| CD REVIEW Sounds Like Violence |
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Band: Sounds Like Violence Oh man, sometimes it’s great to have an editor-in-chief moonlighting in the promotion of several record labels…like when you get a promo copy of an album, the actual release of which only happens two months later! You see, having a heavy work-load forces me to finish review by release dates, and the work-load frequently being re-charged again (often with stuff that was already out on the streets, but sent in late), has allowed me to give this Swedish band’s sophomore album several listening sessions during the time between the now, and the then…and returning to the album now to actually give it its reviews was like coming back to an old friend with whom you share a lot off sentimental memories! Originally a four-piece, the Malmö based band knew to attract the attention of American Emo specialist label Deep Elm (and now please try to hold on if the term “Emo” makes you cringe and want to turn away from this page…because Sounds Like Violence are something completely “different” in the genre and absolutely worth paying attention to), who released SLV’s debut EP The Pistol in May 2004. Working up to the 2007 debut full-length With Blood On My Hands (which was also released through Burning Heart in Europe), the label had enough faith in the Swedes to put ‘em on a couple of compilation albums (“Deep Elm – Cover Your Tracks”, “Unreleased No. 3: Deep Elm”, and “Emo Diaries No. 10: the Hope I Hide Inside”) and include ‘em on a release (with Desert City Soundtrack and Settlefish) in their split series (no idea what form – EP, CD – that was in though). The writing process having begun half a year prior and followed by intense rehearsing and demo recordings (period during which they lost guitarist Phillip Hall -no info given about how or why- something which singer/ guitarist Andreas Söderlund then wrote the song “1993” to, to exorcise his feelings!), the band started the recording process of their new epic album on September 27 2008, recording Daniel Petersson’s drums parts at Malmö’s own Tambourine Studio. Söderlund and bassist/ backing singer Daniel Teodorsson then retreated to Söderlund’s apartment in Malmö’s suburb Ängelholm, where they put most of the music to recording using a method called “Re-amping” (whereby the music is first recorded directly into computers, and then again through real amplifiers – I ain’t sure what happens next). Then then sent rough demos to 10 friends, whom they knew would be bluntly honest, for reactions. At the same time they sent out e-mails worldwide in search for a good but relatively cheap mixing engineer...a call to which Ryan Hewitt (known from having worked with the likes of Blink182, Tom Petty, Alkaline Trio, We Are Scientists, and Red Hot Chili Peppers) responded, coming over from Los Angeles during December to put his personal touch to the recordings in collaboration with the band. Earlier, in November, the guys had recorded the vocals, something to which they even invited 20 members of the Lars-Eric Larsson Choir in order to add an extra fullness to a couple of songs! Already with the EP the guys were getting rave reviews from the established music press. Kerrang! even gave the platter a 5K rating with the words “Soul-crushingly magnificent, Sounds Like Violence, in fact, sound like pain. Searing pain. Think the hypnotic guitar patterns in Interpol combined with the erratic presision of The Walkmen, rounded off by a vocalist who sounds like he just ripped his own heart out to see what it looked like.. This Swedish quartet have such a fullness and intensity of sound that these tracks are positively compelling”! Stylistically speaking, the reviewer at Drowned In Sound hit the hammer on the nail, when writing “…Stripped down, yet fleshed out with such corrugated dynamism, The Pistol from SLV is a gritty blend of soaring melodies and cool, hip-jolting rhythms, where jagged guitars and adjunct pre-Grunge posturing flows with a gripped and concerted ease. Drawing upon the brash Pop sensitivities of The Posies and The Afghan Whigs, SLV subscribe to the notion that good Pop hooks are made more affecting and personal when left unpolished…” The end result of the whole recording process is simply overwhelming. Musically, you’ll find yourself wallowing in the typical GothRock/ GothPop sounds of The Cult, The Church, The Mission, and even Sisters Of Mercy...extrapolated to an almost pompously big sound, with vocal undertones quite specific to SLV because of Söderlund’s signature tormented vocal stylings! If the above description can indeed put your mind in a convenient direction, you need to héar the music to comprehend to the fullest just how “big” this band really is, and it’s therefore with great pleasure that I direct you to the music player at myspace.com/soundslikeviolence. I’ll just finish up on things by giving you the explanations I got with some of the tracks. The title track (and album opening song) is about the roughness of the street Söderlund used to live on, the ensuing “Reeperbahn” of his personal relationship with God, “Darkness Over Eslöv Street” aboutmovingtoEslöv Street following a relationship breakup, “Beast” about his burnout, “$5,900” about the band’s departure from their former label (uh? Yeah, Iwas surprised to read about that too), and the album closing “1993” about the loss of a band member (but you already knew that)! Absolute “Best Albums Of 2009”-list material, to be put in a category quite of its own! Somewhat weirdly, the band has already done a couple of lone gigs in promotion of the album, and the people present at this year’s Groezrock festival (or at Stockholm’s Debaser Medis and London’s HMV Forum venues) were already capable to hear a couple of songs off the album before its release...lucky bastards (I use that term with endearment, not with vehemence). The promo talk tells about the band touring in support of the album, but at the moment I have no idea when that might be (quite content to have gathered the necessarry info on the band about a mmonth ago, I neglected to check up on the band’s MySpace page for more current info on that – so, that’s something I’m leaving up to you to do). Meanwhile, I’m remembered of the fact that I still need to ask my record shop owner whether he can still get any of the band’s older material! 98/100 Tony. |