GRIFFEN - review added 16th June 2010
Album Review: Life - A Way To Die (2010)
For fans of: Heavy Rock... and chunky vocals
Swedish band Griffen - Kristian Huotari on drums, Tomi Peltonen and Stefan Törnblom on guitars, Jörgen Söderberg on vocals, and Harri Tuovila on bass - was formed in 2006.
Life - A Way To Die is the band's debut release, and follows a couple of promo discs created since their inception. The album was recorded in Eskilstuna, mixed by Pelle Saether's Studio Underground in Västerås and mastered by Göran Finnberg in Gothenburg.
It's not a particularly upbeat sounding album if all you do is glance at the title. Fortunately, the music is much happier. This is a band with a big boisterous sound that takes cues from heavier Whitesnake, Metalium, Saxon and so on.
The singing is very Steve Newman. Jörgen Söderberg has that same meaty tone as the Englishman, and it makes for a heavy-duty characterful listen.
There are plenty of good moments throughout the album. No individual song is absolutely outstanding, but the majority have something memorable - be it a riff, a lyric or a complex rhythm structure. So consistent is the LP, it's difficult to pick stand out tracks. Let's just say there are no real weak moments and leave it at that...
Life - A Way To Die is an enjoyable listen and definitely a record to come back to time and time again. Griffen should be bloody proud of their work here.
Check out... Those big chunky vocals and big chunky guitars
Track List:
01. Life Is On The Way
02. I Don´t Really Know
03. Linked In Eternity
04. Mystery
05. Rise And Fall
06. Falling Inside
07. Secret Fire
08. Assasun
09. Too Numb To Know
10. Journeyman
11. Cut Down (Cold Blood)
12. The Hydra (Bonus track)
Label: Label Name
Artist's website(s): Griffen , MySpace
