Occasionally there is a song so good, so mighty, so bordering on the transcendent, that you simply have to review the thing.
“River Of Hate”, on “A Universe From Nothing” is one of those.
Simply put, it sounds like Deep Purple jamming with early Rival Sons and it is one of the absolute best pieces of music that I have heard this year.
The energy, the crunch, the breakdown of “waiting for a man to change his ways” is a real touchstone moment, then there’s the solo. Good grief. That bit comes from Soren Anderson, who’s studio this was recorded in. You might have heard of him. If you haven’t, he plays guitar on Glenn Hughes solo material. He sounds like he’s enjoyed himself here and no mistake.
If that is the standout bit – it really is – then the rest is nearly as good.
“….Nothing” marks a bit of a change for the Danes, too. Known for their bluesy rock, this one has a few more shades than the other five. It’s also a concept album, and that’s cool and all, but (and I know this makes me sound like a philistine) as I have said before, my only concern, really is whether the record is any good or not.
This one is.
The guitar work from Frederik “Freddy” Schnoor – who’s brilliant voice is needed to extend itself more than ever across these 11 songs – is excellent, but if this album has a man of the match as it were, then it is keyboards man Anders Haahr. His funky playing is all over this throughout and the opener “First Blood Universe” (the first video) is no exception. It manages to find some primal urges from the deep, too, largely thanks to the bass of Mads Wilken.
I know I’ve mentioned them already, but I make no apologies for doing so again. The first time I saw Rival Sons they were so good that I proclaimed them as the saviours of something, anything, I didn’t really care. Since that day, to my mind (granted the last one was more on track) they’ve got a little mystical and hippy. “Lilith’s Nightmare” is the type of thing I would love to see them doing. FATP nail the sound here.
“Bermuda Blues” simply went down on my notes as “Deep Purple” – and that is deserved praise too, and the middle two part epic “Andromeda” is not the work of a modern band. Rather it sounds like its been unearthed from some dig somewhere at the base of Mt. Rushmore, so classic are its vibes.
After that one, as both the album and the story moves forward, the album does something interesting. It gets heavier. It gets sort of metal. Not Trivium, or Code Orange or those other bands “the kids” are going mad for right now, and not really Maiden either, but you can imagine Dio singing “Loners On The Run” and who is more metal than that, right?
Likewise, “The 11th Guest” gets itself all worked up and mystical, as something comes from a parallel universe to see how we are in earth, and “Hunger” is built on a humungous, arena shaking riff, and even on the blues licks of “Freedom Is A Prison” there is a hint or two of Rainbow, at least there is before Haahr gets going. Then it’s an absolute Jon Lord tribute.
The drums that anchor down the closing “Inferno” whip up a storm, as Rune René Hansen plays John Bonham to Schnoor’s Robert Plant, if you will. This is one of those songs that causes involuntary nodding of the head, and which will have blokes with beards stroking them furiously wherever it is heard.
A quite brilliant album, “Universe Of Nothing” has seemingly come out of nowhere. And you’d love to see it take on the world. It might well win, so strong does it sound. I’ve managed to avoid a terrible the Phantoms have got menace, pun right to the end, too. Oh well. Ignore the pun and listen to the record.
Rating 9/10
