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Artist: Wild Side |
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Once again it's Norway that is my focus for this review, the band WildSide and the album 'Speed Devil'. Wild Side first came to light when Ronni Arnsten and Thorstein Aaby got together with Paul Martin and Johnny Myren and so the story began. But shortly after the bands 2007 demo Aaby's health got worse, so the band enlisted the talents of Tom Grana as stand in while Aaby re-cooperated but in July 2007, Aaby lost his battle with cancer. The band entered the studio in November 2007, but it wasn't until October 2008 that the album saw the light of day. So moving forward to 2009, all was looking good for the band but vocalist martin decided to leave the band due to personal reasons, but this didn't deter the band as they turned a negative into a positive and enlisted vocalist Joachin Berntsen to fill the space left by Martin, and after some low profile gigs the band returned to the studio for their new album 'Speed Devil'. The album opens up with the intro 'Paranoid Circus' before really getting down to business with 'Live Forever', and from this point on their is no turning back. The band pound out the Metal with such ease it's a joy to listen to, and Berntsen's vocals mix which is only out shined slightly by the fantastic guitar work of both Grana and Aarseth, a real powerhouse metal anthem that shows the band have taken all that the world has thrown at them and thrown it back with a .. "no you're not stopping us, we are going to conquer the world if the world doesn't like it so what!" attitude. Things get a little funky with the excellent rocker 'Mine Tonight', this is pure old school metal that makes you want to get out those denim and leathers and cowboy boots and strut your funky stuff, air guitar in hand. It's more of the same with a touch more guitar edge with 'Play with Me', this one reminds me soooo much of Bonfire it's a bit scary, then it's time to get spaces with the excellent heady tones of 'Need To Deliver', a heavier vibe but still full of great melodies that it will please both traditional metallers and the more hard rock orientated of you out there. The full on hard rock attack continues with a couple of my favourites of mine off this album, the excellent 'Wild One' and the riff laden 'Eagle', with the latter again having that Scorpions feel about it. It's classy
hard rock all the way to the end of the album with the likes of 'Won't
Let You Go' and the Crue inspired 'Devil In Disguise' an the titanic
close and title track 'Speed Devil', which rounds off a great album and
one that opens up a new and promising chapter for Wild Side that I'm sure
will bear the fruit of success, and another outstanding band to come out
of the Fiords. |
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Tracklisting: 1. Paranoia Circus |
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