Second album from Swedish 70's retro-band Graveyard and boy is there some good music here! Graveyard is like a lost band from 1970, the sound is very very much early 70's progressive-style and yes the mushrooms are very much included! Great soulful singing with power and cool riffs from hell. Fantastic cover! "Hisingen" is a part of sweden's 2nd largest city Götborg. Listen and enjoy one of the best albums of 2011!

1)Ain't fit to live here (8,0) Uptempo, intense and great start!

2)No good, Mr. Holdlen (8,0) Groovy and powerful slow hardrock with attitude. Very nice calm part but otherwise a little too messy.

3)Hisingen blues (8,5)

4)Uncomfortably numb (9,0) Very very cool sweet nice melody that bursts into a good refrain filled with groovy guitars. Nice indeed!

5)Buying truth (Tack & förlåt) (9,0) Damn good!

6)Longing (6,5) Swedish melancholy played in a 5-minute instrumental song. Organ as a matress and a sweet guitarmelody. The title describes the song!

7)Ungreatful are the dead (6,5) Too messy.

8)Rss (8,5) Groovy and intense and good!

9)The siren (8,0) Same slow bass riff as in ZZ Top's "Blue Jean Blues". Great song with fantastic feeling.

Score: 8,00

Joakim Nilsson-vocals and guitars

Jonatan Larocca Ramm-guitars

Rikard Edlund-bass

Axel Sjöberg-drums

+

Nils Dahl-piano

Peteus Fredestad-organ

For this album 10 CC's five members had become three since both Lol Creme and Kevin Godley had quit the band and the remaining members took in touring drummer Paul Burgess as a member of the band. The band produced another hit album and proved that they could go on without their past members. The music is more straight and simple but with the unmistakeble bends (!) that only 10 CC could make in their world of rock and pop. It's a quite laid back album with hints of funk and progressive pop, as known as "art-rock". Listenable but not an album I'd like to have.

1)Good morning judge (7,0)

2)The things we do for love (6,0)

3)Marriage bureau rendezvouz (6,0)

4)People in love (6,0)

5)Modern man blues (7,0)

6)Honeymoon with b troop (6,5)

7)I bought a flat guitar tutor (3,0)

8)You've got a cold (6,0)

9)Feel the benefit (Parts 1,2 and 3) (8,0)

Score: 6,17

Eric Stewart-vocals, guitars, piano, organ, keyboards, synthesizer and maraccas (b.1945)

Graham Gouldman-vocals, guitars, bass, organ, tambourine, triangle and autoharp (b.1946)

Paul Burgess-drums and percussion (b.1950)

+

Jean Roussel-keyboards, piano and organ

Tony Spath-piano and oboe

Terry Bozzio-drums (b.1950)

Cult album from Czech Republic black metal band with influences from Mercyful Fate and Celtic Frost. Terrible drum sound and an overall satanic evil sound but is it really black metal? They have a very unique, progressive and variated style but not that complicated that it hurts so I would rather call this heavy metal than black metal. Nice amateurish cover. A very popular album among metal reviwers but I don't find it THAT good. It's ok, nothing more.

1)Intro (-) Nice piano/rain intro.

2)Casilda's song (7,0)

3)The temple in the underworld (6,0)

4)Aposipenis (6,0)

5)The solitude (1,0)

6)Voices from... (-) Choir.

7)The wall (6,0)

8)The old ones (5,0)

9)Message (5,0)

10)My name... (7,0) Nice acoustic.

11)My deep mystery (6,5)

12)Freebee (-)

Score: 5,50

Big Boss-vocals

Blackosh-guitars

Mr. Dan-guitars

Evil-drums

This is the Stockholm based band's 2nd album. It's well produced and the songs are played with passion and youthful energy in a very typical 80's american west coast vein but with a touch of Sweden to it. Quality songs and well played and I like this album, even though it sounds a little too alike some other bands like Crash Dïet and H.E.A.T Good live music!

1)Sleeping with the enemy (8,0) Good, heavy and intense rocker with a strong refrain.

2)New sensation (8,0) Sounds very much like Crash Dïet, a good heavy melodic song. Great refrain!

3)The devil's playground (7,5)

4)Hunger for love (8,0) Melodic but intense at the same time. Good song!

5)Get it on (7,5)

6)Knock you down (7,0) Good but too repetitive.

7)Mr. Money (7,5) A little too repetitive but a good energic song.

8)Wild nights (7,0)

9)Brand new day (7,5)

10)Throne of China (8,0) Melodic and heavy, the way I like it!

11)The great delution (7,0) Too chaotic.

Score: 7,55

Nik Molin-vocals

Rob Love Magnusson-guitars

Joel Fox Apelgren-bass

George Egg-drums

The debut album from Canadian speed metal band Exciter. Boy this is a fist in the face-metal album for sure! Damn good songs and just full blast all through but anyway done with a great feeling for rhythms and sheer power. A classic and damn good metal album. Get it or die!

