The hard rock/metal band Sideburn took their first steps in 1997 and I’ve been sitting here today listening to their fourth album “IV Monument”. Often their music is put in the stoner metal and doom metal genres, but as I’m quite lost in those areas, I find my references elsewhere. And there are plenty of them to find.

In the first place I feel the strong influence from Black Sabbath, not only for the heavy riffs but also for the wonderful retro sound with warm crunchy guitars, a real pleasure for the ears. This is far away from modern overloaded loudness-optimised productions with dynamics that give them plenty of room to show their brilliance in. There’s quite a span between the songs, ranging from the doom-sounding funeral procession in “The Last Day” to the Led Zeppelin-vibing ballad “Silverwing” to pure classic melodic metal. Jani Kataja’s vocals are brilliant and introduce a bluesy feeling which sometimes reminds me of Ian Gillan and sometimes of Glenn Hughes. I love the guitar playing as well and it’s not often I hear such a varied and creative playing on hard rock albums, sometimes with an improvised feeling which makes it feel even more alive. To sum it up: a fantastic hard rock album.

Sideburn on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Rara

I’ll continue with a peek at Magnus Bergman’s song releases from Summer. “Ölandsidyll” and “Långt Härifrån” are two of them with his earthy Swedish country rock vibing sound.

Magnus Bergman’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Soundcloud

Here’s another familiar face from the blog, who’s also a quite productive artist. It’s Nomy, who released the album “Free Fall” in Summer. It’s a rather mixed album where I recognize him from both now and then; the drama, the melodies, hard rock, punk vibes, pop influences and that Nomyan brute force, where a song like “Put Him Out” just knocks me over from the first chord.

What I wrote last time is very much still valid and Nomy races on like he uses to, with two album underway now. Here’s the starting track from the album “Freakshow Part 3”, which connects to the album “Welcome to my freakshow” from 2009.

Nomy’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Rara

Freakshow Part 3

A day like this when the storm is sweeping in over the south of Sweden it fits quite well to listen to We Are the Storm and their album “Wastelands”, where it feels like they manage to accompany the storm well when they pick up their pace in their most rough, intense and grand indie rock. An excellent album which didn’t fail my expectations after the strong singles they released earlier this year.

We Are the Storm on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Rara – on Soundcloud

If you’re longing for classic rock, blues rock and hard rock from the first half of the seventies you should certainly check out Gin Lady’s second album effort “Mother’s Ruin”. Well it’s ambitiously enough even a double album, full of groovy rock with vibes from Faces, Free, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Rolling Stones and others around those domains. And even if I miss that song which gets stuck in my head, I’m impressed with the standard of the album, where the variation and the overall song quality manage to keep my interest up through all songs. A big plus also for crafting such a retrosounding dynamic album. Here are a couple of songs:

Gin Lady on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Rara