Artist: Šank Rock
Label: Dallas Records
Release: 2007
“Senca sebe” leaves me happily, post-orgasmically cleansed every time the CD player finishes a spin! “Senca sebe” gives the listener the side of the Šank Rock guys that was just waiting for the right moment to fully express itself. But for that you have to be ready to “cash in” a proper kick! Kick first, and only then the savior who helps glue back together all the pieces of a shattered, dissolved illusion, splintered on the reefs of religion, which sinks into oblivion for good, on the road through transformation toward the birth of something new. It went even further than that, but let’s take it from the top…
The guys were craving change. Doesn’t matter whether they even thought about it, what matters is what they wanted. Consciously, unknowingly, unintentionally, whatever. And the cover alone symbolically expresses the path toward transformation, renewal, rebirth. A crumpled man with “monstrous tongues of flame from personal purification” blazing out of him (a rising, howling wolf), the deepest fears, the darkest hidden thoughts that follow you through the everyday, at every step! Šank Rock gathered their courage, stared every fear straight in the eyes and decided to leave them behind. Once and for all. The illusion is dissolved, reality is what’s left. Šank Rock have landed happily on solid ground! The album cover couldn’t blend any better with the evolutionary point the band has reached, musically and spiritually.
The first four tracks on the new album sound like they escaped from another planet. The opener, Nebeška vrata, is “shocking” already. The basic motif and the riff, pure “arabesque”, are typical of an opening that some modern progressive metal band would pick to set up a highly atmospheric pulse that sends the album to “high” in an instant. What am I babbling about? Just think of Kashmir and Led Zeppelin in 1975. That ace up the sleeve you can always pull out to enchant the listener. Bravo, guys. The opening drama is built! What feels fresh and surprising on the new album are Davor Klarič’s piano arrangements, and thanks to their witty inventiveness, the first four tracks especially breathe in a very special way and carry a touch of melancholy you’d never expect from Šank Rock. The title track Senca sebe takes the album through a blending of the quintet’s musical collages, filling the sonic spectrum in perfectly equal measure, and it works optimally. The song is fully dressed and armed from head to toe! Čez rob neba carries a pinch of pop spice, especially in the pre-chorus. That’s where Klarič’s touch stands out, even bringing a hint of the vibe of undisputed rock masters Toto. On the new record, Six Pack Čukur has been replaced by Aki Rahimovski (Parni Valjak), who joins Matjaž for a duet on Pesem/Pjesma. This is the special track of the album “Senca sebe”, and it’s a reminder that the guys are undeniably maturing and this time giving “feel” absolute priority. Pesem/Pjesma makes no secret of flirting with “bluesy” leanings. The contrast between the two voices is outstanding! Rahimovski brings that distinctive, highly expressive, vibrato-smoked tone you’ll recognize easily, and with a soul touch it puts a special stamp on the song. Magic! As the album “Senca sebe” goes on, the hard rock component grows stronger and more expressive again. Tradition stripped down to the bone.
Roki Petkovič is clearly a bullseye for Šank Rock. The man knows how to lay down a riff, which is, was and always will be the essence of Šank Rock’s image. We simply demand that from Šank Rock. But Roki doesn’t go looking for that kind of attention and focus the way his predecessor did, and he doses the instrumental mid-sections of the songs far more sensibly, with shorter but still devilish solo tricks. Roki is a traditionalist. Zuljan’s polished, fast-fingered Satriani-style wail has been replaced by the tradition of an elementary-minded sound, if I can afford the awkward adjective, “Gibson/Fender”. Even in how he builds a riff, Roki comes from the classic hard rock school of Deep Purple/Rainbow. Klarič seems to have been waiting for exactly this man on the team! It’s a pleasure to listen to the interplay of keyboards and guitar riff throughout the album. And that guitar/keyboards duet builds a massive curtain of riffs from track 5 to the very last, track 12. These aren’t just hints. The songs Suženj and Nedolžen ali kriv are suspiciously flirting with Purple classicism.
With Šank Rock it’s pretty obvious that everyone was waiting for someone like Roki. A man who doesn’t chase the spotlight but is simply one of five equal links. And that’s the key. Roki. Let anyone claim otherwise, but doesn’t everything in bands built on rock rise and fall with the guitarists?!?! For the first time in their career the guys work as equal arrangement writers, as a tightly knit unit, and on the album you can feel an extraordinary chemistry that was clearly working in the studio. Šank Rock have obviously gotten out of their system the album they always wanted. Wanted as a unit, and the whole quintet chose it unanimously. This album has to please all five of them, not just individuals in the band! There’s no other way, because you can feel an extraordinary coherence between the links and members of the band that is impossible to miss. The songs are cleverly short, mostly three and a half minutes long. A punchy, explosive riff is the focal point, built upon by Matjaž Jelen’s melodic and convincing vocals, and punch is born!
