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Jorn: The Duke
Jorn - The Duke - [AFM Records]

2006-12-31

Jorn Lande – a man whose voice has gained him quite a reputation – returns once again with a full-length under his moniker Jorn. This is his fourth as a solo artist so far, with two more releases expected soon (in early 2007, one a cover album and the other a collection of remixes and retakes) and it joins his vast reputation as a hard rock uber-vocalist well.
Surrounded with an honorable entourage of musicians (including two guitarists from Pagan's Mind, and two veterans: ex-TNT bass player Morty Black and legendary keyboardist Don Airey) Jorn was bound to release a professional album, perfect in terms of both sound and genre, so it was no surprise "The Duke" brings back memories of the better side of the 80's and the later part of the 70's.

Blazing riffs which make you wanna pick up your own dusty guitar and play along, mid-pace drum strikes going at just the right speed to tap on the table to or upon climax bang your head and oh-so-cheesy lyrics are what's found in "The Duke". Songs like the badass rocker "Stormcrow", or "End of time" and its Zakk Wylde-ish guitar tinge come with complete correlation to the spirit of the 80's, and don't sound too unoriginal, thanks to Jorn's presence. Overall, his display is remarkable and he manages to swing from darker, more dramatic cuts ("We Brought The Angels Down", "After The Dying", "Midnight Madness") to forceful, crowd swooping numbers ("Blacksong", "Stormcrow") and even goes into a blue semi-ballad ("Burning Chains") with an even bluer solo.

If you are at your mid 30's, starting to go bald but still have a pony-tail, and like wearing leather – you'd recognize the Thin Lizzy cover ("Are You Ready") and will probably be the first enjoy the rest of the album. Those of us familiar with Jorn's previous materials would probably feel most comfortable with "End Of Time", as well as rejoice to the new version of "Starfire", and would overall connect to "The Duke" just the same (though it doesn't shine above anything heard from him before) – so this is mostly directed to fans, fans of the old, and the old in general.

This is basically modern AOR (even though Lande is actually Norwegian), but could just as well fit to your local hard rockin' bar as a perfect background to drinking the MGD it serves, occasionally staring its busty waitress or the waitress with the nice buttocks; it has the right amount of energy, melody, heaviness, and sleaze – just like 80's melodic/hard rock ought to be.

Ofer Vayner



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