PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Sweden seems able to churn out quality rock bands as prolific as Mr Kipling does cakes! We’re talking Mustasch here, and although these guy’s have been around since 1998 this is the first time I’ve heard them!!! ( Shame on me ).
This, the latest soon to be released (January 10th) album, is a follow on from their 2012 release of “Sounds Like Hell, Looks Like Heaven”. I’ve struggled to put these guy’s in a “genre” box! By this I mean I can only describe them as a sudo-psychedelic philharmonical prog-rock mega heavy metal thrash-tastic band!!!
Unlike anything I’ve heard to date this Scandinavian quartet bring you such a huge variety of songs and styles on this one album you’d think you just bought a compilation album made up of several different groups. Track one, ‘Feared And Hated‘ starts loud and then gets LOUDER!! A massive beat with great lyrics and the harmony’s are just the dog’s gonads. Inspired riff’s and a nice bit of the old dual harmonic guitar work, a true head bangers delight to listen to. Track two is a cover version of an old Uriah Heep song ‘ Too Scared To Run‘. They’ve done a brilliant job of this and if you didn’t know better you could hardly tell the difference between them, apart from the voice of Ralf Gyllenhammar of course being that little bit more growly. A nice compliment to the old guy’s of rock and roll.
Track two (A), Is entitled ‘Thank You For The Demon‘. Everything about this song is huge in a musically themed type of way, big and brassy with a mix of orchestral instruments. The piano gently starts off the song along with Ralf singing in a melodic story telling vain setting the stage for an explosive hard rock saga of new world electric metal meets old world wood and string. Both types alone are great but this combination is outstanding as they come together in a biblical rock ensemble of epic musical poetry.
‘From Euphoria To Dystopia‘ takes you into the true heavy metal side of this groups portfolio. This song I think has undertones of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs and Children Of The Grave, unsurprising really as Sabbath have been a huge influence of countless bands over the years. Even so, it’s another good track from our Swedish cousins and done with their own twist which will keep ardent fans happy again. Moving on through this nine song album we stay on the heavy metal theme with ‘The Mauler‘ and ‘Borderline‘ until we get to ‘All My Life‘ which changes tack and goes into the mellow zone, only to grab hold of your throat just as your starting to relax and takes you on a roller coaster of calm and chaos.
Leaving the last three songs now to finish off your need for a metal fix is ‘Lowlife Highlights‘ (great name for a song), and ‘I Hate to Dance’ but if you don’t dance to this one you ain’t got rock in your blood! The last track is a nice cooling down number called ‘Don’t Want To Be Who I Am‘. I won’t tell you what their like, go listen for yourself! More fun that way!!
Overall a great album and music from a group I,m glad to have heard at last (while I,m still trying to hide my embarrassment). I’ve now been converted into a Mustasch follower and will endeavour to keep up to date with new releases!
Tracklist:
Feared And Hated
Too Scared To Run
Thank You For The Demon
From Euphoria To Dystopia
The Mauler
Borderline
All My Life
Lowlife Highlights
I Hate To Dance
Don’t Want To Be Who I Am
Line up:
Ralf Gyllenhammar – vocals, guitar
David Johannesson – lead guitar
Stam Johansson – bass guitar
Jejo Perković – drums
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/Mustaschofficial
All photos used with kind permission from Katja Michaelsen
http://www.katjamichaelsen.com
