Discobelle posts a Swede-centric mix from Certified Bananas: https://www.discobelle.net/2006/12/08/mixin-it-up-certified-bananas/
Distortion Disco on Fox'n Wolf, a Swedish electro duo who have been around for awhile, but have always remained kind of under the radar: https://distortiondisco.blogspot.com/2006/12/paws-sharp-as-knife.html
David Sandström has put a new face on his website with a bunch of tracks for download: https://www.david-sandstrom.com/
Look for a new album around fall '07.
The music that Frida Hyvönen composed for the dance production "Pudel" will be released as an album on January 24. The song "See how I came into town" will be the first single.
Novoton has posted the new Black Belt single "Road crew" for free download: https://www.novoton.se/sounds/BlackBelt_RoadCrew.mp3
Danish rockers The Royal Highness have announced that their new album "La Mancha" will be released in Denmark on January 29 via Copenhagen Records. The first single "Call me a winner" comes out Monday, but can already be previewed on myspace: https://www.myspace.com/theroyalhighness
MP3: Closer - Occam's razor
We've got a different kind of flashback post this Friday. Instead of the usual oldie track from a favorite artist, Closer has afforded me the opportunity to post an exclusive mp3 of "Occam's razor", a brand new recording of an old song. The band, as you'll read in their top 10 posted today, is currently preparing to record a new EP, but in the meantime they figured they'd commit this song to tape kind of as a testament to where they've been. It's not too different from the material on the "Tokpela EP" - it's still as dark and heavy as always, layered with lush guitars and clean, melodic vocals. As I've said before, intelligent rock music is way too rare nowadays and there's scant few other bands out there making music like this and even fewer doing it as well. If you're a fan of bands like Dredg (whose new live album is pretty great btw), A Perfect Cirlce or maybe fellow Swedes Enter the Hunt, Closer is another band you need to check out. The aforementioned "Tokpela EP" is another one of my top picks for 2006 and I can only assume that whatever they do next will be even more amazing.
MP3: As We Fight - Dead end streets
Denmark's As We Fight is the kind of band I would have been really excited about ten years ago. Their blend of melodic Swedish death-metal and modern metalcore sounded fresh when Darkest Hour first did it, not so much today. The double-vocal attack is an okay variation, but it's not enough to distinguish them from the pack. The songs are decidedly average with only a few exceptional memorable riffs popping up here and there. Listen to the track I've posted today - the breakdown riff in the middle is killer, but they kill the momentum by relying on hanging chords to make the transition. The two parts might as well be separate songs. And let's face it - this sound is a dead horse anyway. Unless you're going to push the genre into new territory, why bother?
As We Fight - Dead end streets
Not only do we have a new top 10 from Jonas Skybakmoen of Johndoe (one of my top picks for 2006), we've also got a brand new interview with Sarah Assbring aka El Perro Del Mar. Check it out!
There is now an exclusive previously unreleased track at the posthumous myspace page for The Motorhomes: https://www.myspace.com/themotorhomes
One of my favorite Swedish pop acts - definitely worth checking out.
The End Records has announced that they'll be releasing the debut album "March of the parasite" from Swedish death/grind act Laethora on February 20. The band features Niklas Sundin along with ex-members of The Provenance and is still unsigned in Europe. Listen to samples at myspace: https://www.myspace.com/theendrecords
Listen to samples from Laleh's new album "Prinsessor": https://www.laleh.se/music.asp