Freak Kitchen - Land Of The Freaks

Published October 29 2009

*=Staff's pick	God Save The Spleen* Hip Hip Horrah* Teargas Jazz Sick? (Death By Hypochondria) Ok Honey, You're A Nazi* The Only Way* Murder Groupie The Smell Of Time One Last Dance Do Not Disturb Clean It Up

Genre	Progressive Metal	Mattias 'IA' Eklundh	Vocals
Tracks	12	Mattias 'IA' Eklundh	Guitar
Runningtime	50 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Thunderstruck Productions	Christer Örtefors	Bass
Release	21 October 2009	Björn Fryklund	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboard
Similar artists	---

There is no one like Freak Kitchen. There is not even any band that you possible can use as vague comparison to get someone whom never heard of them to understand how they sound. But it is strange, at the same time as you always can recognise Freak Kitchen, you never know what to expect, because they base their sound on ever continuing little experiments. That usually means that either you like it - or you don't. Either you embrace 'IA' Eklundh's strange guitar exercises and sometimes even stranger lyrics - or you simply don't understand the brilliance in all the chaotic strangeness at all.

The (self-made) production is as usual round and fat as a piece of Christmas ham. The first half of the album is the most diverse with songs with strong character. Some of them to the limit of disturbingly non-melodic ugliness, because a Freak Kitchen song is built mainly around rhythms and riffs in unusual structures. The second half tend to be a bit more of a grey mass of good work, but without distinction.

'IA' as usual handles a diverse flora of topics in his lyrics: the black market of body organs, housewife nazism, hypochondria and reality TV. He manages to be smart, critical to society and funny at the same time, which is an art in itself. That mirrors in his guitar play as well, which is both highly technically skilled without ever being pretentiously boring.

'IA' must forgive me though, but this time the best song is written and sung by the bass player in the police helmet, Christer Örtefors. The ballad-like The Only Way may be the most conventional and mainstream track, but also the most touching and sticky.

If you like Freak Kitchen you will be very pleased also with Land Of The Freaks. If you haven't understood their earlier work, you will probably not get this either. But don't mistrust, it will always come even better to its true potential live! So never give up until you tried that opportunity as well.

See also review of: Organic , The Road Less Traveled

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	10	8	7	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - David