There’s a powerful sound to the Greybeards that draws from early eighties hard rock, a certain rawness, but a great feeling of relentlessness and it’s all encased in melody that comes replete with a punky edge.
Opening tracks ‘Fast Asleep’ (a nice dig at social media) and ‘One in a Billion’ are both great introductions, with the latter taking on a more melodic thrust before ‘Come Undone’ takes us to a more aggressive more modern sound. And it’s that third song with the extra crunch and soaring chorus that strikes the biggest chord with me.
This is a sonic stew though, and these Swedes don’t sound too much like Swedes as they bound around like kids punching out the punkier poppier ‘Insane’ before the lighter power pop of ‘Beautiful Things’ which comes across like an accented Foo Fighters outtake.
And if you can handle the variety you might just find this very satisfying indeed if you can cope with the accented vocals that for me on the first track rang of Klaus Meine but softened thereafter.
Just over halfway in comes ‘Free’ which is probably one of the best songs I’ve heard all year,it just glides and soars and you can just see those fists umping and the crowd singing along. And whilst they don’t quite recapture that moment the rest of the album is pretty good too.
‘You Struck Me’ has a certain slow-burning charm; ‘A Cold December’ unloads a little bile and shows an alternative leaning and ‘Peace of Mind’ the only really slow one here adds some nice strings to what turns out to be great song.
‘Closer ‘The Nerve’ is the strongest contender for the best song here, another song that has hints of the Foos and one which ends the album on a huge high with a huge crazy guitar solo.
Great band, great album and you feel one day if they keep heading in this direction Greybeards could just well be huge.
