Rating: 8,5/10
Although this release marks the debut effort for Switch Opens, a little further investigation reveals that this Stockholm-based act actually started out under the name of Fingerspitzengefühl. But after two full-length albums (2004’s self-titled effort and 2006’s Happy Doomsday), the group soon realised that if they were ever going to be accepted on a world scale, a change of name was called for.
Three years on, and the newly named Switch Opens (comprising of vocalist/bassist Jesper Skarin, guitarists Tomas Bergstrand and Mikael Tuominen and drummer Anders Bartonek) have returned with their latest effort, and once again it’s a strange journey through a whole host of sounds and influences that are difficult to pigeonhole into any one particular genre box.
If you were to lump a broad musical tag on this group, it would most likely be stoner rock. But Switch Opens aren’t what you would call the average stoner rock band in the vein of Kyuss, early Monster Magnet or early Queens Of The Stone Age. While there are some similarities with the mentioned acts, Switch Opens does manage to incorporate a greater sense of experimentalism into their sound, with touches of psychedelic rock, progressive rock and even a bit of punk being incorporated into their overall sound. While on paper it sounds like a complete mess, on CD, Switch Opens manage to make it work like a charm.
The opening track “Express Death” certainly lives up to part of its name, with the bass leading the charge in terms of a fast tempo. The swirling guitars provide some nice sounding space-like effects in the background, while Skarin’s vocals provide enough melody and aggression to give the song a strong sense of catchiness.
Despite its length, the slower and more Mastodon-like “Pyramids” is a strong track, with the band providing enough twists and turns throughout to keep things interesting, while raucous and rather impressive “Paper Walls” introduces a greater punk rock edge to the band’s sound, before transforming into a huge riffing space rock extravaganza for its concluding half.
“He Dives Down” is by far the most experimental and eclectic offering on the album, with twin harmonised guitars, acoustic guitars and a rumbling bass line throughout pitted against distorted vocals, while the shorter Black Sabbath riffed “Lucky Me, Lucky You” is a huge ball of energetic rock.
While most of the album works, there are a couple of tracks that don’t quite measure up. At just over nine minutes long, “Terra Incognita” tends to drag on a little (even if it does have some great ideas), while “Super Globe Of Pain” is a little plodding in places. But despite a couple of less than stellar moments, the band finishes up the album in a strong manner with the rocking “The Electric Hour.”
Unlike a lot of stoner acts, Switch Opens manage to think outside the box, and incorporate a whole host of influences into their sound, making them one of the most interesting acts within the scene. Switch Opens’ debut may not be entirely consistent from start to finish, but there’s more than enough here to make it interesting and worth checking out.
By: Justin Donnelly
Blistering.com
Monday, January 11, 2010
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Interview with Jesper and Anders in Swedish radio
Jesper and Anders were interviewed by Håkan Persson at P3 Rock about the latest album and the nomination for P3 Guld, the Swedish national radio music awards. Switch Opens are nominated in the category Rock/Metal Of The Year.
Listen to the interview at P3 Rock.
Listen to the interview at P3 Rock.
Review from The Metal Observer
Rating: 8/10
There are days when you sit up until late at night and you simply do not have any interest to go to bed, urinate or eat, even though you feel the desperate need to do such. Well what do you do in a time like that? Look for a doctor and get checked up for insomnia? Contemplate which album you're going to listen to next? Masturbate? There are a lot of possibilities on how to carry on with your feeble life, one of them is to simply take it easy, clear your head and listen to some decent harmless stoner music. That's where Sweden's newcomer SWITCH OPENS comes into function to take you to their own personal chill-out-zone.
Stoner Rock/Metal has always been a peculiar scene, with a lot of ups and downs in the music, sometimes really really hard to differentiate between the "Doom" side and the actual "Stoner" side. As early as SABBATH, the music was designed to take you through the darkest hallways of your mind and disconnect you from anything that bothered you. It's interesting that although so much time has passed, the basic formula still works for the typical slow style of music. As other styles, it has developed alongside its parallel evolution with gadgets and digital mastering/rendering/whatever to a sea of unlimited possibilities where even the most abstract imagination can be translated into something audible.
SWITCH OPEN's' debut, which is another brainchild of the 21st century is actually a pretty good start for a new band, easily securing the path to a bright future. The gimmicks are there, the use of modern electronics is omnipresent and creates that dramatic post-modern feeling modern music should incorporate, but something floats about in the overall feeling that makes you wonder about a couple of things. One aspect is the really strange, almost Nu-Metal-ish approach to Stoner Metal. The vocals are quite weak sometimes and resemble either a dog ("Paper Walls"), a screamo attempt or simply "KoRn". Apart from some regressive deliveries, the vocals are overall decent, with a nice rasp to them and fit with the rest of the music nicely, mostly when he doesn't try to scream, but varies between a relatively clean singing to a sort of half-sung rasp. The songs themselves, to be more exact: the instrumental parts, create most of the creepy and eerie atmosphere that will grasp you by the neck and pull you down. The music sometimes reminds me of a mixture between Desert Rock classics such as KYUSS or QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, but have a heavier feeling to them, while still keeping their subliminal message. A definite good start and interesting future awaits these Swedish warriors.
