Artist: Jorn
Label: AFM Records
Release: 2006
Rating: 3.5/5
This excellent singer really doesn’t know the phrase ”peaceful rest”. Constantly active, whether in Masterplan or in projects like his latest one, a team-up with another top-class vocalist, Russel Allen (Symphony X), when the two put out the very, very nice “The Battle” (2005).
Lande is known for his uniquely warm, “smoke-cured” voice, which you could describe as a “crossover” between Coverdale and R.J. Dio. It basically blends an approximation of Coverdale’s charm with Dio’s flirtations with the occult. That’s why the album is dressed in a black costume. And when Scandinavians write it, it can get dangerously potent. The guitars grind away vividly and build a huge sound across the record, dusting off proper polished big hard rock riffs soaked in adrenaline rush. The record has no shortage of colorful guitar flourishes and expressive, lively dribbled-off solos, straight from the Scandinavian school. The rhythm section is cannon-like. Lande is joined by top-notch musicians, members of Company of Snakes, TNT, Pagan’s Mind and Carnivora (soon after “The Duke” was recorded, Magus Rosen, otherwise the bassist of the “hammer-fallers” Hammerfall, joined Lande’s band for good) and it shows in the chemistry, which is present to an ever greater degree from record to record. The album opens high on atmosphere with two mid-tempo songs carrying a fascinating “groove”. With Stormcrow we get a first-rate sharpened basher, practically bursting with hard rock energy, while The Duke Of Love is a typical example of Lande getting closest, in the most classic way, to some “late eighties” Whitesnake. As if Lande had granted a wish, he carries on in that vein with the punchy ballad Burning Chains, and the words in the intro like: ”pouring rain”, ”carry on”, “fool in love”, “bleeding heartache”, “pain inside my heart”, sound like Coverdale himself put them in his mouth.
Since both guitarists love to dip into “massive riff” rawness, in places wrapped in a Sabbath-sounding, “doomy” creaking semitone line (a great example is After The Dying), together with the otherwise Coverdale-tinged singing, the whole thing actually comes across as a mix of “Dio-era” Black Sabbath and Whitesnake. E.g. Midnight Madness, in the “beat” of the pre-chorus, recalls Holy Diver (Dio) itself, and on top of that the track is of a truly villainous sort, as if Dio had made it too (the chorus!!!) with or without Black Sabbath. Midnight Madness is really the end of the record, because it’s followed by a Thin Lizzy cover, which brings a nice dose of diversity to the album and with it Lande firmly reminds us who the pioneers of three-part harmonies in rock were. To close, the band offers a revamped title track from Jorn’s debut, the excellent Starfire.
The new record is a first-rate and so far the most consistent Jorn Lande hard rock album, and a confirmation of what “Out To Every Nation” (2004) already hinted at, with its occasional flirtation with prog metal. The comparisons to B.S. and Whitesnake do, once again, undercut my praise for Jorn, but anyone who knows the atmosphere of the progressive gloom merchants Beyond Twilight, which Jorn actually conjures up successfully and which runs through the compositions on “The Duke” too, ends up with truly distinctive-sounding hard rock, penned by Jorn and his crew. “The Duke” confirms that Lande has found the right recipe and, after “Out To Every Nation”, has delivered an album that this time holds up in full, packed with melody, ballsy, fluidly listenable and full of hard rock eroticism. Punchy as it should be and even more fluid than its predecessor! Lande has obviously dosed everything in just the right amounts and “The Duke” is the kind of album that doesn’t buckle anywhere! Still, you can expect even more from Lande in the future!
Lineup
Jörn Lande – vocals
Jörn Viggo Löfstad – guitar
Tore Moren – guitar
Morty Black – bass
Willy Bendiksen – drums
Stian Kristoffersen – drums on 3, 7 & 10
Production
Jorn Lande & Jörn Viggo Löfstad
Tracklist
1. We Brought The Angels Down
2. Blacksong
3. Stromcrow
4. End Of Time
5. Duke Of Love
6. Burning Chains
7. After The Dying
8. Midnight Madness
9. Are You Ready*
10. Starfire (2005 version)
*…. Thin Lizzy cover
Running time: 44:30
