Tracks
1. Predators
2. Tomorrow Never Comes
3. Crying
4. Bring Me Down
5. Promises
6. Ice Cream Man
7. Crawling Through the Desert
8. I Don`t Know
9. Won´t Find Me Begin
10. Why We Bleed
11. Eaten By the Pigs
12. Wild Dog
13. You

Band:
Johan Evertsson - Bass
Sonny Larsson - Vocals
Tom Nilsson - Guitar
Fredrik Beckmann - Keyboards
Pär Hjulström - Drums

Discography:
The Sanctuary (1986)
The Sanctuary re-release (1995)

info:
Artwork by Andreas Besterman

guests

Released 21/10-2011
Reviewed 23/10-2011

Links:
myspace
yesterrock

In Örebro, Sweden a group of archeologists found something, something they called a mother lode, not in the sense of valuables of course but an ancient band of whom none have heard since the days before the last ice age, 1995 when they re-released their debut album. This band then begun putting together a new album which is odd since they haven’t really done anything new since before the ice age before the latest ice age in 1986 when their debut album was released. Their album is suitably called Tomorrow Never Comes which suits well since the band hails from the so-called whining belt in Sweden (due to their whiny dialects), it has a fantastic cover artwork which shows maybe that tomorrow might never come for the main character but there is a machine gun that might change this so there is at least some hope which makes it an interesting and thought provoking cover art for the one who is blessed with imagination at least. But what about the ancient treasure the archeologists found, is it for the natural history museum? or maybe just to be sold off as scrap?

Well, musically it is placed within the same kind of music that was common before the ice age when the band was not fossilised to be dug up. It is hard rock or heavy metal in the kind we heard during the eighties, energetic with soaring vocals, quite authentic eighties sound I would say. The production is quite raw and harsh which suits the sound of the band rather well, you could say that it is an authentic eighties production with a slightly cleaner and more modern touch. The songs are a bit varied in style and sound, not maybe overly varied but there is a decent variation in that it doesn’t just float together into a constant mass of sound. There are thirteen tracks on the album, 53 minutes of music if you play the entire thing.

So how about the music from these guys? Was it worth the wait for whatever fan has waited for a million years for a new album by these guys? Well, it depends on what you like I guess, for me it feels a bit like a decent album, a bit up and down but it has its moments for sure. The opening track Predators is very good along with my favourite on the album Crawling through the Desert. Those are the finest of the album, then we have some other tracks like Wild Dog, Promises and the title track that are also worth mentioning. Then I would say that the rest of the album isn’t doing much for me at all, the songs are alright but a bit meaningless and the album is a slight bit on the long side as well.

Still, my attitude towards this album is generally positive as it is quite good still, the poorer tracks aren’t bad at all they are just uninteresting. The best moments are great so there is some merit to this album even though I have heard many that are better. I wouldn’t say that they hit the motherlode though, maybe they hit a vain of iron ore or something similar that can be very bright and jolly in some uses and quite dull in others, I think that is a good analogy, don’t you think?

In the end I would say that this archeological find consisted very much of dirt and dust but after brushing and polishing it a little bit there were some real gems to be found. So maybe not worthy of a museum but well worth looking into, especially if you are interested in the hard rock of the eighties.

HHHHHHH

Motherlode - Predators by germusica

Label: Bold Stroke Records/Yesterrock/GerMusica
Three similar bands: Whitesnake/Rainbow/Skid Row
Rating: HHHHHHH (4/7)
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm