The email submissions continue
to hold surprises.
Here is a band that
has been slogging around Norway
since 1999 with various lineups but are probably unknown outside of their
native land.
I know I have never heard
of them before.
Out of nowhere comes a
pretty decent album.
I can't tell
exactly what it is I like about the album but it is very listenable and really grows on
you.
The name of the band is a
curious thing.
They pronounce it “Escape-tor”.
I have no idea what that
means or is, but if you follow bands that live in countries where English is
not the first language you will see all kinds of interesting band names.
And I'm sure if I had to come up with a Norwegian
band name it would not go well.
So
we'll give them a pass on that.
They describe themselves as a
thrash metal band, but honestly, outside of a few flourishes here and there I
don't think that is accurate.
The album
opening track, “The Queen”, is probably the closest they come to thrash, as the
song is mostly a thrash style and tempo, but otherwise they are what I would
call a classic metal band.
The band that
they most resemble to me, at least on this recording, is Black Album era
Metallica, who certainly were a thrash band at the beginning but weren't by the
point of that album.
There is a lot of
mid-tempo music, similar to the Black Album, and the guitars are recorded with
the same crunch.
They actually move
within genres, sometimes even in the same song.
Their self-titled track, “Escapetor”, is a pretty heavy piece of metal
that breaks down in a folk/pirate metal style a couple of times during the
song.
They almost get up to a NWOBHM
sound at times as well.
They are just a
good, heavy metal band, flashing back to a time when it was just heavy metal,
not so subdivided as metal is now.
“Mr. Hyde” is another one that
you could almost call a thrash song, and one of my favorites on the album.
Just kind of gallops and plows along crushing
everything in its path.
And there is a
tune called “Creatures Of The Night”.
Although it's not a KISS cover it's a really good song.
One critique I would make of the album is
that it is just a bit too long.
These
guys really hit their stride on the songs that clock in around four or four and
a half minutes in length, yet half the album is made up of songs longer than
that.
A little help from a producer who
would tell them that last riff idea really doesn't need to be tacked on to the
end of the song would help things be a little more accessible.
Albums don't have to break new
ground or be the best of the year in order to be good and enjoyable.
This one is proof of that.
Good songs, good playing, and good times will
be had when you push play on this one.
- ODIN
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