Abramis Brama
Tusen År

Album number seven for Swedish rockers Abramis Brama, who makes rock music in Swedish. It is a twentieth anniversary for the band who’s first song Mamma Talar made its way into the Swedish airwaves twenty years ago. The album is called Tusen År (Thousand Years), which is fifty times more than the career of the band, but perhaps they feel like they have been around for that amount of time. This album follows four years after the acclaimed album Enkel Biljett that saw the band tour a lot and visiting many good stages and festivals. They also have a pretty good following outside Sweden despite singing in that obscure language that we use in this nation – so people like them without really understanding the clever lyrics that they offer.

Backwards looking while still sounding fresh is probably a working way to describe the music of this album. Rock music in Swedish is another way. They draw inspiration from the sixties and seventies, some doom in the style of Black Sabbath, some Swedish folk music influences, some psychedelic, they kind of feel like a number of other Swedish rock bands, quite a familiar style in a sense. Yet they also remain fairly fresh and modern with good production and a good vocalist. Fans of the band will recognise them and other fans of Swedish rock will probably also look upon this as a rather familiar sounding album. Perhaps it is a bit on the long side though, and it could probably also have been a little bit more varied.

A good album in my view, it may not last a thousand years but fans of the band should like it and I think it is strong. Especially it begins really well with the strong opener Löpeld, a track that sets a good tone for the album and it is a good track. The two top tracks of the album can be found among the first three tracks of the album with the third track, the title track being my favourite. Tusen År is a standout track that is really enjoyable and when I am listening this far I am ready for the higher ratings of the scale and perhaps even a superlative or two. But then nothing really happens, the album kind of stagnates towards the end and I eventually think that the album will have to settle for a rating in the middle of our scale.

Beginning is good, ending becomes a bit of an anti-climax but I do think this will appeal to the band’s fans. So I recommend Tusen År to the band’s fans and to those who likes rock music in Swedish. I think this album is a solid effort, it might not live up to its fullest potential and it may not be remembered a thousand years from now but it gets a thumb up from myself.

HHHHHHH