The Swedish/Icelandic rock trio Death By Toaster released the EP “That’s Life” now in December. The EP is the first in a series of four EP:s, each containing three songs which all together will form the content of the debut album, to be released on the 1st of June next year. The second EP is out on the 16th of January. Listen here below to two of the tracks which I would describe as a mix of alternative rock and melodic hard rock.:
The band Xanima, hailing from Stockholm, released their second album earlier this year: “Prototype: Homo Sapiens”. Partly they describe their music as progressive rock and artrock, which also feels like the foundation of their music, but is a long way from describing what it’s about. Here’s a darkness and mystique, almost like it was fetched from goth rock and to some extent new wave, and, particularly, a great deal of grand drama channeled through the charismatic singer Jade Ell. It’s a powerful album with thirteen tracks that serves us almost an hour of music, and it’s one of those albums that grow as you more and more get into their special atmosphere.
I showed you some of The Good Morning Spider, hailing from Malmö, in February. In the end of March the excellent debut album”Outergalactic” was released, an album full of psychadelia influences and laidback, creative rock. Here are two songs:
The band Hunt, hailing from Göteborg, with the postrock-vibing song “Reset My Bones”. The song is based on a poem by Andrea Gibson, a poem she recites in the song. Video by Mats Udd.
Richard Ahlgren and his Danmarck continue to deliver great, intense rock tracks. Here are the two latest ones, “ole ola” and “ali Khan”, where he thanks Wilco, new wave and Pearl Jam’s “Olé” in the subtexts to the first song.
Vindstyrka12 is a band from Göteborg, led by the singer and songwriter Jon Lyster. As a taste of the upcoming album “För det du vet att du älskar” (release in June) they have released the single and video “Ser jag er igen”. And it’s hard to miss Jon’s anger in this song, a song that was written after he got robbed on his way home from a pleasant night out on the town. This is not only about the contempt for other people from the muggers themselves, but also about a chilly society where we shut our eyes and turn away from what’s happening right in front of us on the street. The song becomes a raging rock protest with a clenched fist against this. To me Jon is a new, fresh voice I’d love to hear more from.
Ironically the video was taken down after only a few days on Youtube. Youtube stated that the content was too violent and threatened to close Jon’s account, but he has uploaded the video again, as you can see below.
The trio Supralunar have released a couple of singles while we’re waiting for their debut album, which is said to be scheduled for release in the Autumn. We’ve heard the excellent “People Like Us” before and here’s the second one “Nine Candles” with a video that well reveals their sources of inspiration, as they dress themselves through the history of rock.
This year Magnus Bergman celebrates 15 years as an artist and a few days ago he released the album “MB15” with 15 previously unreleased songs from his career between 1999 and 2014. Some of them come from his diligent song production last year, , but he serves us plenty of other samples from his career like for example this pop-pearl from 2005, “Duellera” and the newest track, the bluesy “En riktig djävul”. The last mentioned song will also be a part of his sixth solo album, to be released in the Autumn.
Billy The Zombie Kid is a band from Borlänge, who released the debut album “The Blessing and the Curse” a couple of months ago. It contains five songs with a melodic, alternative pop/rock spiced up with electronica, well a bit in the direction of The Killers. Here’s the title track “The Blessing and the Curse”:
The next band, Marigold is also from Borlänge. A month ago they released the single “Allt kommer bli bra” and last year the excellent EP “Och så kom regnet”. I can sense a part of The Killers here also, but here more in the direction of synth pop, as a melancholic, a bit eighties-like ambience sweeps into the room. Here’s the latest single together with “City Farewell” from the EP:
I wrote about the duo Sisilisko, Albin Boman and Peter Engqvist, in the Autumn. Now they are back with the EP “Waldeinsamkeit”, an EP where their doom-folk music runs further into the dark woods to explore the mystique, nature and darkness. Here’s “The Woods” from the album:
On the 25th of April the Swedish/Norwegian duo Simon Torssell Lerin and Bettina Hvidevold Hystad are releasing their debut album “Mount Buzhou”. The album title is taken from the name of a mountain in Chinese mythology, a mountain said to have supported the heavens.
The Chinese tradition also run through the music. In 2010 the duo travelled to Kunming in the south west of China, where over 1000 retired musicians gathered each day to play traditional Chinese music together. During two months they recorded this music, and later blended these recordings with their own instrumental music. Postrock and progressive rock meet Chinese traditions which create a very special atmosphere. Here’s one of the six songs on the album:
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