Millencolin
Machine 15
Burning Heart Records
Millencolin have been going now for 15-16 years, hence the name of their seventh album (it sounds a bit cynical and bitter to call your band a "machine", doesn't it?). Lou Giordano who produced Millencolin's fifth album "Home from home" has again been called in, I suspect, to give the album that polished Foo-Fighters-feel, and he's succeeded. It is a very slick album, with Millencolin nurturing their softer more melodic side. They've also gone a bit wacky and added strings on some of the tracks, a trick that works just fine despite it not being that obvious. I prefer Millencolin when they've got a sound that's dirtier and more rock'n'roll and with less arena rock ambitions, so I'm not that keen on this album. Another thing that bugs me is that Nikola Sarcevic's lyrics are really terrible. I mean, they're among the worse I've ever heard; even though he's pretty good at writing choruses, some of the verses just make me cringe. Millencolin's lyrics have always been bad and full of horrible rhymes, but listening to "Machine 15" I can't help getting outright annoyed by them. Despite all this, it's a solid album with a handful of skatepunk hits that should appeal to the Kerrang/Alternative Press demographic.
- Simon Tagestam
