Rating 95/100
Jan-Simon: Normally I read press releases that accompany new CD’s with a bit of distrust. Of course this is a wonderful album with fantastic songs played by accomplished and inspired musicians who have worked with the best of the best, recorded by a top producer, etcetera, etcetera. It is logical, if I had to do the PR for a band I would not write that this might be a nice record to perhaps play once as musical wallpaper either…
So when I read the info that was delivered with the debut-CD (well, sort of, more about this later) by Switch Opens my first thoughts were: yeah, sure. But I must admit, every word was true this time. I quote: “Switch Opens songs range from psychedelic doom to raw punk energy, all on a solid foundation of heavy progressive rock. Every song has its own, clear identity, brim filled with original hooks, yet with a patented bass heavy, warm, vibrating sound running through the record.” Perhaps you can gripe about the style, I can only confirm its contents. Switch Opens have made an bum with a few unique characteristics: as soon as you start it, you are sucked into a maelstrom of riffs and hooks and you can do nothing but turn up the volume. This is music to experience, full blast. My girlfriend is not such a fan of Switch Opens for that matter. For some reason she does not like the sound of happily marching crockery in the cupboard…
The Swedes of Switch Opens are no newcomers, although you might think so by the idea of a debut. They started out as Fingerspitzengefühl and by that name they released two albums, before they finally realized in 2008 that their name was not really helpful while pursuing an international career. So they chose Switch Opens, and were promptly asked to support Neurosis during their latest Scandinavian tour. You can say what you like about Neurosis (they are great, or they bring an unimaginative Ravensburger-painting by numbers sort of music because of their template-like way of working), they do know how to find talent.
The eponymous CD that has been released now holds eight long tracks. Sometimes such long tracks make you tired. After five minutes you start checking your watch. How much longer? It is not the case for Switch Opens, somewhere halfway ‘Pyramids’, the second song on the CD, you notice that you lost count of all the riffs you have heard in the past ten minutes, not to mention all the breaks and timechanges or the actual drumsolo you find yourself in the midst of. And the beautiful ting is, it may be a lot, it is all fitting, no overkill. Later on, in ‘He Dives Down’ we even hear vague oriental melodies and although it sounds fine, after the overwhelming start of the album it is the first moment the CD slumps a bit. It only shows Switch Opens is human too, the level of perfection shown in the earlier parts made me doubt. They continue with songs that sound like a punked up version of Motörhead and organically change in an even more proggy Mastodon, including mellotrons. All with the characteristic downtuned guitars and bass sound.
So here we have another discovery from Sweden, the country that has so much more to offer than Pippi Longstockings and Abba. Listen to this CD!
Lords of Metal
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
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
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
Sunday, September 27, 2009
8/10 Sweden Rock Magazine #65
The album got 8 out of 10 in the new issue of Sweden Rock Magazine. There's also an interview with Micke next to the review.
8/10
Många band gör musik som ska låta på ett visst sätt. Switch Opens musik låter på sitt sätt, och det höjer dem över mängden.
Trummisen dyrkar The Police. Ena gitarristen har Van Halen som husgudar, medan den andre tillbringar huvuddelen av dagen inne i sitt huvud tillsammans med Hawkwind. Sångaren och basisten, Jesper Skarin, hyllar Megadeth och spelar trummor med technosnubben i The Field. Ni hör ju själva. Detta är helt jävla sjukt! I stället för musik: förvirring? Nej, inte alls.
Efter att tidigare ha hetat Fingerspitzengefühl och släppt två rejält spretiga men svinbra album har bandet äntligen hittat hem. Det schizofrena uttrycket har kokats ned till vad de gör bäst: de vänder ut och in på tyngden. Ändå är detta deras mest varierade album. Det händer saker hela tiden. Udda trumkomp, fantastiska sånginsatser, psykedeliska gitarrsjok och basfetma som berör både fysiskt och psykiskt – dessa fyra hjältar torde kunna rädda världen!
Produktionen är både taggigt trasig och mjuk som ett duntäcke. Bergsmassiv och genomskinlig. Man fattar inte riktigt hur det har gått till, men de har som sagt hittat hem.
Årets tripp? Fuglesangs fjuttiga rymdresa är en spottloska i havet.
- Mattias Indy Pettersson
4/5 Groove #7
GGGG
Sedan år 2000 har detta manskap släppt ett par plattor under namnet Fingerspitzengefühl. Förra året tröttnade de på att folk varken kunde uttala eller stava namnet och sadlade om till betydligt anonymare Switch Opens. Medlemmarna är desamma och de har inte heller ändrat sitt musikaliska koncept nämnvärt. Det stökar ordentligt och svävar iväg med samma självklarhet. Helt enkelt en väldigt tilltalande brygd av metal och rock som jag mer än gärna skulle vilja möta i en livesituation. Flumgungiga Super globe of pain lutar i nuläget åt skivans bästa låt.
- Roger Bengtsson
Monday, September 21, 2009
Express Death live at Debaser
From the release party at Debaser, Stockholm on September 17th. Sorry about the weird sound during the first two minutes...
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Screening for vengeance
Now here's a special treat for you! Yesterday we screen printed a bunch of t-shirts and bags for the release party. Very limited edition for this occasion! The master mind and artist behind it all is the mighty Magnus Öhrn, courtesy of Shirts of Satan. It might look like Tomas and I (Micke, not to be confused with Nosferatu) are doing the work on the pictures, but we are just his simple slaves.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
