock festival Solvesborg, one of the must attended events on the yearly calendar. It’s not Jorn’s first live album release. He had “Live In America” released in 2007 (another cool album folks) also a live DVD in 2009. This is a follow up to his last studio album which was titled “Spirit Black” released in 2009.The key to any good live performance is the line up and it’s cool to know the likes of lead guitarist Tore Moren is still by his side. There is great camaraderie with in the camp which helps glue the band together and it’s evident in this release, the lead and rhythm Guitar players compliment each other’s styles tastefully and they are Tore Moren and Tor Erik Myhre; the bass chops are tight and feature Nic Angileri on Bass guitar. Bashing the skins and driving the band is drummer Willy Bendiksen. These are all high calibre musicians and give Jorn a delightful array of heavy meaty riffs that allows Jorn’s vocals to soar like they hitched a ride on a surfboard with many vocals descending with an added delay effect like the waves crashing down and splashing the crowd.

if you want to sum this release up I would say this; the one thing you have with every Jorn release is consistency, great vocals, great musicianship, a good selection of songs and a mixture of good old fashioned rock n roll with a sprinkling of modern riffs that keep it fresh. You pick your favourite songs because thankfully there’s no dead wood on this release and it is well worth adding to your collection. We know an awesome singer when we hear one and he’s one of Europe’s best traditional rock vocalists.


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