When Nicke Andersson first left Entombed to concentrate 100% on The Hellacopters, the future of his old band was left totally up in the air. C'mon, what do you do when one of your founding members and main songwriters leaves? The pressure was on, to say the least. So when the new album "Same difference" finally was released in 1998 with new drummer Peter Stjärnvind, a lot of people were especially critical of the record. Now, I'm not gonna come out and say that everyone was wrong, but I do think they were unjustly harsh. While it's obviously not the best thing they've ever done, it's still nowhere near as bad as a lot of those initial reviews would have you believe. Coming out after the fuzzy death n' roll onslaught of 1997's "To ride, shoot straight and speak the truth", "Same difference" was a study in contrasts. The production was significantly cleaner and the playing was much more subdued, though tighter. It was the sound of a band in transition, trying to figure out where to go next. Yeah, there's some definite clunkers on the record, but I think that it hold up well regardless. It doesn't help that the tracklist is totally front-loaded, but it works just fine on shuffle. And ignore those five bonus tracks on the US version - they were much better off left as a separate disc on the "TRSSASPTT" limited edition digipack. So anyhow, as you should know, I love me some country music along with my death metal. So when Entombed throws some downtuned slide guitar into the mix, you bet your ass I'm all about it as on today's track "Clauses". It still might not be enough to redeem all of "Same difference", but hopefully it'll at least make you go back and rethink it.
Question: How is it that of the hundreds and thousands of visitors this website gets on a regular basis, only a small handful of you have mustered up enough courage to post on the message board? Does my breath smell? Am I that much of an asshole? At least tell me how much I suck or something. Not to sound bitter, but I put a ton of time and effort into this thing and it would be nice to get at least a little community participation back.
Pitchfork catches the Robyn hype: https://www.pitchforkmedia.com/tracks/05-08-19.shtml#song2
Pluxemburg acts Pluxus and Fibes, Oh Fibes! are both in the studio working on new material. Pluxus has tracked fifteen songs which are currently being mixed and edited and Fibes, Oh Fibes! is working at their new studio in Göteborg.
Check out the cover artwork for the new Randy album: https://www.randytheband.com/?NODE=40
Jim Stärk will release their "Morning songs" EP in Sweden on August 31. The record was originally released in the band's home country of Norway last year and the title track appeared on my very own "Reader's companion" compilation.
Leaves Records has posted a track from the new Suis La Lune 7" for free download: https://www.hxcmp3.com/leaves_records
The eloquent and artful Viktor Sjöberg of the Elefanten(Sonores) is working on a film/sound project entitled "A Gothenburg diary" and you can read all about it and see some preliminary photos here: https://elefanten.blogspot.com/2005/08/gothenburg-diary-summer-2005.html
The cover art and tracklist for Tiger Lou's new album "The loyal" has been posted online: https://se.v2music.com/site/product.asp?ID=1478
London's Evening Standard reviews Magnet's live show at 93 Feet East from Wednesday night: https://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music/articles/20115645
PopMatters reviews psych-rock revivalists The Works: https://popmatters.com/music/reviews/w/works-st2005.shtml
Guitarist Johannes Ylinen of Finland's Deep Insight was involved in an accident yesterday during the band's gig at The Vale Club in Glasgow. Apparently he leaped from the stage and fell onto his collarbone. But despite the injury, the show must go on and the band will continue their tour.
Preview two full-length tracks from the new Opeth record here: https://www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk/opeth
MIC Norway profiles up-and-coming singer/songwriter Robert Post: https://www.mic.no/mic.nsf/doc/art2005081811073613360494
While I'm not blown away by his record as a whole, it does contain a couple genuine pop gems. His self-titled debut comes out in the UK on August 22 via Mercury Records.