I saw Exciter at the 2012 Sweden Rock Festivaland I really enjoyed the show. Of course it can be a little too much listening to their full speed power without mercy for an whole hour but it was worth it for sure!

Oddly enough the band at the time of the recording of this album only consisted of three members, the drummer was also the vocalist which I see as an incredible task listening to the speed of the drumming! The band got a record contract with Mike Varney from Shrapnel Records in 1982 after sending him a demo. Varney include a track from the band on the US Metal vol.2 compilation the same year and after that got to record a full album. Interesting fact is that Heavy Metal Maniacwas released a few months before Metallica's album Kill 'Em All.

1)The holocaust (-)

2)Stand up and fight (8,0)

3)Heavy metal maniac (8,0)

4)Iron dogs (8,0)

5)Mistress of evil (7,5)

6)Under attack (7,5)

7)Rising of the dead (7,0)

8)Black witch (7,5)

9)Cry of the Banshee (7,0)

Score: 7,56

Dan Beehler-vocals and drums

John Ricci-guitars

Allan Johnson-bass

The music these Texans play is undiscribable. It can seem as total chaos when listening on it for the first time...or even the 10th time, but this is music to listen to over and over again and to discover new things the 50th time you listen to it. Somehow they manage to put melody to the chaos and that's what make me able to listen to this album. They, as good progressive bands do, always return to the basic ground in a song. Not just flipping away like some other bands do just to be able to call themselfs a progressive band. There are some songs I like here, some that I can listen to but also some that I just can't stand. 64 minutes of this kind of music is way too much, I get totally messed up in my head.

On Mars Volta's 6th album guitarist John Frusciante from Red Hot Chili Peppers is for the first time not playing on the album. Also Deantoni Parks had replaced Thomas Pridgen on drums.

1)The whip hand (4,5)

2)Aegis (7,5)

3)Dyslexicon (7,0)

4)Empty vessels make the loudest sound (5,5)

5)The malkin jewel (3,0)

6)Lapochka (6,0)

7)In absentia (3,0)

8)Imago (7,0)

9)Molochwalker (6,5)

10)Trinkets pale of moon (3,0)

11)Vedamalady (4,5)

12)Noctourniquet (3,5)

13)Zed and two naughts (5,0)

Score: 5,08

Cedric Bixler-Zavala-vocals (b.1974)

Omar Rodríguez-Lopez-guitars, bass and keyboards (b.1975)

Juan Alderete-bass (b.1963)

Deantoni Parks-drums (b.1977)

This, Finlands symphonic hardrockers Nighwish's 7th album was a great surprise to me. Always feeling that they had more to give and that is was a pity that they could not do more with many of their songs, here it finally is, a fantastic album full of good, interesting and powerful music! Two of the songs leave more to wish for but otherwise there is a LOT of over avearge good songs here. Listen and enjoy!

1)Taikatalvi (-) Very nice "childrens song"-intro.

2)Storytime (8,5) Good pompous hardrock with power and good melody.

3)Ghost river (6,5) Overpompous and messy with a big choir. Too much.

4)Slow love, slow (4,0) Very different jazzy slow song. Far away from rock music. I'm not ready for this yet...

5)I want my tears back (7,5)

6)Scaretale (9,0) Wonderful progressive song with a lot of "fooling around" crazy rhythms and superpowerful keyboards and choruses. Great!

7)Arabesque (-)

8)Turn loose the mermaids (9,0) Absolutely wonderful ballad in medieval style.

9)Rest calm (8,0)

10)The cow, the owl and the dove (8,0)

11)Last ride of the day (8,5)

12)Song of myself (8,5)

13)Imaginaerum (8,0)

Score: 7,77

Anette Olzon-vocals (b.1971)

Marco Hietala-vocals and bass (b.1966)

Emppu Vuorinen-guitars (b.1978)

Jukka Nevalainen-drums (b.1978)

Tuomas Holopainen-keyboards and piano (b.1976)

The title of this Albert King-album hints towards New Orleans and the music definitely has a New Orelans R & B, funk and soulfeel. There's no sharp edges here, not even in Alberts guitarplaying, just smooth and laidback playing and singing (always with great feeling of course) and a horn section that can only can be from New Orleans, it's that obvious. Sadly there's two songs here that lowers the average score, otherwise this is a truly enjoyable album to sit back and just listen to with your eyes closed. You'll get the goose bumps!

1)Get out of my life woman (6,5)

2)Born under a bad sign (7,0)

3)The feeling (7,5)

4)We all wanna boogie (6,0)

5)The very thought of you (4,0)

6)I got the blues (7,5)

7)I get evil (7,0)

8)Angel of mercy (7,5)

9)Flat tyre (5,5)

Score: 6,50

Albert King (Albert Nelson)-vocals and guitars (1923-1992)

George Porter Jr-bass (b.1947)