Jørn Lande & Trond Holter present Dracula
Swing Of Death

I feel a bit divided. Just cut me in half, split my flesh in teo you hungry vampires. Is this good or complete bat shit? Honestly I can’t tell.

The ten songs presented under the name ’Swing Of Death’ comes from the hands of Norwegian vampires Jørn Lande (introduction unnecessary) and Trond Holter (guitarist in the glittering Wig Wam). So why am I divided about this? Well, I can begin by saying the beginning. The beginning of each and every track on this album. It’s so slooooow and then it gets faster. Slooooooooow and then faster. Sloooooooooooooooooooooooooow and then faster. In track after track after track. And slow isn’t all. It’s also soft before it gets heavier. Soooooft and then heavier. Soooooooooooooft and then heavier. Soooooooooooo-ooooooooooooooooooooooooooft and then heavier. Every single fucking track! Slow and soft starts before they become pretty heavy and quick. In track after track after track! So what’s wrong with that? It wrecks the flow! ruin the tempo. In one or two tracks this isn’t a problem but when nine tracks out of ten is starting slow and then gets quick and heavy metal tracks (the exception is track 6, River Of Tears)… well, that’s what divide me, because I can’t make any sense of it.

If we can look away from this for a moment then, what do we get? Well, ’Swing Of Death’ do have some nice tracks and most of them starts pretty nice and it’s almost sad to hear them always turning out to be a devil in disguise - like booby traps if you wish, and not the nice tunes they start out as. And I can’t say I find the Devil particularly interesting when he constantly starts of like bore before going at it like crazy. Kind of like a shy Norwegian that takes tone first after drinking a few. The difference is that the drunken Norwegian doesn’t sober up every fifth minute and starts of slow and dreary again before getting drunk and lively, like these songs. And speaking of loud Norwegians, what about Mr Lande? Well, in the soft and slow parts he speaks more than sings with a hoarse and rough voice. When he acts devil and shouts about drunken it sounds more like a howling wolf and that’s when it sounds good. To his help Lande has the voice of Lena Fløitmoen Børresen in four of the tracks, to be honest she’s neither great or worthless but she still feels like a positive addition as more voices often makes music better.

Like most things Lande does the music is pretty heavy and quite powerful. Lande only seem to do this one kind of mid-tempo power metal all the time, it doesn’t matter if he’s the brain or just guesting but it’s always the same and also here. But while the music is what it normally is we also get some other influences as well. Sounds reminding of music box tunes, cabaret music and folk music piano stuff. I hint an idea of grandeur from the duo but I don’t feel they succeed with this idea. In some tracks it sounds pretty epic but never really epic. And some tracks it actually gets really pathetic, particularly in Save Me which has a chorus that feels completely laughable.

As much as the beginnings annoy me I must admit there are plenty of good stuff on this album as well. By that I don’t mean songs or the album as a full but stuff in these vampire tales that gets the groove going. The album in full is suppose to be some sort of theatrical concept story about Count Dracula but I can’t say I recognise the story from the books and films I’ve read because as far as I can remember, Dracula never had these issues getting going. He had more bite in him, one could say if one wants to be a bit clever. In several tracks the real songs are pretty good, like Walking On Water, Swing Of Death, Masquerade Ball and Queen Of The Dead but to be completely honest the only tracks that really gets it going is River Of Tears, the track where they don’t mess about but gets to the point immediately. All in all I feel this album is wasted potential. I’m divided but mostly to the negative. Jørn and trond have some to put their teeth in because this album bleeds potential in it’s vital parts.

HHHHHHH