The Viking in the Wilderness - reviews and news

(44:42; April Records) Track list: 1. Birds 4:20 2. Posterity 5:39 3. Behind the Walls 3:46 4. Clouds 6:00 5. Anthem 2:40 6. Tapestry of Life 3:52 7. Like a Sparrow 3:06 8. Two Track 5:33 9. Twain Walking 5:40 10. Ripples 4:06 Line-up: Lis Wessberg - trombone Steen Rasmussen - Fender Rhodes, Moog, synthesizers, piano Lennart Ginman - bass, electronics Jeppe Gram - drums with: Karmen Roivassepp - vocals Danish artist Lis Wessberg is a well established and well known musician both in her home land as well as in jazz circles internationally, although her focus appears to have been to be a musician rather than a creator for most of her career. For the past few years she has also expanded her repertoire into becoming a proper solo artist, with two solo albums to her name so far. "Twain Walking" is the most recent of these, and was released through the label April Records in the spring of 2024. I was delighted with the music I encountered on Wessberg's first solo album when tha...

(47:56; M&O Music) Track list: 1. And Then There Was Silence 2:04 2. No Tomorrow 5:37 3. Brief Is the Light 6:04 4. As Life Fades 5:03 5. Stolen Seasons 4:04 6. Her Wounded Soul 5:38 7. A Voice in the Dark 5:14 8. The Neverending Journey 5:54 9. Dreaming of Oblivion 5:48 10. And I Return to Nothingness 2:30 Line-up: Mathieu Bonfardin - drums Thibault Rousseau - bass Jonathan Prudhomme - guitars Frederic Paume - guitars Anne Soazig Couëdel - vocals French band Near Death Experience is the creative vehicle of composer and musician Mathieu Bonfardin, and from 2021 and onwards he has developed material for this venture. The end result of this creative process is the album "Brief Is the Light" which was released through French label M&O Music in the spring of 2024. While the material for this album has been created by one person, the band leader has assembled a proper band to record the material for this album and obviously also in order to be able to be a proper live ban...

(40:57; Prophone) Track list: 1. Turning Point 6:31 2. Strive 5:27 3. The Space Between 4:03 4. No Man's Land 5:59 5. Moving On 7:10 6. The Old House 3:44 7. No Worries 4:25 8. Fragments 3:38 Line-up: Adam Forkelid - piano Carl Mörner Ringström - guitars Niklas Fernqvist - bass Daniel Fredriksson - drums Swedish artist Adam Forkelid has been an active recording artist for two decades or thereabouts, with a number of band projects and cooperations under his belt in addition to nurturing a career as a solo artist since he released his debut album "Cirkel" back in 2005. This spring he released his new solo album "Turning Point" through Swedish label Prophone and, if I have understood this correctly, distributed by the Naxos label. While I guess there is a specific subset of jazz that this album should be filed under, I'm not well versed enough in this part of the music universe to pinpoint this exactly. For my sake I'd describe this as mainly piano dominate...

(52:18; Fastball Music) Track list: 1. I Am the Storm 5:37 2. Strike of the Cobra 4:51 3. Midnight Hunter 4:41 4. This Is the Way 5:00 5. Evil Dead 4:59 6. Spartan War-Cry 5:31 7. Steelbladed Avenger 4:12 8. Master & Commander 4:19 9. Burn with Me 4:45 10. Blade of Glory 8:23 Line-up: Kai Hagemann - vocals, keyboards, programming Zacharias Drosos - guitars, backing vocals Nino Helfrich - guitars, backing vocals Thies Jacobsen - drums, backing vocals Rich Gray - bass with: Corinna Hoefeld-Jacobsen - trumpet Timo Höcke - backing vocals Petr Kröninger - backing vocals Helge Paulsen - backing vocals Marcel Fünkner - backing vocals Marc Neubauer - backing vocals German band Inner Axis have been around for 15 years or thereabouts, in addition to a prehistory under a different moniker that goes back to the end of the 1990s. Under their current band name they have three albums to their name, with their debut appearing back in 2011 and the follow-up appearing in 2017. For the past three yea...

(44:30; M&O Music) Track list: 1. Adios Motherfucker 2:54 2. Stroke of Midnight 3:59 3. Dead End Situation 3:56 4. Wearing Black 3:52 5. The Irish Punk 4:26 6. Living Hopeless 3:58 7. In My Head 3:57 8. Our Paradise 3:40 9. Budd's World 4:08 10. Tall Can Lovers 3:55 11. Silly TV Shows 2:32 12. The Last One 3:13 Line-up: Max Ducat - vocals, guitars Theo Mattera - guitars Julien Maleuvre - bass Alex Ortega - drums French band Fifty One have been around for close to a decade at this point, with an initial EP to their name released back in 2020 and with a small handful of singles to their name as well. At the start of 2024 they signed up to Frenchy label M&O Music for the release of their full length debut album "Love/Hate". The promotion for this album points towards something called the California scene and name-drops bands such as Blink 182 and Sum 41 as possible points of reference. While I have heard about the latter two without being overly familiar with them, t...

(15:43; M&O Music) Track list: 1. I Won't Start a Fight 3:50 2. Ghost Is a Woman 4:03 3. I Don't Feel Like Not Dancing 3:36 4. Scaring Myself 4:14 Line-up: Ben Patigny - vocals JP Devox - guitars, vocals Vincent Fis - guitars Jean-Philippe Dirix - bass Marcus Weymaere - drums with: Didier Dessers - piano, strings Belgian band Riffless was formed back in 2020, and self-released their debut album two years after the official band formation. I understand that this first outing by the band was given a positive reception, which presumably is why the band is now attached to a label. This spring Riffless are back with four new songs that have been released as the EP "Ghost Is a Woman" through French label M&O Music. While the band name does suggest otherwise, this is an EP that is filled with quite a lot of guitar riffs. In this case by a band that by and large stays away from the classic metal territories though, and that instead have chosen hard rock as their speci...

(4:20; SelfMadeRecords) Track list: 1. Subterfuge 4:20 Line-up: Jonzey Dood - bass Dogbite Dood - drums Indiana Dood - guitars Raynus Dood - guitars Brian Amoroso - vocals US band The D.O.O.D. have been around for a couple of decades at this point, and from 2017 and onward they have been releasing new material at a steady pace with one EP, three full length albums and a number of singles to their name. The band is now out with the single "Subterfuge", which was released through the label SelfMadeRecords. What we get here is a fairly expressive variety of what I'd describe as 80s era thrash metal. We get some instrumental parts that flirt a bit with more classic heavy metal, but once the verse and the vocals kicks in we are placed inside of a foundation and a context that gives me associations to classic era Nuclear Assault in many ways, albeit perhaps not quite as hectic as this legendary band had a tendency to be back in the day. We then switch over to an arguably more t...