The Metal Observer
There are days when you sit up until late at night and you simply do not have any interest to go to bed, urinate or eat, even though you feel the desperate need to do such. Well what do you do in a time like that? Look for a doctor and get checked up for insomnia? Contemplate which album you're going to listen to next? Masturbate? There are a lot of possibilities on how to carry on with your feeble life, one of them is to simply take it easy, clear your head and listen to some decent harmless stoner music. That's where Sweden's newcomer SWITCH OPENS comes into function to take you to their own personal chill-out-zone.
Stoner Rock/Metal has always been a peculiar scene, with a lot of ups and downs in the music, sometimes really really hard to differentiate between the "Doom" side and the actual "Stoner" side. As early as SABBATH, the music was designed to take you through the darkest hallways of your mind and disconnect you from anything that bothered you. It's interesting that although so much time has passed, the basic formula still works for the typical slow style of music. As other styles, it has developed alongside its parallel evolution with gadgets and digital mastering/rendering/whatever to a sea of unlimited possibilities where even the most abstract imagination can be translated into something audible.
SWITCH OPEN's' debut, which is another brainchild of the 21st century is actually a pretty good start for a new band, easily securing the path to a bright future. The gimmicks are there, the use of modern electronics is omnipresent and creates that dramatic post-modern feeling modern music should incorporate, but something floats about in the overall feeling that makes you wonder about a couple of things. One aspect is the really strange, almost Nu-Metal-ish approach to Stoner Metal. The vocals are quite weak sometimes and resemble either a dog ("Paper Walls"), a screamo attempt or simply "KoRn". Apart from some regressive deliveries, the vocals are overall decent, with a nice rasp to them and fit with the rest of the music nicely, mostly when he doesn't try to scream, but varies between a relatively clean singing to a sort of half-sung rasp. The songs themselves, to be more exact: the instrumental parts, create most of the creepy and eerie atmosphere that will grasp you by the neck and pull you down. The music sometimes reminds me of a mixture between Desert Rock classics such as KYUSS or QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, but have a heavier feeling to them, while still keeping their subliminal message. A definite good start and interesting future awaits these Swedish warriors.
The Metal Observer
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Review from Kinda Muzik (Holland)
Hoewel Neurosis Switch Opens (voorheen Fingerspitzengefühl) omarmd heeft, valt het Zweedse viertal niet onder de enorme groep klonen van de aanvoerder van het genre. Switch Opens is te eigenzinnig om slechts te volgen, wat niet automatisch een positie als grote leider garandeert.
Aanvankelijk laat de band zich maar moeilijk taggen. Melodie voert de boventoon in het zeven minuten durende postpunkpareltje 'Express Death', dat op de voet gevolgd wordt door een stevige Crowbar flirt in 'Pyramids'. Gaandeweg zetelt Switch Opens zich in de mid-tempo regionen, daarbij constant wakend om niet op te gaan in de postmetalmassa. Liever ziet de band zich in gezelschap van Unsane, als we de ritmesectie mogen geloven.
Het titelloze album levert behalve tempo ook aan kracht in. De eerste drie nummers komen hard binnen en tonen de meerdere gezichten van de band. Aan die geslaagde serie openingsstoten weet men maar mondjesmaat gevolg te geven, wat resulteert in niemendalletjes 'Terra Incognita' en 'Superglobe of Pain'. Samen met de ritmesectie is vocalist Jesper Skarin degene die Switch Opens het hoofd boven water houdt. Zijn stemgeluid is de kameleon die zich probleemloos aanpast aan een nummer, zonder zangkwaliteiten te camoufleren.
Switch Opens bezit het magische verrassingselement dat nodig is om de oren van een geoefende luisteraar te spitsen. Bij een volgend album is het zaak om de aandacht niet te laten verslappen, zodat zwakke schakels overboord kunnen.
Tekst: Ruud van Esch
Kinda Muzik
Aanvankelijk laat de band zich maar moeilijk taggen. Melodie voert de boventoon in het zeven minuten durende postpunkpareltje 'Express Death', dat op de voet gevolgd wordt door een stevige Crowbar flirt in 'Pyramids'. Gaandeweg zetelt Switch Opens zich in de mid-tempo regionen, daarbij constant wakend om niet op te gaan in de postmetalmassa. Liever ziet de band zich in gezelschap van Unsane, als we de ritmesectie mogen geloven.
