Suicide is painless
According to Wikipedia (ok, not always the most accurate, but bear with us) there are just under 10 million people living in Sweden.
If that’s true, then we’d wager that every single one of them is in a rock band.
The amount of stuff we get here at MV Towers from the Nordic Countries – and Sweden in particular – is incredible, not just in terms of proliferation of outfits, but rather the staggering types of music too.
Well, to that list you’d best add Suicide By Tigers, from the third biggest city in Sweden, Malmo, who are here with their debut, and despite the name, what you get here is nine songs of classic rock infused with soul.
“Yeah” we hear you say, “classic rock infused with soul. Isn’t the world and his pet dog doing this since Rival Sons, Blues Pills and Temperance Movement?” and that probably is a valid point. But there a couple of things that set this one apart from the myriad competition.
First, its very good – and given that the four men in Suicide By Tigers give off the appearance of being born to play classic rock n roll, there’s no hint of bandwagon jumping here. But there’s also the second point, that rather like the clean cut soccer mum who just loves taking her clothes off and posing for dirty pictures as soon as the kids are at school, there’s a whole other side to SBT.
It’s been obvious from the off, the opening line of the driving, fuzzy riff of “Death On Your Trail” gives away its clues. “give praise to His name, one day out of seven. Get ready now for six days of sin…” sings Nils Lindström in his wonderful rich tones. All of which sets down a marker, really.
The song does more than that too. It also sets the template for the sound in general. The thumping guitar licks of Petter Rudner are at once instantly familiar, but they often give way to almost psychedelic parts, and given that there’s a couple of songs – “True Believers” being one – that just about hold back from adding a full on drum solo to things, you’d imagine that Suicide By Tigers gigs might be glorious Gov’t Mule style jam sessions.
The sonics here don’t change too much – and there might be a touch of the playing the same song again and again about this, but they do the job superbly, and the swinging “Ball Of Fire” for example, and there are a couple of times where they explore into other areas to great effect, “Pack Of Wolves” is all Hendrix-style urgency and the brilliant, loose “Fox In A Hole” is like The Black Crowes gone soulful and “Viscous Malicious” is a sprawling, smoky thing with a bit of a crunch.
SBT end the collection with “Karma” – which begins with a guitar solo as though the most natural thing in the world, and its Led Zep vibe seems to suggest that the sinner way back at the start of things – who appeared to be a vicar, by the way – can only get away things so long.
A fine record. One which even in the crowded market right now is one that deserves to be heard, because although there’s a lot of classic rock around, from their name, their sound and their general demeanour, its clear that Suicide By Tigers will be happy doing things their own way.
Rating 7.5/10
