Artist: Jorn
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2007
Rating: 3.5/5
Jorn Lande is still in top form. The Norwegian-born singer, whose vocals take your breath away, knows no rest and no limits. Since 2000 he’s put out 4 solo albums and one live album, and between roughly 1998 and 2007 he lent his vocals to The Snakes, Millenium, Ark, Beyond Twilight, Brazen Abbot, Masterplan, Vagabound, Mundanus Imperium and the joint Allen/Lande project with Symphony X singer Russel Allen. A workaholic like no other.
The cover compilation “Unlocking The Past” (2007), which has piled up into quite the hefty serving over almost 10 years, is worth picking up, and it makes the most sense alongside the retrospective “The Gathering” (2007), which rounds up mostly Jorn’s solo studio career. “Unlocking The Past brings together some tracks that originally appeared on Jorn Lande’s solo albums, like the Deep Purple Mk III evergreen Burn and the City Boy cover The Day The Earth Caught Fire (“Starfire”, 2000). The opener On And On (orig. MSG) dates back to the Millenium days, and the rest is stuff that’s never been officially released before. Jorn leaves the listener completely floored once again, especially when he takes on the Whitesnake cover Fool For Your Lovin’, where it’s genuinely hard to tell him apart from David Coverdale’s original. The next highlight, which suits Jorn’s range and timbre perfectly, is his take on Black Sabbath material from the Dio era. Lonely is the World / Letters From Earth, leading out into the closing motif Children Of the Sea, is in terms of atmosphere and execution probably the peak of this compilation.
Unlike those bands that tackle covers by twisting the originals beyond recognition and playing them their own way, Jorn and his crew go in the opposite direction and try to capture something much closer to the original. Jorn is a hard rocker at heart! His velvety, explosive and passionate voice is perfect for “screaming” at full force, in every register, perfect for what you can hear on “Unlocking the Past”. The Deep Purple classics literally come alive with his approach, and Perfect Strangers is especially interesting, with the man singing it in a clean voice and adding even more melody to the song. It’s also surprising how passionate and tight the vocals sound on the Bad Company cover Feel Like Making Love, Jorn kills it relentlessly with sheer explosiveness on Kill The King (orig. Rainbow), and on Burn he again sounds venomously like Coverdale.
The musicians bring an incredible rock intensity. The songs are compactly devastating, and Jorn and his crew manage to conjure up moods that are close to the originals. Literally. To pull off these classics you need balls, and Jorn and his crew know how to fire masterfully with a full set. All the material is played with muscle, and there’s an exceptional liveliness captured in the sound, which is charged with high voltage. Flawless execution. Of course, far from perfect replicas. The solos differ especially, and Jorn doesn’t sing, say, Hughes’ lines in Burn the way Glenn Hughes would, since he’d probably blow out his vocal cords doing it anyway. In this rocker intensity driven by the band with Jorn front and center, the standout amid the album’s all-round demolition is the distinctly steel-hardened rendition of the Thin Lizzy treat Cold Sweet. And Naked City (orig. Kiss) is a surprise move that, with its “softer concept” compared to the rest of the material, stands out a bit on the album, but Jorn doesn’t let you down on it either.
This compilation is tailor-made for anyone hungry for a taste of the raw, eruptive energy that classic hard rock bands generated especially in the second half of the seventies. The eroticism in Fool For Your Lovin’ and Feel Like Making Love is unavoidable, and so is the chain-snapping in Burn, Kill The King and Lonely Is The World. Madness. Jorn’s fans will be thrilled! And Jorn, who is quite a bit younger than the idols he dedicates these covers to, will definitely be in great demand before long. Once Ronnie James Dio and David Coverdale retire, “tribute to” vocalists will be sought after big time. Somebody will have to sing the classics then too, the way the retirees sang them in their prime.
Lineup
Jorn Lande – vocals
Jorn Viggo Lofstad – guitar
Tore Moren – guitar
Ronnie Le Tekro – guitar
Ralph Santolla – guitar
Shane French – guitar
Ronny Tegner – keyboards
Don Airey – keyboards
Marty Black – bass
Steinar Krokmo – bass
Espen Mjoen – bass
Manfred Binder – bass
Willy Bendiksen – drums
Stian L. Kristoffersen – drums
John Macaluso – drums
Oliver Hanson – drums
Production
Jorn Lande
Track list
1. On And On
2. Fool For Your Loving
3. Cold Sweat
4. Lonely Is The Word/Letters
5. From Earth
6. Burn
7. Feel Like Making Love
8. Kill The King
9. Perfect Strangers
10. Naked City
11. Day The Earth Caught Fire
Running time: 49.15
