Artist: Mustasch 
   Title: Latest Version Of The Truth
   Label: Regain Records

Hailing from Gothenburg Sweden, Mustasch have been around in one form of another with the members appearing in several different bands over the years.  The band finally got settled as a unit in 2000 when the were signed to a subsidiary of EMI, an alliance that would last some five years which saw the bands popularity grow.  Now the band have signed to Regain Records for their latest opus ‘Latest Version Of The Truth’.

Things get underway with the impressive ‘In The Night’ and as a similarity goes, you can't get more exact than describing the bands sound as a mix of the heady bass of early Sabbath mixed with the Cult because of vocalist Ralph Gyllenhammar’s uncanny similarity to the vocal style of Ian Astbury.

The album goes from strength to strength as it continues with the outstanding ‘Double Nature’, this mixture of stoner style bass, Ralph’s vocals and some quite superb guitar work by Hannes Hansson.

The same immaculate stoner/guitar mix is once again present on ‘Falling Down’, another great track on an album full of great tracks.

The pace is picked up again with the exceptional ‘The Heckler’ this is one hell of an album that just gets better and better after every listen.

The Astbury connection is never more present than on the dark ‘I Wanna Be Loved’ and what about that fuzzy guitar sound and the Sabbathesque bass vibe, simply fantastic stuff that has to be listened to time and time again to appreciate it's many subtleties.

The band show they have a more gentler side as with the almost film score sound of the instrumental piece ‘Scyphozoa,’ which acts as an interlude for what the rest of the album has in store as they bring in some classic rock/metal into the mix.  Firstly with ‘Spreading Out The Worst’, a track which Gyllenhammar makes his own with his best vocals of the album on this track.

They really turn up the heat with the heavy tones of the excellent ‘Bring Me Everyone’ and the more truly majestic ‘Forever Begins Today’, which mixes some extra orchestral strings in the background to give the track an atmospheric air and with Hannes ripping it up on the guitar and Gyllenhammar shining once again, this goes down as one of my favourite songs, not only of the album, but of the year so far.

It's back to the Cult/Sabbath mix with the thumping ‘I Am Not Aggressive’ before the album comes to a close with the aptly titled ‘The End’, but rest assured this is far from the end for Mustasch, this is just the beginning if this latest album is anything to go by. 

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