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Hailing from the ice and snow we are told, Swedish rockers Coldspell have brought forth their debut self titled album and unleashed it on an unsuspecting world in a cataclysm of mediocrity.
And there we go, we're straight into the meat and two veg of this particular meal, because what Coldspell have done is produce a remarkably impressively average record, played by musicians that you really have to feel deserve better. This is melodic rock, and this is also the reason that melodic rock can be so bad at times, because by the time your half way through the album, you're trying to remember what it was all about, and all you can remember is that it had some good guitar moments.
The band cite influences from every decade for the past 40 years, and that's maybe why they just don't manage to make a strong impact here - they've laid their eggs in so many baskets that the hen doesn't even know where to go.
I wanted vocalist Niclas Swedentorp to blow me away with the power and bite of his voice, and he just doesn't. He fades into the music, becoming so unimportant and uninteresting that it drags away from the quality guitar licks being played by Micke Larsson.
Let's hope when these guys return with a followup to this that we'll have a bit more vocal bite, a bit more drive, and overall a better than average record.
1. Fade Away
2. Keep On Believin
3. Ravin Mad
4. All I Want
5. Surrounded
6. Solid Ground
7. Greed