Het titelloze album levert behalve tempo ook aan kracht in. De eerste drie nummers komen hard binnen en tonen de meerdere gezichten van de band. Aan die geslaagde serie openingsstoten weet men maar mondjesmaat gevolg te geven, wat resulteert in niemendalletjes 'Terra Incognita' en 'Superglobe of Pain'. Samen met de ritmesectie is vocalist Jesper Skarin degene die Switch Opens het hoofd boven water houdt. Zijn stemgeluid is de kameleon die zich probleemloos aanpast aan een nummer, zonder zangkwaliteiten te camoufleren.
Switch Opens bezit het magische verrassingselement dat nodig is om de oren van een geoefende luisteraar te spitsen. Bij een volgend album is het zaak om de aandacht niet te laten verslappen, zodat zwakke schakels overboord kunnen.
Tekst: Ruud van Esch
Kinda Muzik
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Nomination for P3 Guld
Switch Opens are nominated for P3 Guld, the swedish national radio music awards, in the category rock/metal of the year. The awards will be held at Scandinavium in Gothenburg on January 19th and will also be broadcast on national television.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Review from Musicxtra (UK)
I thought Switch Opens from Stockholm, had a terrible name until I discovered that they were originally called FINGERSPITZENGEFÜHL. But what’s in a name eh?
Switch Opens' first eponymous release - although they recorded two albums with their unpronounceable name - is an impressively downbeat stomping affair combining extended musical workouts, as most songs are around the seven minute mark, with an accessible groove and a combo of clean and barked vocals.
Opener Express Death is driven along by a pounding Motorhead-esque bass riff and a catchy vocal line, and it’s instantly apparent that the band has been playing together for a while, as they change gears through various grooves, and through extended riffage workouts, let the music evolve.
Pyramids is a heavy brooding song, while He Dives Down has an amazing melodic instrumental break that comes unexpectedly from amid a slowburning grind of sludgy bass guitar.
Lucky Me, Lucky You is a stand out track, and is probably as close as they come to traditional rock norms, with a chugging main guitar strum, and some melodic breaks, but it is still leftfield sounding compared to the run-of-the-mill rock music around now!
The Electric Hour boasts some great drum patterns that remind me of Tool.
Musically they excel in atonal doomy rhythmic forms, and squeeze the most potential out of their riffs, by having them grind on for minutes at a time without vocal interference. There aren’t a lot of lead guitar breaks or flashy solo spots, but everyone mucks in to keep the bands engine ticking along nicely.
It’s not easy to classify which genre Switch Opens belong. They hark back almost to prog sensibilities in that they play extended arrangements of their riffs and throw in unexpected musical direction changes. But they also remind me of the sludgy days of grunge, with their bass heavy riffing and plodding pace, and even throw in a catchy vocal line or two, such as on Super Globe of Pain.
They aren’t particularly modern sounding, but they are still a breath of fresh air when compared to the repetitive formulaic dross around in music at the moment.
If you are looking for something a little different from the mainstream, then Switch Opens are a highly recommended alternative to the norm. As much as I dug this album, the long passages of bass-laden, doomy riffage that make up the bulk of their material may not be to some people’s tastes.
Stoners however need look no further!
by Steven Hargraves
Musicxtra
Switch Opens' first eponymous release - although they recorded two albums with their unpronounceable name - is an impressively downbeat stomping affair combining extended musical workouts, as most songs are around the seven minute mark, with an accessible groove and a combo of clean and barked vocals.
Opener Express Death is driven along by a pounding Motorhead-esque bass riff and a catchy vocal line, and it’s instantly apparent that the band has been playing together for a while, as they change gears through various grooves, and through extended riffage workouts, let the music evolve.
Pyramids is a heavy brooding song, while He Dives Down has an amazing melodic instrumental break that comes unexpectedly from amid a slowburning grind of sludgy bass guitar.
Lucky Me, Lucky You is a stand out track, and is probably as close as they come to traditional rock norms, with a chugging main guitar strum, and some melodic breaks, but it is still leftfield sounding compared to the run-of-the-mill rock music around now!
The Electric Hour boasts some great drum patterns that remind me of Tool.
Musically they excel in atonal doomy rhythmic forms, and squeeze the most potential out of their riffs, by having them grind on for minutes at a time without vocal interference. There aren’t a lot of lead guitar breaks or flashy solo spots, but everyone mucks in to keep the bands engine ticking along nicely.
It’s not easy to classify which genre Switch Opens belong. They hark back almost to prog sensibilities in that they play extended arrangements of their riffs and throw in unexpected musical direction changes. But they also remind me of the sludgy days of grunge, with their bass heavy riffing and plodding pace, and even throw in a catchy vocal line or two, such as on Super Globe of Pain.
They aren’t particularly modern sounding, but they are still a breath of fresh air when compared to the repetitive formulaic dross around in music at the moment.
If you are looking for something a little different from the mainstream, then Switch Opens are a highly recommended alternative to the norm. As much as I dug this album, the long passages of bass-laden, doomy riffage that make up the bulk of their material may not be to some people’s tastes.
Stoners however need look no further!
by Steven Hargraves
Musicxtra
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