Sweden really does seem to be the current spiritual home of all things Retro-Rock at the moment and the latest band to emerge from that thriving scene are Free Fall. Not sure this is traditional Ave Noctum fayre as this lot seem to be treading a more blues-rock/metal path than fellow countrymen Witchcraft, Graveyard or Horisont. But it IS on Nuclear Blast and this debut album really can not be summed up with just one tag or genre comparison. Free Fall really do have their own sound, and clearly decide to draw on quite a wide range of Hard Rock and Metal influences. OK, most are from the 70’s and that’s their overall demographic, but you never feel like you are hearing a carbon copy of another band, just hints, which is how it should be. It is also a CD that keeps your interest throughout – you just never know what the band are going to chuck in next. I’m not a fan of doing a track by track analysis, but in this case it is probably the best way to explain what the hell I am on about. This is either going to make this album hugely intriguing to some, but no doubt fill others with massive dread. I apologize to the band in advance for the latter…
Opener and title track ‘Power and Volume’ is easy to dismiss as a bit of Rival Sons style Zeppelin-ism, with it’s groovy riff, galloping bass-line and busy drumming, but though the vocal phrasings are very Robert Plant, Free Fall singer Kim Fransson has a much raspier edge to his voice so never comes across as “whiny” as the aforementioned Percy tended to be on some tracks. Next track ‘Free Fall’ changes things around with a real Paul Rodgers Free/Bad Company vibe, but then ‘Midnight Vulture’ is our first taste of classic UFO (a mood revisited to great effect later on the excellent ‘Love Bombing’ with it’s lesson in how to sing in a Classic Metal voice in the chorus!). If you can imagine an undiscovered The Who track served up as a bonus track on Cinderella’s Heartbreak Station, then ‘Top Of The World’ is for you – OK, they are probably the two extremes in the song, but for an album with such a audible flow and continuity, the band just love to throw curve-balls whenever possible.
‘Attila’ on the surface is another nice slab of early UFO, but with hints of the Zeppelin and Free creeping in that we heard earlier and finally the listener starts to think that the band has shown it’s hand. Then I realized that the vocals really reminded me of Humble Pie era Steve Marriott. The song plods along nicely at the same tempo for a good 5 minutes (kind of like Scorpions ‘The Zoo’ or ‘Animal Magnetism) and for me, the song is already a winner but then the band expertly switch to double-time and the whole thing is reborn once more. ‘World Domination’ bounces in with it’s Bon Scott era AC/DC feel (as does later track ‘Meriola Blues’), but with a much slicker chorus. ‘Damnation’ makes me think of the classic, but now forgotten bluesy lilt of ’79/’80 Whitesnake…if it was played by ‘Symbol Of Salvation’ era Armored Saint! Rather than the obvious extended solo in the middle of the track, the band utilise a great riff that a whole song could have been based around – only using it for about 8 bars, making sure that the listener can’t wait to hear it again next time the album is played.
‘Meat’ rather fittingly brings this extremely enjoyable CD to a close and basically (and with the now expected effortlessness) combines UFO, Zeppelin and AC/DC into a driving 5.34 minutes. And then it’s all over.
What a total mess eh? Nope, not a bit of it, because if you can switch off your “Who the bloody hell does that sound like now??” button, this is just a great Retro Hard Rock/Metal release. It seems to improve with each play as more and more reveals itself in the music and arrangements. Thank goodness at least Sweden is admirably keeping alive the type of music that the UK led the world in over 30 years ago!
(8/10 Andy Barker)
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