Rise And Shine – Empty Hand

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Sweden’s Rise And Shine are now entering their 18th year as a band but new disc Empty Hands is only their fouth full-length album of their self-dubbed “flower power metal” in that time. Although they’ve always cited their influences as bands like Black Sabbath, Pentagram and just about any band fronted by Scott Weinrich, Rise And Shine’s music isn’t at all doomy. It’s not even that heavy. What it is is grooving, 1970s inspired hard rock. There’s some Pentagram in there, but they’re much closer to Firebird than they are Trouble. Musically there are a lot of great riffs here, and some superb solos from guitarists Joakim Knutsson and Daniel Josefsson, but all their good work is let down by the vocals. Josabeth Leidi’s voice doesn’t entirely suite the music, and certainly isn’t what would ordinarily be expected to arrive following the storming groove riffing of opener Empty Hand, but any initially unquited voice and grow on a listener. Indeed far worse a problem is her appalling anunciation. Seemingly intent on sounding like Janis Joplin, she makes every song sound like several minutes of slightly-sleepy moaning, never more so than on the acoustic-driven Dirty Tricks and closer Too Much, Too Fast, Too Loud. At times she isn’t even as intilligible as a lot of death metal vocalists. It’s a shame that such promising rock music is let down in such a way, because her tone does work, it’s just impossible to get into any of the songs because only one word in every ten makes sense.

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2011, Albums, Hard Rock, Quick.Play Reviews, Rise And Shine