Artist: Tide
Released: 2005
2005 saw a tide sweep over the Slovenian scene. Practically overnight, rockers Tide came crashing onto the scene. Part of the band had spent a good while abroad beforehand, making music and playing gigs. The album Seven Days is an excellent reflection of that. Working with Dutch producers, they brought us a slice of world music. The kind of sound that Slovenian rock acts (I don’t know why) somehow tend to dodge. Tide are a proper quencher in Slovenia’s rock drought.
The player kicks off with their first single, Release My Gun. A power track woven from hefty guitar riffs and melancholic lyrics, conjuring a pretty vivid picture of playing around with a cold-blooded weapon, one that brings fear but also stirs up a so-far-undiscovered passion for danger.
˝It´s a fucked up world˝ is the lesson of the next one, Evolution. Instead of the usual songs about revolution, the guys turned to the wisdom of Darwinian evolution.
Misunderstood carries the album on in an energetic direction. It’s colored by a guitar with a slight touch of Balkan melos, which is the cherry on top of what is otherwise a strictly rock number. A singable chorus that slides right into your ear is one more flower on an already excellent piece of work.
For about 10 minutes the guitars ease off, and we give ourselves over to gentler guitar sounds, a melodic vocal and lyrics full of pain and loneliness, which embody the song Do You Know The Sound.
Every album usually has one ballad that undoubtedly becomes a hit. On Seven Days, mine is Lost Inside. A singable guitar intro, joined by an incredibly captivating vocal, soft bass lines and gentle taps on the drums. Out of a moment of inner lostness and daydreaming, we’re woken up during the chorus by harder, louder guitars. The song is closed out by drums that conjure the motif of little wooden soldiers drumming, plus guitar chords. Fairytale stuff.
Next comes the slightly industrial-tinged Long Way Home. A very similar guitar distortion pattern repeats across the whole track, which works really effectively for the whole thing and plays off the vocal brilliantly.
˝Here comes the fun part˝ is the intro to Strange Day, with a touch of nu metal. You could try drawing parallels with the music of Limp Bizkit or Linkin Park. Still, Strange Day remains rooted in the Tide style. The lyrics are interesting too, announcing Tide’s rise to the top with phrases like ˝Their Time is Coming˝ and ˝Tide is High˝ (and no, this isn’t a cover of the John Holt song).
After the pretty metallic-sounding Not a Whore comes Wave Goodbye. For the first two minutes we happily sink into an acoustic section where guitar and vocal play off each other. In the third minute, once the rhythm section kicks in, it morphs into a grunge-tinged number that slightly recalls America’s Pearl Jam.
The second-to-last track is Leave This Place. The album then closes with the explosive power of Brain Damage, which basically leaves us unsatisfied at the end and hungry for more, even louder music.
As a reflection of “European” production, the album is a really polished piece of work. If you came across their music for the first time, with no prior knowledge of Tide, you probably wouldn’t even think it’s actually a Slovenian band. And under the baton of some Slovenian producer, a completely different product would almost certainly have come out – more Slovenian, less rock and above all less interesting. The guys definitely picked the right path. Seven Days has such well-crafted lyrics, strictly in English, as well as top-quality arrangements that get stuck in your ear very quickly. Tide’s debut could probably be called one of the highlights of the Slovenian music scene.
Lineup
Kevin Koradin – All guitars and vocals
Mikkel Brink – Drums
Giovanni – Bass lines
Kevin Koradin – Music and lyrics
Arrangements – Kevin Koradin, except ”Brain Damage” – Kevin Koradin and Matthijs van der Spek
Production
Kevin Koradin, Peer Rave, Matthijs Van Der Spek & Matej Batelič – Giovanni
Tracklist
1.Release My Gun
2.Evolution
3.Misunderstood
4.Do You Know The Sound
5.Lost Inside
6.Long Way Home
7.Strange Day
8.Not A Whore
9.Wave Goodbye
10.Leave This Place
11.Brain Damage
