If you are a regular reader of Ave Noctum, (and if not, why not?), you will like as not know Bergen as almost the epicentre of Black Metal, the city having spawned the likes of Immortal, Gorgoroth, Taake, and so many other Satan baiters. However, if you dig a little deeper, that same Norwegian city would appear to contain a wormhole back to the late sixties UK music scene from which Howlin Sun have emerged, spiky guitars and even spikier costumes being set aside for vintage Gibsons and faded denims.
Title track ‘Maxime’ screaming of the early days of The Stones, blues riffs delivered with a cocksure swagger, the lyrics sung with a mid-Atlantic twang that belays the bands true Nordic heritage. Hard and fast this is followed by the cowbell heavy ‘Let’s Go Steady’, its rocking sensibilities and language, complete with a solo that could have drifted from a young Jimmy Page’s Telecaster in his Yardbirds days, belonging to the streets of swinging London rather than modern Scandinavia. This worship of the past continues with ‘All Night Long’, a number that like its predecessor, barely scrapes past the two-minute mark. Whilst such a short run time may be the norm for modern pop, such brevity appears strange in the world of rock; however, it must be remembered that was the once the way it was. The Beatles fired out ‘Love Me Do’ in under two and a half minutes, and even masters of the extended live jam Cream told the world ‘I Feel Free’ and offered up ‘Strange Brew’ both in under three minutes.
The tempo slows with ‘Jayne’, a spiritual ancestor to The Velvet’s ‘Sweet Jane’ mixed with lashings of Van Morrison’s melancholy longings, the addition of an organ and sax coating the whole with the mellowest of vibes, the band counterpointing this with the stomp of ‘Be Mine’, a stripped back demonstration of the adage that sometimes less is more. The rock continues with ‘Last Time’, rolling through the same Southern states that birthed the Allmans back in day, mixing the blues of America with the hippy ideology of California, before the band change directions with the lo-fi fuzzed out garage sound of ‘Main Pretender’. The album is closed out by ‘Lost’ in which Howlin Sun seem to be dazed and confused as they fall into a psychedelic haze, before awakening to a ‘Bittersweet Morning Sun’ that arises from the world of mellow country and Americana, a perfect chill out after the partying of the rest of the album.
‘Maxime’ whips past in barely half an hour, and deserves to have the replay button hit immediately, Howlin Sun having served up an album of classic sounds played with respect to their forebears, delivered with the energy of youth.
(8/10 Spenny)
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