|
Enforcer is a Swedish quintet that, it seems, were born two decades too late. They have released one full length album, Into The Night, in 2008 and garnered good reviews for the most part with their blend of NWoBHM spirit and style combined with modern production. Diamonds is their second album and is yet more of the same.
The whole vibe of this album from start to finish is one normally reserved for those early eighties gems from the NWoBHM and German scene of the time. Immediately on pressing play I felt like I had been transported back to the early eighties. In fact, I actually had to look out of my window and check that people weren't sporting spandex and really odd looking hairstyles... well, there were a bunch of fringed emo kids, but apart from that I think I can assume I'm still safe in the 21st century.
The music contained within Diamonds is a well-played and uplifting collection of up-tempo rock songs which sound like a good mix of the Scorpions, Diamond Head and a little bit of Judas Priest. The guitars and drums carry the music forward at a frenetic rate, showing shades of speed metal such as Rage.
Singer Olof Wikstrand has a voice that suits the older style of music perfectly, being of a high range but not glass shattering! Most fans of metal should be able to bear these vocals even if they don't enjoy them.
The eighties sounds really have made a huge comeback in recent years, most notably with the rapidly expanding new wave of thrash. With Diamonds Enforcer have a thoroughly enjoyable album that brings back the fresh sound of the eighties. This sound is truly timeless and Enforcer once again prove to the world that heavy metal will never die!
Track-by track by Olof Wikstrand:
Midnight Vice
First song of the album which you already now are available to hear on our myspace page summarizes our sound in a very specific way. It's a fast song with a catchy chorus and a very hooky main riff. It's a shuffle song played in a high tempo which makes the song pretty swingy, and actually faster than it actually is. The song is 100% Enforcer and that's why we decided to put it first. The lyrics are about an urge to kill, a possession to murder after midnight.
Roll The Dice
That is another song that really defines our sound. It is also the first song that we finished with lyrics and everything to this album. It's been a demo version around for quite a while now, and we actually had a hard time making it as good as (or hopefully better than) the demo. This song is actually my favorite of all our songs and my guess is that this track will be the most prominent of the whole album. It's got a great structure and arrangement and the chorus is great. Along with the breakdown break and solo part it makes the song a real hit!
Katana
This song is Adam's work right through. We picked up a few riffs that Adam had used in a band he played in years ago which was called Katana Samurai. It had a few great riffs that we've been speaking about in years to do something of and it turned out to this song. We actually had a couple of fights about having such a long and epic song in our repertoire, but it turned out to a great song that also gave the album a little broader touch. The lyrics on this one are written by our dear friend Tomas 'Witchfinder' Ericsson of Helvetets Port.
Running In Menace
We had finished all songs and we were going to enter the studio just in a couple of days when Jonas surprisingly came up with this song. He had even recorded a cool demo version of it secretly that he showed us and I don't even know if he intended to make it an Enforcer song. But I really wanted to make room for it so I decided to give it a go and I think it works perfectly as an Enforcer song. I think this is one of the most direct and catchy of the songs on the record, even though it has a little slower tempo.
High Roller
Is a long shot if you're asking me and I have still not decided if I like it or not. It's pretty much built upon the main riff that I've had in mind since the demo days. It has existed in many versions before the one that ended up on the album and it has been named various of different things. So I guess that's why I'm pretty blind or should I say deaf to this song.
Diamonds
I think it's really important to be consistent with some things and to open the B-side with an instrumental track is one of those things I want to make a trademark. It's built on two parts where we stole the last part from a song that Joseph had in a completely different band years ago. We knew we wanted to use that somewhere on the record. We sat down one day and just decided to make it a song. So we begun with a riff that I intended to use to another part, and we just jammed up the rest to the first part. Cool and spontaneously. The vocals in the end of the song are sang by a friend to us from a local rock band in Stockholm called The Vanjas.
Live For The Night
Live For The Night is without doubt the fastest song on the album and pretty much a left over from Into The Night. Even though it's a great song, I figured that it wasn't gonna make it to the Into The Night album as a whole back then so I saved it to later. I also wanted to put the fastest song after the instrumental to keep up that consistence also on this album. The lyrics are about a dark demon that comes up from hell to destroy your life!
Nightmares
A pretty fast one that Joseph surprisingly came up with last summer with lyrics and everything. Starts off with a fast riff that goes in to a somewhat melodic chorus and then into a break of two different vocal parts and a hell of a solo duel between Joseph and Adam. I hadn't been singing it when we rehearsed and since Joseph had been singing this for himself, we had to rewrite all the vocal lines in the studio. That took us a while. It's probably the hardest song for me to sing, and I still don't have a clue how I will make it live.
Walk With Me
This is also a song completely done by Adam that I have to admit that I didn't see the potential in it when we first started to rehearse and record it. But one morning in the studio Adam and Rikard pushed me really hard in the vocal booth to something I couldn't see and PAW! We suddenly had the greatest chorus ever! In a morning we had turned an average song to the biggest hit on the record. I love the chorus and the break after the solos. The lyrics here are inspired by the television series Twin Peaks.
Take Me To Hell
The closer of the album. This is the newest songs on the record, and my original thought was actually to have it open up the third album. But we had to pull off another song in the last minute that just didn't make it, so suddenly we had a spot over. The song is a big punch in your face and has probably the most direct chorus you can think of. The message of the song is easy. It's a big fuck off to heavens and a call to consecrate your soul to the devil.
|
|
