By Andrew Bansal
Swedish heavy metal band Black Trip, comprising two current members of Enforcer and former members of bands such as Entombed, Nifelheim and more, released their debut album Goin’ Under in Europe in 2013 and charted at number 20 in Sweden. The effort finally saw an official North American release via Prosthetic Records in August 2014. The band was originally formed in 2003 but wasn’t actively working together until 2011, and this record signifies the true launch of this group of versatile musicians pursuing a style of music markedly more vintage than any of their other projects.
Righteous twin guitar harmonies and vocals reminiscent of Paul Di’Anno and Phil Lynott hit the listener’s ears right from the get-go through the extremely catchy opening tune ‘Voodoo Queen’ and remain a constant feature of this 35-minute album, which makes it an instant classic amongst fans of classic heavy metal. Good clean singing, specially of the mid to low-pitched variety, is a commodity that gets rarer day by day and is mostly a lost art in the modern world of metal, the efforts of singers like Black Trip’s Joseph Tholl all the more appreciable as a result. Guitarist in Enforcer, Tholl is able to express himself with great freedom as vocalist in Black Trip’s five-piece setup. Guitar work by Peter Stjärnvind and Sebastian Ramstedt features expertly crafted melodies and solos delivered through crystal clear tones, and in combination with the vocals forms a long-lasting impact on the listener.
While ‘Voodoo Queen’ plays the most important role as the opening track, songs like ‘Radar’, ‘No Tomorrow’, ‘Tvar Dabla’ and ‘Goin Under’ stand out for the transitions within each of them, but at 35 minutes the album is certainly short enough to be listened to in entirety by those of us that still listen to albums and press ‘play’ instead of ‘shuffle’. Some might call Black Trip a revivalist band and perhaps rightly so, but their execution of the classic hard rock/heavy metal sound is undeniably worthwhile.
Plenty such ‘new wave of traditional heavy metal’ bands popped up in the recent few years and after an album cycle or two, faded away into oblivion, clearly lacking any long-term vision or aim. Black Trip’s music is definitely enjoyable but it would be a pleasant change from the trend if they were to go on to deliver this music with the same power in the live setting all over the world and carry on doing it beyond a mere few years. And while Black Trip plot a grand plan to do just that, crank this debut record of theirs loud and bask in some unadulterated old-school metal.
Rating: 9/10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6Km4ERGlx8
Record Label:
Prosthetic Records (USA)
SPV/Steamhammer (Europe)
Release Date: August 19th 2014 (USA)
Track Listing:
1. Voodoo Queen
2. Radar
3. Putting Out The Fire
4. No Tomorrow
5. Tvar Dabla
6. The Bells
7. Thirst
8. Goin’ Under