Haltefanden Naar man taler om Trolden • Playing time 25.00 minutes

Tracklisting:

1. Trolden
   
2. Feber
3. Klaffernes Tunge
4. Onde Hjerter
5. Krisen Krasser
6. Kragernes Fest
7. Smuk Hals
   

Haltefanden is another Danish quartet from Copenhagen. But Kim Fredriksen (drums), Jes Larsen (rhythm guitars, vocals), Lars Mårtensson (bass) and Palle Sohrbeck (lead guitars, vocals) offers the thriving national scene something quite original ... they dubbed their band with an old Danish word for the Devil, this name often used in fairy and folk tales when he appears in the human world ... and they're not here to be kind.

Musically it is the at a glance odd but then again not so far fetched mixture of most notably grunge, hardcore and punk with the occasional nod at metal, thrash metal and plain, simple rock 'n' roll. They digress even further from the mainstream by insisting in writing and singing (shouting) in Danish, which is a good choice, judged by what I hear here. It certainly is a breath of fresh air ...

The overall picture is seven down and dirty, sharp, short and tight songs, often fast and furious, but with space for breaks, a changing in the pace both ways and the occasional solos, all in perfect combination. Musically irreproachabel, but the songs could do with a bit more variation on the vocals - as all this shouting gets a little tiring - and lyrically I believe they have the abilty to go even further.

That is to say, that Haltefanden at this point easily blend a modern day spoken Danish with an older, otherwise soon-forgotten vocabulary, referring in one place even to our famous fairy tale writer H. C. Andersen. Needless to say, that they already by this have something a bit different to offer. They clearly aim to offence, scare and shock, but their rather delicate way with the pen makes it somewhat pleasurable at the same time. I could do without the adolescent rape fantasy found in "Smukke Hals", ghoulish, for sure, but also too easy, too queasy. No, I don't mind the macabre stuff, but I encourage (come on, now) them to grow up and use their weapon with a bit more consideration ... in other words: You can do better than this ...!

Four of the seven tracks calls for special attention:

Opening and title track "Trolden" (=The Troll) hits you like the proverbial kick in the head and is proof of everything good the band has to offer: The tribal like drumming sounding a bit shallow, lots of energy, fast riffing, endless changes of the pace, and shouted vocal with more than your middle of the road lyrics to boast from; they display a great sense of the supernatural in the real world.

"Onde Hjerter" (=Evil Hearts) has a beautiful, slow paced, very Metallica-like break half way through and it's pure pleasure to hear how they have managed to blend it in to and with their own style.

Lyrically is "Krisen Krasser" (~the crises is beginning to bite) not up to level with the rest, and I'm not at all referring to the slight misspelling in the title ... for some reason that seems intentional. But musically this - almost the shortest track on the DEMO - is also by far the most experimental; especially the vocals differs significantly from the rest of the album.

Best track of the whole lot is "Kragernes Fest" (~feast of the crows), an almost non-stopable up-tempo piece of the kind that not only possible can but most certainly will tear buildings apart from the inside out, and the veritable shark bite sharp prose to boot. It is excellent ... and for me a guideline for their future work, not least lyrically.

Haltefanden can be examined closely at MySpace; hear the complete DEMO plus a handful of new songs written in succession to the documented recording sessions. If so inclined & intrigued then Naar man taler om Trolden can be downloaded for free at their site at bandbase.dk. It is something else and very enjoyable now, at this point, but I believe they hold the possibilty to expand to exceptional or beyond.

Death Rides a Horse Death Rides a Horse • Playing time 15.50 minutes

Tracklisting:

1. Death Rides a Horse
2. Necronaut

Death Rides a Horse is a Danish quartet hailing out of our capital, Copenhagen. The setup is pretty much your traditional rock outfit, bass played by Ida, drums by Anders and two guitars, by Jens and Kenneth, with the small noticeable twist, that the bass-player is also the vocalist and female. No surnames available at the time of the review.

The band seems forcefully driven by love for classic rock and very heavy metal and that devotion shines through on their just recently released and self titled DEMO, which dispite only having two tracks runs for nearly sixteen minutes.

On "Death Rides a Horse" the band's elsewhere quoted inspirarations like Black Sabbath, Down and Metallica - among other - become evident already by the strong opening riff, which very well could have been co-written and approved by the riff-master himself, Tony Iommi. This lays down a nice, slow doom-laden foundation for the track, upon which most the next nine minutes is built. The up tempo break about half way through sounds great, but feels a bit contrived and out of place, but the even slower pacing towards the end is serving the piece perfectly.

"Necronaut" is logically a bit shorter, but also somewhat more experimenting with a much better use of the double, the dueling guitars. It is still doomy in its core, but notably faster than the titletrack and actually has a lighter mood, not least thanks to the incongruous second guitar, despite the appearant lyrical obsession with death.

I think it is quite safe to say, that while Death Rides a Horse sounds tight, tried and tested from many and long hours in the rehearsal room, it is also clear they have listened to a lot of music of this sort, they do love it, and now they bring their version of it to town. They have perhaps yet to find an their own unique musical identity. They are certainly not originals. But they're not merely copycats either.

Both songs have a down and dirty sound, the shabby garage type of filthy, and that is really sweet music to my ears.

But especially the vocals make DRaH stand out, though it will be a required taste for sure. The production/raw mix/recording places her at a distance and I must admit, that I initially dismissed them completely exactly because of that, but ... come time and a thousand listenings I must say that she does wonders for the music.

Death Rides a Horse have just made yet another two songs available at their MySpace-page: "A Unified Vision" and "Coronal Mass Ejection". Musically both fits what's on the DEMO quite nicely, but the band have very wisely drawn Ida's fierce, forceful, frightening voice a bit forward.

In very short: This is like Black Sabbath with a female singer ... in the year 2009? Oh, very interesting, I think, and to be followed closely.