Album: Innocence and Decadence
Year: 2015
Rating: 83/100
The last few years have seen a steady upward curve happen for Graveyard. The Gothenburg quartet have built a reputation for being consistently good on record and outstanding live, and when the evidence points to the likes of "Hisingen Blues", "Lights Out" and their eponymous self titled effort, it's hard not to disagree. "Innocence and Decadence" is their fourth effort, and is another slab of 70s throwback rock, built on towering riffs and vocalist and guitarist Joakim Nilsson's wail.
The album opens in tremendous rapid fire fashion with the opening four tracks whistling by in just under 15 minutes. "Magnetic Shunk" roars into life almost unexpectedly, in much the same way as "Ain't Fit To Live Here" on Hisingen Blues, while "Apple and the Tree" sounds almost as if it was influenced by "Bad Reputation" era Thin Lizzy. "Exit 97" is the only one of the opening four tracks where they slow things down a little, but it still feels like it's over far too quickly. "Never Theirs To Sell", on the other hand, is the shortest track, but is short enough to get its point across. Elsewhere, returning bass player Truls Morck, who played guitar in the original line up and actually sang the original recordings of debut album songs "Blue Soul" and "As the Years Pass By, The Hours Bend", takes up the vocal reins on "From A Hole In The Wall", "Can't Walk Out" features a belter of an outro and the bluesy as hell "Far Too Close" is taken up by Jonatan Ramm on lead vocals.
"Innocence and Decadence" may not be an album that's going to set the world alight, but it shows us that Graveyard are a band that are very good at what they do. It won't win them a massive amount of new fans, but it will definitely please the ones they already have.
Track list:
- Magnetic Shunk
- Apple and the Tree
- Exit 97
- Never Theirs To Sell
- Can't Walk Out
- Too Much Is Not Enough
- From A Hole In The Wall
- Cause and Defect
- Hard-Headed
- Far Too Close
- Stay For A Song
No comments:
Post a Comment