» Cdreviews  
« back

Razorback - Animal Anger


*
=Staff's pick

The Hymn*
One By One*
A New King In Town
Kiss Of Death
Fire And Rain*
Release Me
Lone Wolf*
Eye Of The Storm*
Bastard
Dead Man's Song*


Genre Melodic Hard Rock
Stefan Berggren
Vocals
Tracks 10
Rolf Munkes
Guitar
Runningtime 43 Min.
Chris Heun
Guitar
Label Massacre Records
Markus Bielenberg
Bass
Release 26 April 2004
Pierre Fienhold
Drums
Country Germany
-
Keyboards
Similar artists Europe, Scorpions, Tesla

The band Razorback was formed after the split of Vanize in 2002 when Munkes, Bielenberg and Fienhold decided to carry on with a new band, and a more melodic kind of music as well as a new singer. The Swede Stefan Berggren formerly with Company Of Snakes and Snakes In Paradise got recruited as the new vocalist and in order to get more thickness in the music a second guitarist was brought in to back up Rolf Munkes (Majesty) and with Chris Heun (ex-Shylock) and the line-up was completed.

It is a very mature form of melodic hard rock sometimes with the emphasis on rock rather then on hard, and sometimes the other way around but always with melodic remaining and these guys know what they are doing - it is highly professional music and that becomes apparent already from the beginning with Animal Anger. The feeling is that it is more of an American sound rather than German that one could be expecting considering the nationality from four out of five members in Razorback, although references can be drawn towards both Scorpions and Axel Rudi Pell. More similarities can also be done with bands like Europe and also with Deep Purple at times but with an overall American sounding hard rock that sometimes comes close to AOR. Even if the instruments draw to the harder and somewhat rawer direction, the softness in Stefan Berggrens great voice balances it all up so it doesnt slips away at any direction but stays in the melodic area, even at times when he sings with a little rawer voice it still feels naturally soft and powerful.

The Hymn opens the album in a straightforward manner with a cheerful guitar-line and driven by the lightly pounding drum rhythm. The refrain is somewhat in the vein of a typical Soto/Jacob (Jeff Scott Soto and Marcel Jacob from Talisman) melody and the song also features a nice piece of a well known Mozart piece, and I am aggregated to the bone with not being able to name what Mozart piece it is. The Scandinavian sources in Razorback can be heard with the guitar driven track Release Me that goes in the style of John Norum like on his later albums and with Lone Wolf that has strong resemblance towards the later sound of Europe. With Eye Of The Storm the American sound is most salient and is a close comparison with how Tesla sound on their latest effort, and even if the touch towards an American sound is covering the entire album it is with this song it becomes most obvious.

The album is produced by Munkes himself and the choice of bringing in a second guitarist showed to be very wise. It really adds another dimension of depth that otherwise could have been lacking but now it sounds like big music and the songs are mostly with a few exceptions really strong compositions. Well balanced is another way that you could choose to describe the debut from the guys in Razorback. Although the music doesn't bring any new groundbreaking elements it is of the kind that grows on you even though it is straightforward Melodic hard rock, at first it sounded like professional performed but with lack of interest and passion, but it is there and how I could miss that in the beginning is a riddle when there is such a calm yet mighty song like Dead Man's Song that closes the Animal Anger.

See also review of: Deadringer

Production
Vocals
Compositions

7

8

7

 
Summary



7 chalices of 10 - Thomas

Related links:

www.razorback-online.com