Once you look past the flat, rather uninviting cover, Lights Out, the latest release from Swedish retro sensations Graveyard, is pretty much what we all expected from this entertaining group. Since their debut a few years back, and especially with their Nuclear Blast follow-up Hisingen Blues, Graveyard have dipped into all things Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Doors, Deep Purple, Grand Funk Railroad, and Humble Pie, coming up with a sound that screams '70s heavy rock and blues, but with a bleak, ominous cloud hanging over the proceedings. Less heavy and doom laden than fellow Swedes Witchcraft, and not as complex as Horisont or Captain Crimson (also both from Sweden), Graveyard's music is dark, even unsettling at times, filled with dramatic passages, plenty of lead guitar, and Joakim Nilsson's 'Robert Plant-meets-Jim Morrison-meets-Ian Gillan' vocal delivery.
When the band lurch into beefy, heavy rock tunes such as "An Industry of Murder", 'Seven Seven", and "The Suits, The Law & The Uniforms", they can easily transplant you back in time to 1973. However, it's the slower, haunting and quite eerie tracks like "Slow Motion Countdown" and "Hard Times Lovin' " that provide for some of Lights Out's more compelling moments, as the band combine dark blues with creepy psychedelia for an effect that's not unlike Jim Morrison coming back from the grave. For all the Black Sabbath and Pentagram fans who can't get enough heavy fuzz guitar that so many of the Swedish bands seem to love, look no further than "Goliath", a truly mighty tune with crushing guitar & bass riffs and sizzling lead guitar, and the melodic yet heavy hitting "Fool In the End". To top it all off, the band closes out Lights Out with the atmospheric dirge "20/20 (Tunnel Vision)", another bluesy, psychedelic '70s rocker that has some of Nilsson's best vocals on the album.
Not as immediate as its predecessors, Lights Out will take a few listens to really appreciate, as it's a dark and haunting collection of songs that don't reveal their true beauty quickly. Once you spend some time with it though, the rewards are endless.
Track Listing
01. An Industry Of Murder
02. Slow Motion Countdown
03. Seven Seven
04. The Suits, The Law & The Uniforms
05. Endless Night
06. Hard Times Lovin'
07. Goliath
08. Fool In The End
09. 20/20 (Tunnel Vision)
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