Review from MTUK Metal 'Zine

It’s always nice to get an album that challenges you to come up with a couple of others that it sounds like… even when it sounds vaguely familiar you have a hard time placing some of the individual elements without first having a quick scan at your overflowing CD collection to jog your memory. Switch Opens from Sweden have just put me in that pleasant but frustrating situation.

Starting out life as Fingerspitzengefühl, the band has seemingly had an identity crisis from day one, releasing two albums under that moniker and their third as Switch Opens… that’s what listening to psychedelic rock does to you apparently - or so the ghost of Frank Zappa tells me. But all in all there is a fair bit of continuity in the sound despite the Switch in band names - the strong metal influences remain at the forefront but these new songs add a playful and frisky edge to the proceedings with definite nods to Fugazi, the aforementioned Mr Zappa, Mastodon, and even Soundgarden and The Deftones throughout.

‘Express Death’ opens the album with and adrenalin fuelled Motorhead style bass line that against the odds manages to last the distance considering the seven minute run time of the track. ‘Pyramids’ has an air of Mastodon about it with its thundering bass and half-hissed/half-growled vocals - very gritty and begging to be played at full volume. Next up is ‘Paper Walls’ follows suit from its predecessor but sacrifices the bass for a more experimental feel. ‘He Dives Down’ is heavy, hair swaying, psychedelic Down style metal the way it should be - strong riff, great bass and a big chorus - probably the song that makes this album. ‘Terra Incognita’ is a swampy track that follows on from ‘He Dives Down’ perfectly, but it takes over three minutes to get to the first verse… it’s a good track but really drags at nine minutes in length. ‘Lucky Me, Lucky you’ by comparison to some of the tracks here is a pop song - it’s got a straight up raw punk feel to it that is really refreshing after so many big complex tracks. ‘Super Globe of Pain’ is that delta blues doom again but after the initial intro it begins to feel less solid than other tracks of this ilk on the album - though it doesn’t fall apart, it does feel shaky in places. Finally ‘Electric Hour’ slivers like a snake out of the bayou to close the album with a barrage of guitar fuzz and semi-tribal drumming.

Overall this is a damn good album with plenty of different influences and tricks at play on the songs. Sometimes it can drag or feel a little put together, but when it has such a strong psychedelic sludgy feel to it, you can easily forgive and get lost in the riffs without much prompting.

Sean M. Palfrey

Metalteamuk.net