Tag: Swedish Rock

Nestor – ‘Kids In A Ghost Town’ Review

Many have tried to recreate the glory days of 80s melodic rock/hair metal and few have succeeded. Nestor have nailed it with ‘Kids In A Ghost Town’. Its bloody marvellous!

I’ve been reviewing albums for almost 15 years now, and occasionally an album is sent to me that completely blows me away. Usually its from an unknown band or artist. In this instance the band is called Nestor. Its not just me who knows this fact, with three previously released singles this year and close to a million plays combined for the songs and music videos, the hype is enormous for the upcoming album ‘Kids In A Ghost Town’ which is due to be released on the 22nd October.

I asked Nestor’s vocalist Tobias on the band name as I thought it might be taken from Greek mythology, “Exactly, the name comes from Greek mythology and refers to an elder, a wise old man and all that, but us in the band are all big Tintin fans so the name is taken from Captain Haddock’s butler in the comic books, his name is Nestor and he’s a really cool character, haha!” I thought I’d heard that name before as I used to own about a dozen Tin-Tin books myself. Nestor was formed back in 1989 by five childhood friends in their hometown of Falköping, Sweden. But like most dreams of becoming rock stars, theirs faded away with time – but their friendship remained, as did their love of music. Now over three decades later the members have taken the opportunity to reunite the band! I for one am bloody glad they did as ‘Kids In A Ghost Town’ will sit at the top of the best album list for many a melodic rock fan come the end of this year.

‘One The Run’ is one of the best opening stacks I’ve heard in quite some time. A dainty piano opening before a battering salvo of guitar riff and drums beats you into submission. The accompanying video is a true homage to 80-s vidz and would happily sit in the soundtrack to Turbo Kid. You have to check out the stripped back piano version on YouTube which is absolutely brilliant. I immediately fell in love with the tone and warmth of Tobias Gustavsson’s vocals.

Even a song with a corny lyric like ‘she’s got eyes like Demi Moore and a body like Sharon Stone….she’s a perfect 10!’ can’t detract from the quality. It still hits the mark. Samantha Fox proves to be an inspired choice for the duet ‘Tomorrow’. As I’ve got older I steered away from ballads but this one is an absolute knockout.

Apart from the aforementioned songs the other nuggets are the glorious anthem ‘1989’; ‘It Ain’t Me’ has the orchestration that could put in on a Bond movie; the galloping title track ‘Kids In A Ghost Town’; the chorus of ‘Stone Cold Eyes’ elevates a good song into a great one; and ‘These Days’ would have been a big hit in any year beginning with ‘Nineteen-Eighty-Something’.

Melodic Rock/AOR is the poor relation of probably every musical genre on the scene today. It wasn’t that popular when it was popular! That said, those like me that love it have been hit with many a pretender these last 30 years who promised much and faded away or just didn’t deliver. These guys are the real deal. I hardly give away top marks for an album (13 times in 14 years), and this gets top marks. Everyone gets credit – the keyboards are high in the mix, guitar solos are shredding, harmonies are to die for, a wonderful combination, and the vocals are crisp, warm and clean.

In 2021 Nestor’s ‘Kids In A Ghost Town’ will be as coveted as Red Rackhams Treasure.

10/10

Tracklisting –
Fanfare For The Reliable Rebel (Intro)
On The Run
Kids In A Ghost Town
Stone Cold Eyes
Perfect 10 (Eyes Like Demi Moore)
These Days
Tomorrow (Feat. Samantha Fox)
We Are Not OK
Firesign
1989
It Ain’t Me

Nestor Are –
Jonny Wemmenstedt (guitar)
Mattias Carlsson (drums)
Tobias Gustavsson (vocals)
Marcus Åblad (bass)
Martin Frejinger (keyboards)

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Pain Of Salvation – ‘Panther’ Album Review

Pain Of Salvation do what they do best, being art the forefront of what ‘Progressive’ truly means.

