Freak Kitchen: Cooking With Pagans

With perhaps the best album title for 2014, Cooking With Pagans is the new record from another bunch of Swedes with a great sense of humor, the great Freak Kitchen. Cooking With Pagans is a 12 track marvel of Metal, Jazz, Prog and humor all rolled up into one. Swedish guitar hero, Mattias 'IA' Eklundh, bass player, Christer Ortefors and drummer, Bjorn Fryklund are up to their tricks again.

With song titles like, "Freak of the Week", "(Saving Up For An) Anal Bleach, "I Don't Want To Golf" and "Once Upon A Time in Scandinavistan", it is quite easy to see the sense of humor that these possess, but don't let the song titles fool you because is there is some world class musicianship going on. Tongue in cheek for sure, but these guys are dead serious with their musical exploits. These guys even include a dust up version of the 1936 hit song, "Goody, Goody"!! Intensity and free musical expression is an understatement for the likes of Freak Kitchen.

Thanks to a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, bringing in almost $150,000, Cooking With Pagans is a testament to the fans of Freak Kitchen and the band does not let them down. From the straight ahead rocker of the opening track, "Professional Help", with its almost Industrial feel in the chorus, Freak Kitchen show that they do mean business. Not a "Djent" record nor as ambitious as an Animals As Leaders disc, but Freak Kitchen manages to drop a record that is heavy, adventurous and filled with humor. While steeped in Melodic Hard Rock/Metal there are some excellent interludes into the off the wall with entries into the "music for musicians" arena, but these forays are kept to a fast and furious pace and are not self-indulgent.

Freak Kitchen are absurd, experimental and enigmatic and somehow manage to blend their smartly crafted, poignant and funny lyrics with their guitar driven virtuosity. Cooking With Pagans is a much more "accessible" record than some of its contemporaries in the guitar heavy realm. Freak Kitchen have a record that is quite diverse from song to song, but each song is filled with melody and that is what sets this record apart. Silly and articulate, but the songs do find a way to connect even while being very much different. If you like the wackiness of Frank Zappa with the modern guitar playing of Periphery or Per Nilsson, then check out Freak Kitchen, you won't be disappointed.

Track Listing

1. Professional Help
2. Freak of the Week
3. Sloppy
4. Goody Goody (Benny Goodman cover)
5. (Saving Up for an) Anal Bleach
6. Private Property
7. Mathematics of Defeat
8. I Don't Want to Golf
9. Hide
10. Come Back to Comeback
11. Ranks of the Terrified
12. Once Upon a Time in Scandinavistan

Added: September 16th 2014
Reviewer: Butch Jones
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 3395
Language: english

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