Label: Dallas Records
Release date: 13. 11. 2023
Production: Zvone Hranjec
Album length: 31.22 min
Genre: Hard Rock / Melodic Rock
Rating: 8.0/10
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Chateau are a Slovenian rock band of a kind you just don’t find on the scene anymore. Except? Their colleagues from Velenje, Šank Rock, and Mary Rose from Postojna. So, a reflection of times some 35 years back, even more. And when (and if) a band like that ever gets serious about kicking up a storm again, you simply have to pay attention to what’s brewing in its camp. That’s how they shook up the Slovenian rock scene back in 2011 with the album “Do konca”, but the joy among their followers dried up fast, because after the release the band rather surprisingly and quietly vanished from the scene and slipped back into hibernation. Just when it looked like we’d never see them on stage again, they got back together in 2020 and dropped the excellent single Pesmi nove, pesmi stare, followed by Zvezde vedo, S solzami v raj and the freshened-up, rock-draped Mlinar na Muri, leading up to the band’s seventh studio album, titled “2023”, in November 2023. So after the album “Do konca” (2011), the band didn’t decide to go all the way to the end (or toward it), but a little before the end, in mid-December 2020 to be exact, decided to keep moving forward instead!
In November 2021 came the compilation of their biggest hits, “The Best Of” (RockLine review), which also included two very promising new singles, Zvezde vedo and the especially excellent Pesmi nove, pesmi stare. That collection gave us important answers to a few questions. Namely, that new material was in the works, and that Chateau had been sorely missed by their fans during their absence, since every copy of the compilation vinyl sold out in pre-order, that is, two months before the official release.
“2023” is the band’s seventh studio album. It has ten tracks. Nine of them are brand-new originals, plus a rearranged, ‘refreshed’ Mlinar na Muri, the well-known adaptation of Styx’s Boat On The River, which on the new album got a dose of thunder and a proper hard rock makeover, unlike the ‘folky’ version that still counts as one of the biggest rock evergreens in Slovenia. This newly dressed-up Mlinar na Muri was actually recorded last, as the album’s tenth track, yet it also opens the record. A smart move by the band: after a good 10 years of silence, they announce right from the intro, in pompous style, who and what stands behind the name Chateau!
More than the admittedly very successfully refreshed Mlinar na Muri, though, we’re interested in the rest of the material. Artistically, it naturally ties in most sensibly with the previous album, “Do konca”, which makes sense. The band also has a new drummer on the new record. That’s the hugely promising youngster Grega Plamberger, while the bass duties go to the seasoned Boštjan Časl, who already played bass with Chateau on the album Brez tebe (1998). On keyboards, the veteran master Robert Humar joined the band for the new album. A great lineup, then.
Zvezde vedo, the second track, takes the album even deeper into the eighties. But it’s worth keeping in mind that times are different now, and Chateau no longer address us here as the 25-year-old stallions of their first four albums. Zvezde vedo is a mid-tempo number with a nice contrast between the dramatic verse and the build through the pre-chorus into a seductive chorus (it also boasts one of the most convincingly carved mid-eight passages on the album).But right after it comes, a bit too early on the record, the ‘slightly too teary’ ballad S solzami v raj, which thanklessly takes away some of the album’s enviable opening momentum. As for those thankless comparisons, though, we’re talking about Chateau after all, and in the second half of the album the other ballad, Hvala da si, manages to conjure up a touch of classic Objemi me more easily. Further on there’s Ljubi in sovraži, which brings the album back up to the level of Zvezde vedo. Ograjenšek shines with playfully mischievous lyrics that vividly evoke the sunny, optimistic eighties. The song itself also grows out of a major key (the lead phrase), which strengthens the optimism and carefree spirit of those times. Something similar works in the second half of the album with Varala si me, which follows the balladic Hvala da si. It shows that the album has a nice, likable level of dynamic variety that keeps the listener hooked.
All in all, the band has strung together a nice, inspired set of new originals, with the middle stretch of the album standing out in particular with three tracks in a row. The first is Ko se šampanjec hladi, where the bombastic shift in atmosphere from verse to infectious chorus takes over (it’s one of the more skillfully cast modulations between verse and chorus when it comes to catchiness on the new album). It’s followed by the classic rock’n’roll pulse-raiser Daleč od srca (the album gets a much-needed ‘kick’ here), and then we arrive at the album’s strongest composition. That’s the single Pesmi nove, pesmi stare, where a thundering phrase stands out glaringly, setting a dark backdrop of drama theater as it flirts with a classic Purple/Rainbow riff design, from which Chateau head particularly triumphantly toward a predatory chorus, with a more-than-pleasing rhythm change pouring oil on the fire. There could have been a few more songs like that on the album, but as it is, apart from the renewed Mlinar, the new single Pesmi nove, pesmi stare and Dače od srca, mid-tempo tracks lead the way. Even the tail end with Mogoče nekoč, as a closing track, lacks a pinch of extra chorus dynamite!
Matjaž Ograjenšek still has that wonderfully rich vocal color, authority and explosiveness. He remains just as we remember him from the good old days. Zvone Hranjec, with his guitar flourishes, is always in the right place when an expressive, fiery solo needs laying down. Then there are the classic-sounding keyboards of the excellent Robert Humar, who binds the guitar phrases together, mostly with a Hammond sound. The rhythm duo of the up-and-coming Plamberger and the seasoned Časl builds a satisfying contrast in the soundscape.
On the production side, there’s room to grow. The album offers an adventure in pleasant listenability, yet the available sonic and arrangement space could be filled out better with reinforcements that unleash a bigger dose of decibels, especially in the phrasing, meaning one or two extra layered guitar lines, as well as more densely stacked vocal harmonies that would back Matjaž’s lead vocal and coax out more atmospheric bombast. After all, we’re talking about a melodic rock, or rather melodic hard rock, album. The atmospheric payoff could have been higher. The songs have the potential to go for more of a predatory bite, or let’s say, more bombast.
All in all, the very nice and listenable new Chateau album is a story of its own, showing that the crew hasn’t lost its dynamite or freshness, and that the commitment of the five players in the new Chateau is more than convincing. “2023” is an album of a kind they don’t make anymore, just as bands like Chateau are no longer being born. So it can be treated as a product lost in time and space. Genre-wise, that makes it a very rare album for the Slovenian music scene, but precisely for that reason all the more valuable. We’ll have to wait for something similar until the next Chateau album, or some miracle in between (I’m aiming at a new Šank Rock or Mary Rose album). Guys! As your song says: “Hvala da ste”. But this time, please do stay. See you at your gigs (before the next album, of course)!
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Mlinar na Muri
2. Zvezde vedo
3. S solzami v raj
4. Ljubi in sovraži
5. Ko se šampanjec ohladi
6. Daleč od srca
7. Pesmi nove, pesmi stare
8. Hvala da si
9. Varala si me
10, Mogoče nekoč
Lineup:
Matjaž Ograjenšek – vocals
Zvone Hranjec – guitar
Robert Humar – keyboards
Boštjan Časl – bass
Grega Plamberger – drums
