Malossi – Blanke Barter
Release Date: 13th August 2021
Label: Rob Mules Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Blues, Rock, Metal, Avant-Garde.
FFO: Black Sabbath, Tool, Onkelz, Clutch.
Review By: David Oberlin
Heads up. I am not a native Norwegian speaker and this album is sung in that snappy but expressive Nordic tongue. Malossi could be singing about anything for all I know. From trying to build a church atop a fjord [so that it will never burn – Ed] to attempting the stylish application of corpse paint while driving in deep snow with an American muscle car. And so, this review focuses mostly on the scenery. The tones, the rhythms and the timbres prevalent throughout the albums’ runtime.
With all that being said the human voice does create texture in a song, and the gravelly but solemn punk style presented here emphasises the powerful yet contained roars coming from the rest of the ensemble. So, hailing from Norway the home of Blizzard Beasts, Fjords and Helvete Malossi offer a new kind of True with their second album – True Norwegian Country Metal. Did you just WTF?
You did? Well get ready because the concept works really well. Crossing borders between American Country, the anti-war rhetoric of the 1960’s, and whatever genre Clutch are but with a Norwegian twang. Blanke Barter is an odd tour de etre but it is totally cool and it works, and I am here for it. As they say.
Unfortunately the stellar songwriting does not get its best life on pre-recorded media. The riffs could be so much more if experienced on a live stage, because these are meaty riffs, grazing on fertile sound. Riffs that might have been born from a love of rock music but through exposure to new ideas have turned out funky, in a sublime and dark manner.
There is a congruent Blues element running through this album, as there should be on an album derived from Rock. While completely unpretentious there is still showmanship to be found here, and the performance on Blanke Barter is nothing short of fantastic, almost tangible. But, then again it is a common known trick to use pictures of plastic food to sell meals fast.
Without a doubt Malossi’s new album is a distinct and sturdy outing that exudes polish and rockability. An album grounded in creativity and, for all it is made of, can shine on.
(4 / 5)
