A note was emailed out to the staff by our fearless leader a few
\nweeks ago encouraging us to compile our “best-of” lists for the
\npast year and submitting them for publishing on the site. This is
\nan opportunity I would normally jump on as it’s a self aggrandizing
\nannual culmination of what I do by the very nature of writing
\nreviews for the site. Who wouldn’t want such an opportunity? But,
\nman, I started thinking about how lame 2003 has really been for
\nstellar releases in the largely narrow world of rock and roll in
\nwhich I choose to stay entertained and I hate to say it; I just
\ncan’t do it. I can’t write a celebratory column on how great 2003
\nhas treated us with regards to new album releases – that is, with a
\nstraight face.<\/p>\n
But, given the circumstances, I’d feel a bit guilty in missing
\nthe assignment while omitting the submission for the best release
\nin 2003 that these ears have heard by way of Gothenburg, Sweden’s
\nhard rock\/metal upstarts, Mustasch, and their
\nRatsafari<\/i> effort. Normally, I’d also accept a heavy dose of
\nlameness catcalls for playing my hand so early in revealing my
\nopinion of a review but this album just needs to be heard and would
\neasily top my very short list of essential albums for the year if I
\ncould somehow justify lining up others to follow.<\/p>\n
Building off the Swedish Grammy nomination (Best Heavy Metal
\nalbum) success Mustasch claimed for themselves in their homeland
\nwith their 2002 release,
\nAbove All<\/i>, vocalist Ralf Gyllenhammer continues to convince
\nme he has the best set of pipes in the business today. The vocal
\nrange he possesses would make Ian Astbury envious, the power he
\nresonates would make Glenn Danzig yearn for his youth, and his
\nsinisterness has me convinced that Ronnie James Dio would grant him
\na lifetime membership into the devil horn club given the
\nopportunity.<\/p>\n
And while
\nRatsafari<\/i> has Mustasch further evolving away from the stoner
\nrock formula with their sound in more of a traditional heavy metal
\nvain, ala the sounds of a doomy Black Sabbath as evidenced by the
\ntracks “6:36” or “Alpha Male”, the band successfully experiments in
\nturning the track, “Unsafe at any Speed” into a Monster Magnet –
\n“Dopes to Infinity” era hybrid with the cosmic space rock riffage
\nthat wonderfully frames Gyllenhammer’s vocals. Even the first
\nsingle released from Ratsafari, “Black City”, has to be commended
\nas the recognized track despite the relative simplemindedness of
\nvocals such as “I’ve got smog in my brain\/And gasoline in the
\nveins\/Get out of my way\/I’ve got my motor running\/Motor
\nrunning\u2026\u2026” only because Gyllenhammer can out-Danzig
\nGlenn himself with the vocal delivery. I’d hate to say that the
\nsong dissolves into nothing more than a guilty pleasure as that
\nmight suggest
\nRatsafari<\/i> be classified as nothing more than a one trick
\npony.<\/p>\n
Seemingly out of nowhere, Ratsafari produces a plummeting down
\ntuned guitar masterpiece with the song “Fredrika”. It’s the one
\ntrack on the album that guitarist Hannes Hansson penned in a solo
\nfashion and has me convinced that the strength of the band’s
\nsongwriting involves his participation. Lyrically, the song is
\nsound but considering the fact that he wrote it for Gyllenhammer to
\nsing and it gets nailed to a T leaves me even more impressed.<\/p>\n
If Ratsafari is my album of the year, “Fredrika” may very well
\nbe my song of the year.<\/p>\n
In assessing
\nRatsafari<\/i>‘s strengths, I’ll allow that the band succeeds in
\nmaking all the parts fit. Mats Johansson’s bass line tandems
\nexceptionally well with the back beat that Mats Hansson drum work
\ndelivers. Hannes Hansson’s guitar solos are well crafted and timed
\nto sustain the momentum of Gyllenhammer’s continued forceful vocal
\npitch throughout the album. Faster playing doesn’t necessarily make
\nmetal songs better and I’m thoroughly convinced
\nRatsafari<\/i> benefits from the fact that the album showcases
\nthe dynamic strength of their vocalist without cluttering up the
\nsongs with needless instrumental showmanship.<\/p>\n
My “best-of” list may have been short this year but I can
\nhonestly say that
\nRatsafari<\/i> would have been at the top of any list I could
\nhave written for the past several years. It’s one of those rare
\nreleases that grabbed my attention immediately the first time I
\nheard it and has only become better with repeated listens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":26563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6953],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37803","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mustasch","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37803"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}