To say that Pain Of Salvation are bit eclectic is like saying Ozzy used to like a beer. They can go from the sublime to the ridiculous sometimes even in one song. One thing they are, and that’s progressive metal pioneers. With Daniel Gildenlöw at the helm they have been pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, and listenable for quite a number of years. At one end you have a potential Eurovision band, and at the other, in the middle a current Opeth style prog band, and at the other a full on metal fusion band.

I never know who is going to turn up, and they have already lost Gustaf Hielm before this release, although he did contribute to the album. If Gildenlöw is pulling the strings (quite literally) it will always be a Pain Of Salvation album.

‘Accelerator’ is a mish-mash of synth, drum beat and guitar, which becomes delicate and light before a jazzy chorus. The song expands over the second half that becomes a wall of sound. It doesn’t exactly become an instantly hummable or singalong track, but that’s POS in one song and needs more than just one listen. In POS terms it means we are off to a good start! ‘Unfuture’ draws you into a Country style guitar before it again becomes something very different very quickly. Theres a lot to absorb as the main instrument is Gildenlöw’s voice. POS have never been a singles band, and ‘Restless Boy’ comes as close to that as they can (well in terms of minutes anyway). Again it’s more electronica than prog or metal, I suppose that is what ‘progressive ‘really is as POS are shooting way past standard rock, and typical verse/bridge/chorus. 

‘Wait’ is built around classical guitar and a tubular bells sounding piano refrain, and its a fairly quick seven minutes and is my favourite song on the album so far. Theres a lot of emotion being transmitted by Gildenlöw and it makes for a very rewarding song. ‘Keen To A Fault’ keeps to a well trodden path of everything on the album so far, a very unusual rhythmic pattern, and some complex drumming from Léo Margarit. It’s the most accessible and melodic song on here. ‘Fur’ is a delightful instrumental piece that would fit well into a dark and melancholic animated film. It leads into the title track ‘Panther’ with Daniel ‘speak-singing’ and riffing/rapping away contentedly. It will probably be the most divisive song on the album, but once I accepted it for what it is, it was enjoyable.

‘Species’ is where I really like POS. It’s more in the centre of their repertoire, typical of Road Salt One & Two. It becomes a lot heavier for the second half and melds prog, grunge and shows that Gildenlöw is firing on all cylinders and is a man clearly on the top of his game as his vocals here are amazing, emotional, and on the edge.

Finally we are onto ‘Icon’ a thirteen minute epic where they throw everything at it. Tender and subtle piano introduces it, before bass and drums rumble in and builds its tension like a soundtrack. It then becomes a tender ballad that again shows Gildenlöw at his best, and has vocals for all occasions. Theres a dark and menacing undercurrent and its also haunting at the same time. A trait that few bands can present as well as this. Hallgren’s guitar solo is a joy to behold – something that has been sorely missing on the album so far. The darkness returns for the closing section of ‘Icon’ with another Hallgren guitar solo. It is the stand out song by a country mile and is a fine way to finish. Save the best to last has never been so true a saying. It’s also one of the best songs they have ever performed.

As POS albums go, it’s definitely one that needs a few listens, probably more than a few! Once again Daniel Gildenlöw is pushing the boundaries of Pain Of Salvation and there’s lots of new sounds and direction from him. It doesn’t sit at the top of their output for me and I hope it does after some more time to dwell on the songs. Existing fans will no doubt be drawn into the musical mixing pot, but whether it brings in new fans I’m not so sure. If you haven’t heard anything from them yet apart from this, then I truly envy you as you delve into their back catalogue. POS prove to be consistently different, and that’s why we love them.

Score 8/10

Tracklisting –

Accelerator

Unfuture

Restless Boy

Wait

Keen To A Fault

Fur

Panther

Species

Icon

Pain Of Salvation –

Daniel Gildenlöw – Vocals and a bit of everything

Johan Hallgren – guitar and vocals

Léo Margarit – drums and vocals

Daniel Karlsson – keyboards, guitar and vocals

Gustaf Hielm – bass and vocals