Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Audrey Horne
Label: Napalm Records
Release: year_month
Duration: 42:18
Rating: 4.5/5
Norwegian music isn’t just a story about guys with painted-up hairdos running around churches with torches and playing hide-and-seek in the woods (a stereotype, of course, because black metal can be more than just that). Nope. Sure, Bergen, Norway’s second-largest city, is a black metal Mecca (home to Gorgoroth, Taake, Immortal, Burzum and plenty of others) and one of the rainiest cities in the world, but it also gives us some sunnier, lighter and more fun stuff. Audrey Horne were indeed founded by members of bands like Enslaved, Gorgoroth, God Seed and Sahg, but you won’t find any blast beats or growling here, because these guys are a purebred hard rock band of the highest caliber. Although the Bergen crew started out as an alt-rock/metal band in the Faith No More vein, they soon veered into the waters of pure hard rock, which hit its peak on last year’s much-praised record Youngblood.
Pure Heavy landed so fast that its sheer rock madness is a stunning surprise. If Youngblood was a record full of mega rock anthems, mighty riffs, infectious melodies and epic choruses, Pure Heavy is its logical follow-up. Except the Norwegians’ blend of classic rock and modern ideas is even more potent here, and it keeps threatening to go off like trinitrotoluene in an explosion of epic proportions at any second.
The lionhearted opener, Wolf In My Heart, is all the convincing you need: Audrey Horne smash the punch of The Who into the dirt of Led Zeppelin, and from there things only go up and get better. On Pure Heavy the Norwegians string together one rock pearl after another, and not a single moment until the end of the record is superfluous or forced, because the rich guitar work of the fantastic Ice Dale/Tofthagen duo keeps the listener in a constant chokehold, serving up a proper ABC of rock guitar. The guitar eruption is built on brilliant Thin Lizzy/Iron Maiden three-part harmonies, mighty, unforgettable riffs that just keep coming and never stop, and obvious but unobtrusive, unforced tributes to legends like Van Halen, Black Sabbath and AC/DC. No point wasting too many words on the solo excursions, since the guitar pair roasts and grills them like a Sarajevo ćevapi joint, and the songs are so infectious that they were clearly written for live shows where the roofs will be getting blown off the halls.
Pure Heavy keeps pumping adrenaline right up to its bitter end, which doesn’t fizzle or dry up until the very last second, but keeps spewing magma long after it’s over, leaving you no choice but to rip open the box of guitar-harmony chocolates once more and gorge yourself on the sweetness of bombastic Audrey Horne. The secret to the album’s success lies not only in the pants-ripping guitar duet but also, and above all, in the voice of frontman Toschie, who makes the already rich music even richer and takes it to an even higher level. There isn’t a moment on the record when the excellent Toschie doesn’t flat-out force you to sing along, because he knows exactly how to deliver every single verse, all the way to the top-notch performances in those bombastic choruses. One minute Toschie sounds dirty like Robert Plant, the next cheeky like David Lee Roth, and then modern, unbridled and bold like Mike Patton.
And finally, Pure Heavy is such a damn fun record that it burrows into your veins like a Body Snatcher and takes over your ears, mind and body, which are then good for nothing but hammering the »repeat« button until total exhaustion. What Audrey Horne, the seductive femme fatale, is to Twin Peaks, the Norwegians are to modern hard rock and heavy metal. The only downside of Pure Heavy? That it didn’t come out in the summer!
Audrey Horne will be presenting Pure Heavy on a European tour, with the closest stop to us on December 12, 2014 at Vienna’s Arena, and next year Audrey Horne will finally play here in Slovenia for the first time, at Metaldays 2015.
Line-up
Toschie – vocals
Thomas Tofthagen – guitar
Arve Isdal – guitar
Espen Lien – bass
Kjetil Greve – drums
Production
Sir Dupermann (Jörgen Traeen) and The Sun King (Iver Sandöy)
Tracklist
1. Wolf In My Heart
2. Holy Roller
3. Out of the City
4. Volcano Girl
5. Tales From the Crypt
6. Diamond
7. Into the Wild
8. Gravity
9. High And Dry
10. Waiting for the Night
11. Boy Wonder
