Transubstans 2013
Mount Egonaut
The “bastard rock” purveyors scale new heights and deliver vertiginous fun.
Here’s a nice demonstration of the organ’s vital role in the hard rock’s DNA. When opener “Crawl” does its titular move in mirror action of sped-up spin, Fredrik Jordanius’ voice and guitar riffs take on a punky stance, as they do in “Careless Awareless”, but once Dennis Zielinski’s ivory beast starts to roar, nobility sets in. Well, the kind of nobility that could have colored an unholy union of Ozzy and HEEP – not for nothing the band define their genre as “bastard rock” – and if this screams “merriment”, rapture fills “Awake” to the rafters, its inauspicious verse giving way to a molten-gold pop chorus.
So there’s both panache and balance to the Swedish quartet’s second album. Beyond this equation, which also envelops the swaying stomper “Something/Nothing” that fades out quite prematurely for the full fun to unfurl, rage catchy metal numbers such as “Loser” or “Wasted Days”. And while “The Fight” builds up on the “Children Of The Grave” figure, its Hammond solo atones for that sin. The hellish “Palliation” may tap the same train of thought, yet it nicely nails the band’s message right on the head and makes the prospect of the next record enticing.
***2/3
