Graveyard – Hisingen Blues

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Sweden’s best retro-rockers haven’t moved on very far from their 2008 self-titled debut, and this new effort is very much “part two” of that set of songs, all carved from the exact same ’70s blues rock blueprint taking a massive amount of their cues from Cream and adding in more than a little Led Zeppelin. Their influences are not hard to spot, and they don’t make much of an effort at all to get away from them, but within that outer shell of sounds they are creating something that is unmistakably Graveyard. Like a bluesier version of The Answer, with a lot more feeling and a lot better songs, some of the tracks here are undeniably passionate and carry with them a tangible hint of the effort the band have put in to make the songs as good as they could. Uncomfortably Numb will take the headlines for its incredibly poignant lyrics about relationships which almost any listener will be able to identify with, but the true example of the musical emotion Graveyard have tried to convey with Hisingen Blues is No Good, Mr Holden which constantly builds and retracts layers of energy and feeling and is the album’s stand-out track. Unwavering spaghetti western instrumental Longing somehow remains strangely compelling for nearly five minutes (a ready-made concert intro tape) while RSS and Ungrateful Are The Dead present the strongest similarities so far to Americans Rose Hill Drive. Six-minute close The Siren again drips with lyrical and musical sincerity as the previous strongest moments of the album have done. They may not have evolved yet, but they have matured considerably and 2011 will be hard pushed to deliver a better classic rock record all year.

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2011, Albums, Hard Rock, Quick.Play Reviews, Graveyard