Published on Nov 20, 2003
Writing and recording a follow-up album to one that should have
broken a band is a daunting task. This can be especially true when
there’s an obsessed listener out there that possesses the power of
the pen.
In the case of the Norwegian hardcore punk band Amulet, its
recent third full-length release
Danger! Danger! finds itself in the position of cultivating
the band’s hardcore bad boy image. Where the band’s sophomore
effort
Freedom Fighters had lead singer Torgny Amdam mixing in
small doses of melody to supplement his temperamental rage on
stage, it became obvious that he was still pretty damn adept at
playing the part of the antagonizing voice of the band; that is,
the voice that every hardcore punk band needs and which fits Amulet
like a form-fitting glove.
So after giving
Freedom Fighters and Amulet’s first album
The Burning Sphere homes in my CD changer for the better
part of the past year or so, I spent the last three months trying
to get my hands on this album. Not an easy task when the band’s
webpage was being overhauled, negating the obvious information
flow. Turns out this album was released in Norway first back in
early October with a broader European release only scheduled for
last week. Perseverance paid off for me by way of a friend of mine
in Sweden mailing me this album the week it came out. (If you’re
reading this, Jorgen, I thank you once again!)
Well, the album jacket has individual photo shots of the five
guys in the band sporting bloody noses, battered eyes, and cut
lips. This leaves me a believer that this quintet has understood
the importance of bringing the street credibility factor into the
equation, but you might be asking yourself, are the songs equal to
the task?
I’ve got to be honest and say that after a month of spinning
Danger! Danger! I’m finding it’s a mixed bag we’ve got
here.
The first single “Breaking News” benefits from several split
tempos and the anchor of drummer Jonas Thire’s backbeat procession.
“Nine Lives” would be the better choice in my book, though, with
the searing opening guitar work from Lars Rasmussen and Espen
Follestad complementing the spastic vocals of Amdam. It’s the
lit-match syndrome here, as the axe-work more than ignites Amdam to
hyperactively resonate at his best.
Otherwise, the other songs on
Danger! Danger! don’t inspire the same way as the songs
above. Maybe it’s because there’s actually too much change in the
tempo, if that’s possible. Remember, we’ve got five battered guys
staring us in the face in the album jacket and hard-core shouldn’t
teeter with the perception of coming off as medium-core, if you
know what I mean.
That being said, the songs on
Danger! Danger! don’t suck, but they don’t create any
lasting identity for themselves in the way that many of the songs
on
Freedom Fighters did. The bridge work on songs such as the
title track makes the music just accessible enough to create broad
appeal and the overall structures of the songs don’t suffer from
simplicity. I just think it’s that songs like “Money to Burn” or
“Revengeful” have large portions where Amdam is too melodic in his
lyrical approach.
Amulet will probably find themselves knocking down new walls and
building their base to larger audiences in certain circles around
the world with this release. Columbia Records, I am sure, will see
to that. With my admitted fanaticism for Amulet’s prior releases, I
was just hoping that this would be the album to take the band one
step higher in my book.