Trettioåriga Kriget
Seaside Air

This Swedish band calls themselves The Thirty Years War (Trettioåriga Kriget in Swedish), a known 17th century conflict in Europe where the Swedish Empire participated and eventually grew stronger. Swedes and war isn’t really what one thinks about and taking the name from a bloody conflict isn’t really something that carries much appeal to me. Trettioåriga Kriget has a story that is longer than the thirty years war, their debut was released back in 1974 but even before that they did some music, Glorious War was done in the early seventies but released in 2004. And speaking of that Glorious War, it is the only album besides this one that is sung in English as the rest of the band’s albums have been in Swedish just like their name suggests.

Musically they can be found in the progressive rock genre, they remind me of their Swedish compatriots Kaipa, Flower Kings, Beardfish and some other bands as well. It is not exactly an album that reinvents the wheel, it is kind of what you expect from the progressive rock genre with their own slight twist to it. Good vocalist and very strong production, kind of like you expect from a band in this genre. Quite melodic and varied, some unexpected twists and turns, more or less what you expect from a progressive rock band – I didn’t find any surprises when I heard this album even though I had never heard the band before. I would however point out that it is a very solid production.

I like this album; it is good, interesting and varied as well as being short and to the point. They do what they do very well and their experienced have led them to make something very strong and very solid. I see no real weak points in this album, though you could argue that not reinventing the wheel is one weakness but I doubt many would care that much as they do have their own twist on things and as they sing in English this time it may also be enough to make it slightly different from what they usually does but I cannot be fully sure of that since I have not heard the band before. I think however, that I can safely recommend this album, especially to those of you who likes this kind of music.

There are seven tracks on this album and they are all very good tracks but the first one is probably a little better than the rest of the tracks on the album, I think it sets a good tone for the album. The rest of the tracks keeps it at a high level but none of them is as good as the first one, but all this combined makes this a very strong album and one that I recommend you look closer at.

HHHHHHH