Norway’s Shotgun Rodeo released their debut EP in 2012 and subsequently proved fairly prolific, releasing another two discs over the next three years. Fusing various rock styles, 2016’s ‘The New Standard’ is a hard and riff-heavy six-tracker that, influence wise, is sometimes hard to pin down and occasionally just as hard to take seriously. In this respect, Shotgun Rodeo are frustrating. Their sound is full of great riffs that sadly collide to create a mess of hard rock that never quite knows what it wants to be. This EP includes sounds that appear somewhat contemporary at the time of release – with bits of Avenged Sevenfold bubbling under the surface – and yet there are other elements that borrow from thrash’s past glories, as well as occasional rhythms hinting at the most melodic end of something more extreme. And it’s all topped by a fairly old-school vocal. It’s like experiencing Pantera’s ‘Cowboys From Hell’ by way of Skid Row and with added bits of Buckcherry but with less trash…if that even begins to make sense. Needless to say, it should be better than it is.
Tag Archives: scandinavian
Hear a new track from Seven Impale
Having already gained positive notices for their debut album, expectations are high for the follow up from Norwegian proggers Seven Impale.
‘Contraprasso’ is released via Karisma Records on September 16th, but you can hear a track in advance below.
Check out the new video from Rooni
Back in 2012, Scandinavian retro-pop outfit Rooni released their ‘Pilot‘ EP, an enjoyable collection of songs that really brought out the best in vocalist Gustav Nilsson‘s talents. Aside from Rooni’s stand-alone single ‘Ambulance’ (released sometime the year before), the new material from Rooni was arguably the best that Nilsson had ever committed to tape.
AIRBAG – Disconnected
In 2013, Norwegian prog rockers Airbag released their critically acclaimed third album ‘The Greatest Show On Earth’. Naturally, in some quarters of proggy fandom, people got excited. In some ways they were right enough to do so, since the album contained some fine music; it was all very well played and excellently produced. In other ways, it was hard to understand the hype. For all of Airbag’s obvious talents, the music all too often sounded as if it had been plagiarised from ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, ‘Wish You Were Here’ and ‘The Division Bell’. There came a point – fairly quickly, too – where you could legitimately ask why you’d spend quality listening time with music derived from such classics in a very obvious way, when you could put on a Floyd disc and hear it all done properly?
FOR THE IMPERIUM – Hail The Monsters
Finland’s For The Imperium are an intense bunch. ‘Hail The Monsters’, their second full length album, is one of those records that’s really hard to get through in one sitting. It’s frightening. Not just because it’s intense and heavy – this is by no means just noisy alt-rock or metal – but more for the fact that between the obvious grooves, these guys aren’t afraid to experiment.