Stream City
Hoax

Stream City, that’s a Swedish city, isn’t it? Strömstad means exactly that, so this Danish band has taken their name from a Swedish city. Their first album might be something of a hoax; it has an amusing artwork at least. It isn’t the first release by the band as they have two EPs on the CV as well, these has been talked about in the underground. The band seems to be something of an underground sensation, having received much praise from their EPs. But of course it is always easy to write superlatives and all of that stuff, but a band needs to deliver the goods always if they want to receive the praises from me.

This album is themed around fraud and manipulation and such things, their style is rooted in the punk and DIY-community and can be described as something like progressive punk or something similar. It is very difficult to really label this band with a genre as their music flows through many styles and images, it has a good flow to it and it changes the tempo and style at a moments notice. But it works in a coherent way and it is really unpredictable, and not only that it is also well produced with a great soundscape that is exciting as well as interesting. The singer can be said to be a little weak, I don’t think he has a brilliant voice or so but he works quite well for this anyway so it isn’t much of a deal but it is something you’ll notice. The album is both highly varied and short, only 47 minutes on a dozen tracks.

This album is truly impressive at its best moments and great at the less impressive moments. One issue one might take is that the album starts fantastically but looses a little towards the end as the album’s weakest songs round off the album. Not that those songs are particularly weak and would rank amongst the best on many of the albums we review. But it is an issue since it takes away the rating of six that it had going on the first part of the album, that is a bit of a shame but then again it is still a great and entertaining album that I have enjoyed playing over and over for more than a dozen times now.

If you have ever wondered how a song named Poltergeist should sound, listen to the second track of this album as that is the perfect example and a totally brilliant track and I mean that it is exceptional. I could write a lot about that track, the brilliant riff and the great melodies, the sudden changes and everything is brilliant. I often put that track on repeat a few times in order to enjoy it some more. But that isn’t the only touch of brilliance we get in this as the title track The Hoax is another exceptional track that I really enjoy but following that it goes down a little bit following this and the ending is far from the start but no matter that it is still a great album that I recommend that you take a closer look at. It will be worth it.

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