Tag Archives: Odyssey

The Albums of the Year!

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Soilwork (Helsingborg, Sweden)

The Living Infinite, 2013, Nuclear Blast Records

Readers may understand the strong feelings for Soilwork. The band with its roots in the soil of the region just closely south from here. Many critics doubted the success of releasing a double CD, all in all, with 20 songs. The album was welcomed by the fans and the critics gave  highest marks in many of the reviews.

Recommended tracks: This Momentary Bliss, The Living Infinite I and II, Antidotes In Passing, Parasite Blues (as here earlier indicated…don’t forget to read the lyrics, which are very influenced by the metalsouth nature and surroundings).

Darkane (Helsingborg, Sweden)

The Sinister Supremacy, 2013, Massacre Records

How great it was to meet Darkane live again at the Metalbar, Tivoli, and to see them again at KB, Malmö, recently was just great!! The sixth album release is from many said to be their best. Also like Soilwork is Darkane with roots from the next door village south from here.

Recommended tracks: The Decline, The Sinister Supremacy, Hate Repentant State

Odyssey / Black Temple (Helsingborg, Sweden)

Abysmal Despair, 2012, Transubstans Records

The album is from 2012, but qualifies here due to its high quality as a debut album. Also this album was welcomed with high scoring reviews by local culture critics. This is a hard noise rock band and, not to forget, hard working live band. The energy experienced and described in an earlier post qualify these guys as the most promising band seen here in many years. We can only hope that their mission is now spread over a wider landscape in the aftermath of their recent European touring together with Bombus. When can we get more songs, Black Temple??

Recommended tracks: Wicked With, Abysmal despair, Keloma, No Fucking Way, Darkred

Free Fall (Karlstad/Stockholm, Sweden)

Power & Volume, 2013, Nuclear Blast records

Freedom Rockers, they have been classified as. I would say that with an musical upbringing in the 1970’s with bands like Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, AC/DC and Frank Zappa streams of happiness and nostalgia flow from listening to Free Fall. Mattias Bärjed who formed the band has heavy experience from The Soundtrack Of Our Lives has manged to put together a classical line up with drums, guitars, bass and vocals. The voice of Kim Fransson made a bunch load of us older guys (read: older AC/DC fans) happy when Free Fall kicked off the Metalsouth idea during Christmas Rock at the Tivoli late December 2012. Fabulous stuff!! Fantastic debut and just waiting for more!!

Recommended tracks: Power & Volume, Free Fall, World Domination

Odyssey/Black Temple – a working victory!

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We came there to see Odyssey perform in a name change event. ‘It’s the fourth time we change names and each time it feels better’, Jonas Pedersen stated. Odyssey is now ‘Black Temple’. I can see the identity problem of the name Odyssey with a number of bands with this name all over the world. To search for Odyssey songs at streaming suppliers takes some time to hit correctly. ‘Black Temple’ as a name sounds right, the band logo is again stylish and if the sound is better…? Well, it was cruel, hard and noisy as Odyssey and Black Temple continues to work hard and collects another victory this evening.

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Marcus Witold Östensson (guitars), Jonas Pedersen – (bass, vocals) and Jesper Karlsson (drums) give it all they have. Body and soul. This ‘hard noise rock’ gave me body ache like the worst gym session. I haven’t had my head ringing and my body aching from a live performance like this in a long time. Songs like ‘Wicked Witch’ and Abysmal Despair’ from the CD with the same name (2012) gives me the feeling of just wanting more.

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More is to come…and to have the rumour confirmed that Black Temple will be the supporting act to Bombus on their European Tour during Nov-Dec this year only makes this heavy metal weekend even more perfect. Let my head keep ringing to rememer this great weekend! Another t-shirt reference must also be made here. I could only happily notice that Jesper Karlsson on drums started the concert in a Frank Zappa t-shirt (picture of ‘Chunga’s Revenge’, 1970), which triggers ideas and bridging over to other personally interesting subjects for this blog. Many thanks to Black Temple and the best of good luck for the coming tour in Europe!!

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