Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: House Of Shakira
Label: Lion Records
Released: 2012
Running time: 49:30
Rating: 5/5
This is one of those albums I’ve been waiting for like crazy. House Of Shakira are tied to RockLine in a kind of fateful way. Their gig in November 2006 and our interview with the band in Padua rank among our crew’s earliest and most unforgettable adventures, right, Bojan?
Okay, enough sentiment, let’s get down to the point of the new House Of Shakira. For everyone who can’t get over the exotic band name, let me hint that House Of Shakira are in no way a hybrid cross between Shakira (the person) and the members of House Of Lords, but representatives of Scandinavian melodic rock, who first made a real splash with the excellent debut »Lint« in 1997. Between then and 2007, the band released a heap of top-notch studio albums, which all, sadly, went unfairly overlooked, and the band along with them. The weakest of the bunch is the 2007 album »Retoxed«, which hinted that the band was on the verge of big changes.
And sure enough. Between 2007 and the release of »HoS«, the band swapped out three members! And with that, they opened a new chapter in their career. It can’t be any other way when you cut so radically straight into the heart of a band’s musical essence. Of the old members, only the two guitarists are left today: Mats Hallstensson (who also handles most of the solos) and Anders Lundström, the band’s creative masterminds, who bring the riffs to House Of Shakira’s music and so keep the band’s basic expressive face intact, on the new album too! From the ranks of the fine Swedish technical prog metallers Mind’s Eye comes Andreas Novak, who replaced the band’s original vocalist Andreas Eklund; on bass is now Basse Blyberg, who replaced Per Schelander (also ex-Royal Hunt), and the new drummer is Martin Larsson, who replaced yet another original member, Tony Andersson.
You couldn’t wish for better results than what »HoS« delivers. House Of Shakira sound refreshed and regenerated, stepping into a new era of their development and going at it with an untamed hunger like the one that was all over the place at the start of their career. »HoS« is a pitch-dark House Of Shakira album, which until now was never a trait of the band. It’s also the heaviest, most cranked-up album the guys have put out so far. House Of Shakira were always seen as a kind of happy but distant approximation of Journey, prepped and served, of course, the Scandinavian way! This time, though, that feeling is masked more than ever, and the comparison with the pioneering founders of the AOR genre from San Francisco fits less. Some of that »style and habit« had been sacrificed because of the vocal specifics of singer Andreas Eklund, who left the band, though Andreas Novak is by no means a slouch at conjuring those feelings when needed (the most Journey-like being I’ll Be Gone, or the closer Out Of My Head). The fundamental change that, for the first time, moves the band decisively away from Journey comparisons is the album’s different production (cranked-up and live) and, above all, the generous flirting with retro impulses from the rock classics of the not-so-distant past, that is, a slightly different way of arranging the songs. That the guys are plane lovers is already confirmed by the title of the excellent 2004 album »First Class«, and especially by its tongue-in-cheek song Landing. This time they’ve dedicated a song to flying again, All Aboard, which (if we return once more to Neal Schon and company) is steeped in »Journeyesque« figuring of the lead motifs, while Andreas Novak’s vocal, in recreating those feelings, sounds simply spot-on.
The opener Brick Wall Falling already winks, in its verse guitar pattern, at the classic retro impulses of rock giants (Deep Purple, Rainbow), but what surprises is its direct riff stance, which pulses with an intensity and rock hardness like never before. When layers of backing vocal harmonies join the lead vocal, the puzzle is solved: House Of Shakira have kept the link to their tradition of recognizable trademarks of their own »expressiveness«. In favor of new times for the band, Changes In Mind undeniably bears witness, being one of the album’s darkest songs, venomously seduced by Sabbath. The other equally dark thing on the album is Endless Night, which owes some inspiration to the opening riff of Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir. It’s fascinating to watch how, above the elementally crushing guitar riffs of both songs, the band keenly searches for a way to create the optimal melodic plasma, or in other words the optimal range of melodically compact predatoriness. It fully succeeds at that, once again cashes in a winning poker hand of aces and holds on to its own authorial recognizability, and the two songs are really the album’s special pearls, which stand out on it for that very reason. With them the band managed to serve up its elementalness in a new, fresh and different way, which means that »HoS« is a developmental step in the band’s artistic maturing, measured decisively forward. Want some AC/DC from House Of Shakira? The verse in Midnight Hunger will fully satisfy you on that front.
Songs like Voice In The Void, What Goes Around, then Zodiac Mind and before it Carry My Load carry the band’s typical, trivial recognizability, always graced by a positive outlook, a touch of cheeky provocativeness and unconcealed courting of the girls, in the Journey mold.
The production is fantastic. For Scandinavians, downright unusually raw and alive as hell! Earlier albums went through quite a bit of polishing, but »HoS« isn’t such a controlled album. Fracture In Love, for instance, surprises with its elementally stripped-down riff rawness and direct crushing power! The arrangement of the basic building blocks of the sound, from the bombastically voluminous »groove«, set off in its search for the optimal melody by the bass line with emphatically thick legs, in tandem with the inspired drumming of the new rhythm section, the outstanding curtain of riffs full of inspired »chopping«, and the authoritative lead of the confident, cleanly crafted and ultra-melodic vocal of new singer Andreas Novak planted dead center, is everything a classic rock band can only wish for. Melodic, yet raw and punchy. Without excessive control that would shade the stamp of rock authenticity and vibe, and at the same time the album doesn’t hide that its arrangements have come a long developmental road and that it’s perfectionistically polished down to the finest detail. Andreas Novak’s vocal keeps the qualities of Andreas Eklund while sounding even more dynamic and varied. Andreas Novak shamelessly exploits his innate soul streak, which is, for instance, a trademark of Lee Small of the »dead« Shy or Steve Overland (FM), and it’s a quality that’s an absolute novelty for the new House Of Shakira.
»HoS« is an excellent album. Polished down to the last detail. It’s the band’s heaviest album, even their darkest one so far. With it, House Of Shakira came through their transformation phase beautifully, kept all their trademark traits and carried them to an even higher level of expression with real maturity. »HoS« is an album of the band’s new era, and with it the band opens a new chapter of its artistic stance. You could say the guys dared to allow themselves the most arranging experimentation yet, while at the same time, especially on the flip side of the typical House Of Shakira harmonic chorus melodies, holding on to every specific of their musical point. A winner across the board. Right up there next to the latest album by their countrymen Treat! No less, no more!
Line-up
Andreas Novak – vocals
Mats Hallstensson – guitar
Anders Lundström – guitar
Basse Blyberg – bass
Martin Larsson – drums
Production
House Of Shakira
Tracklist
1. Brick Wall Falling
2. Changes In Mind
3. Carry My Load
4. Zodiac Maniac
5. Fractions Of Love
6. Midnight Hunger
7. Endless Night
8. All Aboard!
9. What Goes Around…
10. I’ll Be Gone
11. Voice In The Void
12. Lost In Transition
13. Out Of My Head
