Reviews
2006-03-09
I don’t what is it about Sweden, but the country has been the home of the best sounding American style hard rock outside of the US itself for years now.
Psychopunch are another fine example of what a Swedish band can do when it mixed hard rock with some punk and Rock N' Roll in an album that has some of the craziest energy this side of Texas.
This is the band’s 6th album already, and their second for Silverdust records, they certainly sound professional enough, clean and melodic playing with some dirt thrown in for good measure; As I said before, they create what can mostly be described as American sounding hard rock, but there are some Punk elements in the music as well, creating a combination that comes off as Sleaze rock sometimes, in the vein of Hanoi Rocks perhaps.
They through themselves in with “Poison Alley Groove”, a fast rhythmical opening track, good deep vocals that sound as American as can be. Some of the tracks on the album are heavy as hell, third track – “Everlasting” has some great metal riffs in between and some great guitar playing.
“When This World Is Dying” brings in something else into the mix, a more epic sounding melody line merged with the crunchy Rock N' Roll guitars, it sounds very good as well. The album has one of its few acoustic segments in the last track, “The Black River Song”, a western soundtrack track if there ever was one.
I have to admit I have a soft spot for this kind of music, I hated glam during the 80's, but I really was into the hard rocking American bands that infused some southern rock into their music, and Psychopunch manage to re-create exactly that kind of vibe without sounding overly corny, with a right pinch of aggression and a punk attitude, and that is what, in my opinion, makes this album so enjoyable.
Alon Miasnikov
