Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Jorn
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2016
Length: 57:35
Rating: 2/5
Norwegian vocalist Jorn Lande is a guy who always has to be doing something. If he’s not busy with his solo career, he’s collaborating on other projects or guesting on other artists’ albums. Not a year goes by without Jorn Lande racking up at least one credit on some studio record or other. With his band Jorn, Lande enjoys the rock-solid backing of the Italian label Frontiers Records. And has for a good ten years now. Like plenty of fans of good hard rock, the label’s bosses fell for Lande’s fantastic vocal chops and have stood firmly behind the man ever since. Whatever ideas he comes up with.
Lande is a guy who made his name with covers, as the singer of cover bands. He first turned heads in the second half of the nineties, when he fronted The Snakes with former Whitesnake members and took everyone’s breath away with his uncanny resemblance to David Coverdale’s vocal style. The first compilation of covers under the name Jorn, titled »Unlocking the Past«, came out in 2007. It offered a sensible selection of songs that had inspired him throughout his career, and as a result a string of excellent reinterpretations. Amid all his other activities, three years later he took the time to record an album dedicated to Ronnie James Dio with his band, right after Dio’s death. Credible, sure, but given how quickly he jumped on it, a bit tasteless, since the release felt like a commercial move with Lande building and cementing his name on the dead man’s shoulders.
Now, the third compilation of covers, the current »Heavy Rock Radio«, focuses on Jorn’s takes on radio-friendly hits. But not entirely. The album also includes a real gem called The Final Frontier (orig. Iron Maiden), about which Lande (blasphemously) declared that it’s the moment in Iron Maiden’s career where the band came closest to pop music. Even though the man is wrong, the promo copy accompanying the new compilation at every turn gleefully repeated it. Believe it or not, by the time you get to The Final Frontier, and you’ll be lucky if you do (more on that below), it’ll be perfectly clear that not everything Lande touches turns to gold. In the worst case, it can turn into a fistful of juicy crap.
The selection is interesting and enticing, but the interpretation much less so. Simple as that. Lande can’t gather a guard of top-notch musicians around him, he simply doesn’t have the money for it, and he’s always in a big hurry with recording and releases too. So it’s all played in one and the same hard rock key, with the typical Jorn »Dio meets Coverdale« vocals we’ve gotten to know well over all his years in the game, and which offer nothing new or striking. The material is played the »Jorn way«. Hard. With all the vigor and force, so it sounds like it was played by force. »Heavy Rock Radio« is best taken as a point in his career where Jorn Lande and his band treated themselves to a few pleasant hours of downtime and fun in the studio, belting out a handful of songs that have stuck in his ears over the years and captivated him, but that in no way impress in their new arrangements. That goes for radio chart hits in general, like the opening Fridah’s I Know There is Something’s Going On, and right after it Runnig Up That Hill (orig. Kate Bush), where even Placebo wrung more emotional substance out of their version. Jorn’s hard rock is simply too coarse. Brutal chopping doesn’t belong in the reinterpretation of the Journey classic Don’t Stop Believin’ either, while on Killer Queen (orig Queen) and The Eagles’ classic Hotel California it’s clear that the crew approaches reshaping the arrangements, or bending the originals to their own musical vision, with no real imagination and no fitting conclusions. With too little feeling and stingy playing. That is, forced playing.
Only the cover of Dio’s Rainbow in the Dark is what you’d expect from Lande. That’s where the man is at home. In hard rock. The closing Stormbirnger (orig Deep Purple) and the last track, Die Young (Dio era Black Sabbath), improve the impression a bit, but that’s far too little. This kind of compilation isn’t the only such gem on the planet. Remember Helloween’s release titled »The Metal Jukebox«, which likewise offers precious little in taste or listenability. In effect, »Heavy Rock Radio« is meant only for die-hard fans of Jorn Lande and everything the man gets up to. The rest of us will keep listening to the originals.
Jorn – Running Up That Hill (orig Kate Bush):
Lineup
Jorn Lande – vocals
Trond Holter – guitar
Francesco Iovino – drums
Thomas Bekkevold – bass
Alessandro Del Vecchio – keyboards
Guest musicians on track no. 9:
Jimmy Iversen – guitar
Tore Moren – guitar
Nic Angileri – bass
Willy Bendiksen – drums
Guest musicians on track no. 10:
Jorn Viggo Lofstad – guitar
Sid Ringsby – bass
Willy Bendiksen – drums
Production
Jorn Lande & Trond Holter
Track list
01. I Know There’s Something Going On
02. Running Up That Hill
03. Rev On The Red Line
04. You’re The Voice
05. Live To Win
06. Don’t Stop Believin’
07. Killer Queen
08. Hotel California
09. Rainbow In The Dark
10. The Final Frontier
11. Stormbringer
12. Die Young
