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.