With the ubiquitous “put it all on red” Vegas mentality, Sweden
\nrockers Mustasch are sticking to past formula with the recent
\nrecording of
\nPowerhouse<\/i>, the band’s fourth full-length effort.<\/p>\n
Calculating a gamble that their past and now present doom-style
\nrock pattern is the way to go,
\nPowerhouse<\/i> further extends Mustasch’s strategy by offering
\nup a slate of tracks that will find them easily confused with any
\nother material the band has previously recorded.<\/p>\n
Fortunately though, bassist Mats Johansson shows increased
\ncomfort in teaming with rhythm guitarist Hannes Hansson in framing
\nthe
\nPowerhouse<\/i> tracks with a largely plodding chord structure
\nthat give lead guitarist and vocalist Ralf Gyllenhammar free reign
\nto bang out the requisite hooks to surround vocals, likened to what
\na perturbed Glenn Danzig would be expected to deliver.<\/p>\n
So, chapter four of Mustasch’s tried-and-true style yields a few
\nfresh hits such as “Accident Blackspot,” a song summarizing a
\ntempestuous counseling session about one revisiting a selfishly
\nsingle-minded focus on life. Make no mistake — Gyllenhammar
\nsinisterly advises that this is not a love song but rather a song
\nabout fear. Convincingly, I’d say that there are some pretty heady
\nlyrics to be found on this track, which serve to set up the
\nfollowing gritty storyline about relationships that surely will
\ncater to men of all ages.<\/p>\n
“Dogwash,” the first single from Powerhouse, laments a guy’s
\nlower class standing in the chase for romance with the catchy “I’m
\na dog and I feel dirty” chorus. This is truly a song with a simple
\nmission statement and one catchy-as-hell chorus. Listening to this
\ntrack, one will quickly sympathize that there need be no shame in
\nswimming in the gutter of love until perhaps the second single from
\nthe album kicks in with the stately title, “I Lied.”<\/p>\n
In this song, Gyllenhammar turns an early seductive vocal plea
\ninto a rather rigid fist pumper based on the laurels of a failed
\nlove affair. Maybe Gyllenhammar sounds so convincing because he’s
\nfigured out that gutter flow eventually leads to the sewer?<\/p>\n
Defiantly, the
\nPowerhouse<\/i> song trilogy concludes with “I’m Alright,” an
\nemotional gearshift of assurance that has Gyllenhammar coming to
\ngrips with the demons that have previously flamed the heat on his
\nsubject’s burning heart. The topic of love has always been a basic
\ntenet of rock n’ roll but rarely has it been covered from beginning
\nto end with such convincing authority.<\/p>\n
From a production standpoint, I’m going to have to yet again
\ncall Mustasch’s label EMI out as I’ve done in the past for putting
\ntheir funky copy control sealant on
\nPowerhouse<\/i> which randomizes the track order on my computer’s
\nRealPlayer at the same time it creates an annoying — every 90
\nsecond — skip, in song action.<\/p>\n
Back to the topic. I’m beginning to liken Mustasch’s career
\nmusical approach to a slow-burn effort in evolution. Past fans are
\ngoing to embrace this album for delivering familiar goods while
\nthose that have already passed judgment on the band won’t find
\nanything on
\nPowerhouse<\/i> to win them over — leaving only the uninitiated
\nto jump on board. Bands like AC\/DC have obviously figured out how
\nto make this strategy work, of course, which is proof that such
\ncritique should be taken within certain context.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":27282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6953],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38643","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mustasch","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38643","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=38643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38643"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}