Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Berggren Kerslake Band
Label: AOR Heaven Records
Release: 2014
Running time: 50:59
Rating: 4.5/5
This album is one hell of a record. It’s tailor-made for every fan of the good old hard rock school. It’s full of musical elements from the classic days of rock pioneering, meaning the seventies. Uriah Heep, but also Whitesnake, Deep Purple and Rainbow. In short, the closest you can possibly get to the time when the records of the rock revolution were being born on this planet.
Stefan Berggren is a well-known Swedish singer and multi-instrumentalist who has spent years »in charge of reviving memories« of Whitesnake’s golden days in M3-Classic Whitesnake, The Company of Snakes, Razorback, Snakes In Paradise and Revolution Road, while drummer Lee Kerslake is written in bold letters into the famous legacy of classic Uriah Heep, with whom he made the most important studio releases of that legendary British art rock outfit. For Berggren and Kerslake, the fateful moment came in 2005 at a rock festival in the German town of Friedrichshafen. Berggren was playing with M3 back then, Kerslake with Uriah Heep. Kerlsake retired in 2007. But still. It’s hard to sit still when rock ‘n’ roll runs through your veins. And, luckily, Lee is making a comeback. In recent years he and Berggren did a few shows together. The last one was an acoustic gig in Helsinki in 2011, and it was also the spark that got Berggren Kerslake Band going.
The songs are forged in the vivid mold of the bands listed in the first paragraph. The opener Walk Tall is set up so that you can pick out plenty of parallels with classic-era Whitesnake, thanks above all to the vocal flexibility that’s Stefan Berggren’s trademark, but the second track, Super Sonic Dream, already »rolls« along at the famous gallop of some of the most striking evergreens in the Uriah Heep repertoire. With his remarkable vocal flexibility, Berggren is the one responsible for re-creating the atmospheric echoes of the famous voices of Ronnie James Dio, David Coverdale, even Robert Plant (the opening Walk Tall). Bassist Tomas Thorberg, Berggren’s buddy from Snakes In Paradise, who has also worked with Michael Schenker and with guitarist John Norum’s Gunslinger Europe crew, is the man who co-creates that signature seventies retro sound with the warm, deep, melodically lively playing of his bass. And Berggren isn’t just a great singer, he’s a guitarist too! All through the album you can feel that he took shape as a guitarist under the heavy influence of Richie Blackmore. That’s why the songs on »The Sun Has Gone Hazy« carry so many of the atmospheric, sonic and, of course, stylistic patterns of rock pioneers Rainbow and Deep Purple.
It’s hard to single out songs (in terms of creative peaks) on an album that works as one body, so real, genuine and tangible! In every fundamental respect! The songs contain a superb blend of the musical elements of the bands named above. In places there’s more Uriah Heep in the mix, elsewhere you hear more of the tricks typical of Blackmore in the Rainbow and Deep Purple days, and then, a third time around, the whole thing pulls harder toward the old-school days of David Coverdale and his first steps on the road to a solo career. One of the loveliest hybrids of the Uriah Heep and Rainbow feels is caught in the mystical Free. David Coverdale should hear the song Rock ‘N’ Roll Gangsta today. It belongs right on his first two studio albums, and it’ll definitely blast the listener back to Coverdale’s Deep Purple days!
What sucks the listener into the world of »The Sun Has Gone Hazy« in an instant is the feeling of its incredible liveliness, its extraordinary sonic warmth and the organic coloring of the record’s soundscapes, which couldn’t sound more real if it tried. An album that’s played in the studio like a live show. You can’t miss that. Alongside those three factors, which are the pillars of the band, this flawless re-creation of the world of recent rock ‘n’ roll history wouldn’t have been possible without a special guest. That’s Joakim Svalberg (Opeth, Yngwie Malmsteen), who contributed some outstanding solos on Hammond organ and Moog. In terms of arrangements, this is a superbly outfitted album. It has a tremendous sonic punch and makes optimal use of the soundstage. The album is marked by the chemistry between rock-solid, chunky Hammond lines, backed by sturdy guitar phrases, acoustic guitar strumming, and the main vocal melodies colored with multi-part vocal lines in the choruses. Each song has its own polished, compact form, with fantastic flow from verse to chorus. The middle sections, the so-called »mid-eight« parts, effectively shake the songs up, and that’s exactly where the keyboards and guitar spark off each other in masterful interwoven solo duels.
And then there’s Berggren, the vocal chameleon who breathes soul into the songs, and whose sensual approach proves he’s one of the finest vocalists of the younger generation, someone whose vocal flexibility, of an exceptional caliber, brings him impressively close to the famous voices of rock ‘n’ roll. Without Berggren’s impact, this album would never grab you so completely or be so convincing.
If you love old-school seventies rock ‘n’ roll sounds, this is an album that will enchant you and carry you off to a world beyond reality, a world lost in time and space, where you’ll enjoy yourself without limits. An album that just won’t »peel itself off« the »play« button of your CD player. An album with a huge heart, huge charisma and character, and one that grabs you in an instant with its real, true stance. From head to toe. If I singled out highlights, I’d immediately do an injustice to the rest of the songs. This time you’ll have to find your favorites all on your own.
It’s wonderful to realize that the venerable rock ‘n’ roll legend Lee Kerslake is kicking again! His contribution is, once more, unmistakable in the songs, just like in his days with Uriah Heep. Lee is credited on the album alongside Berggren as an equal composer and arranger of the material. Of course, you can’t miss his unique swing, his unique way of taking fills and rolls, even dictating the tempo, and of course that one-of-a-kind drum sound, generated by his hard-hitting, resonant strikes, which have always been his signature. An album with a beautiful collision of blues music and elements of non-classicism. An album steeped in longing, melancholy, a big-hearted album with proud nostalgic gazing backward! An album of true rock ‘n’ roll character, where emotions and passions boil over!
Line-up
Stefan Berggren – vocals, guitar, organ, piano, moog, string arrangements, keyboards, tambourine
Lee Kerslake – drums, backing vocals, string arrangements, mellotron, percussion
Tomas Thorberg – bass guitar
GUEST MUSICIAN:
Joakim Svalberg – organ & Moog on tracks 7 and 8
Production
Lennart Östlund
Track list
01. Walk Tall
02. Super Sonic Dream
03. My My
04. The Sun Has Gone Hazy
05. Free
06. Fools Asleep
07. As Time Goes By
08. Rock´n´Roll Gangsta
09. Back On The Road Again
10. Born Again