The production is a bullseye from the very first moment of the album “Senca sebe”. The album has a live, natural sound! No pretentious polishing and filtering. The thin sound of the past has been replaced by a thick, fat “oomph”. The contrast is superb between the thick, voluminous foot of Polak’s pulsing bass line and the lively swings of Uranjek’s drumming fortress, while on the other side Petkovič’s riffing works in excellent harmony, topped by the explosive approach of Matjaž Jelen with his melodic vocals! It has to be stressed that this time the production makes much better use of Matjaž’s wide vocal range, and he brings far more melody to the album “Senca sebe” than the album “Vzemi ali pusti” offered. The whole album is masterfully wrapped in collages of Klarič’s keyboards, which take care of its high atmosphere. If we keep going through tracks 5 to 12, the witty keyboard touches in Dam ti vse are especially tasty, along with the string of superb contrasting mood switches between chorus, pre-chorus and interlude. The peaks of all the songs remain the well-crafted choruses. Jelen’s vocals are surrounded here by tasteful vocal harmonies that lift the dynamics right at the chorus points. “Senca sebe” doesn’t contain and doesn’t need a pinch of glam/sleaze sugar or hiding behind “beautifying lipstick”, the guys have outgrown that. The album ends with great intensity, through one of its highlights, the already mentioned Dam ti vse, and the closing track Ogledalo, where the guys surprise once more with the contrast between a compact riff and a sensual, softly colored interlude, cut through like a bolt from the blue by a cannon barrage – Uranjek’s “rolling” at the transition.
Senca sebe is an extremely easygoing, unburdened album. The guys went into it without any baggage. They simply wanted to make a good album. And this time the bits and pieces grew into an ideal jigsaw puzzle. With the album “Senca sebe” the men have grown up and turned into charming, mature gentlemen who dose out rock in sensible amounts, without a trace of pretension. The glam is gone. “Senca sebe” is a path to the sound of tradition. To the classic, natural sound of hard rock.
Four years since “Vzemi ali pusti”. Bor Zuljan left in between. And they’re not afraid anymore! Bor leaving was the only right thing, otherwise the guys obviously still wouldn’t have been able to take a decisive step forward. With Bor’s departure, Šank Rock’s phase of “cock rocker” willful rebels, craving unbridled rock’n’roll wildness and an insatiable lust for pleasure, which their lyrics and fan-chant-style songs never hid, came to an end. “Senca sebe” no longer has a single “Delam kar paše mi”, not one “Laški pir” and not one “Rokerji”. Of course the “cock” remains, as intense as ever if not more so, since it has finally grown a brain. The lyrics are deeply personal and confessional, an extra special charm of the album that helps build a unique atmosphere Šank Rock have never offered on any album in their career. The Šank Rockers have calmed down, gotten serious, and become the gurus of Slovenian hard rock. Exactly right for their years in the game, which the word “legends” is already clinging to. “Senca sebe” is an album of mature men, for mature men, and as always absolutely for all the girls, of various expiration dates, girls for all eternity. Let’s not forget that the Šankers now prefer to use their gentlemanly charm, which in their new look makes them at times downright fatally attractive.
This is a new beginning! With the next album the band will confirm the new creative freshness that sparkles in the expressive power of the album “Senca sebe”. An album that matters hugely not only for the revamped band, but for the heritage of the Slovenian classic hard rock scene, which, after the album “Feniks” (2006) by Mary Rose, has been strengthened in a short time by yet another excellent new album. With it, Šank Rock have proven that they keep their status as the central figure of the hard rock scene in Slovenia, which they more than deserve after 25 years of existence. Guys! Full steam ahead!
Lineup
Matjaž Jelen – vocals
Roki Petkovič – guitar
Davor Klarič – keyboards
Cveto Polak – bass guitar
Aleš Uranjek – drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Aki Rahimovski – vocals
Blaž Celarec – percussion
Rudi Bučar – backing vocals
Jelena Žrale (Godalika) – viola, violin
Klemen Bračko (Godalika) – violin
Matjaž Sekne (Godalika) – viola
Klemen Hvala (Godalika) – cello
Production
Šank Rock
Track list
1. Nebeška vrata
2. Senca sebe
3. Čez rob neba
4. Pesem/Pjesma
5. Nekaj pod kožo
6. Nedolžen ali kriv
7. V peklu se vidimo vsi
8. Bumerang
9. Suženj
10. Dej se mal nasmej
11. Dam ti vse
12. Ogledalo
Album length: 44.46
