Backdraft - This Heaven Goes To Eleven
This is the third album from this Swedish band. I haven’t come across these guys before and given that they are Swedish, it is a bit of surprise when the opening track, ‘Idiot’, comes across like a punk version of Molly Hatchet - maybe Molly Hatchet meets Motörhead would be a better description. Going back and checking on their earlier albums I see that Southern Metal that been the description given.
As the album progresses, I note down descriptions such a blues, blues boogie, southern rock, but these guys combine a mixtures of styles that makes it quite hard to pin a definite label on them.
Getting the negative out of the way to start with, I found the duo of ‘Stand’ and ‘No Love’, verging on the annoying. Not sure what it is that irks me about them, but in the case of ‘No Love’, it is a uptempo track that never really goes anywhere.
These are followed by ‘Wheel Of Fortune’ which has the band taking things easier and hitting a groove not dissimilar to ZZ Top. Later on ‘The King of Diesel’ is a good uptempo track that reminds me again of Molly Hatchet, or maybe even Nazareth or Gillan doing ‘New Orleans’. Keeping up the momentum, the band close the album with a mixture of blues, funk and Southern Rock on ‘Out Of Here’, finishing on a high note.