Dansk version

Accentuating the positive:

Lots of young and younger rockbands these days have discovered – probably after having raided their parents' record collections for years - that early 1970's hardrock music was unique in mood, sonic organic authenticity and livefeeling – even on studio recordings.

Here I'm thinking about bands like Grand Funk Railroad, Humble Pie, Free, early Sabbath and the band whose name looms over the competition: Led Zeppelin – especially during the early years of their existence.

Accentuating the negative:

While most of the new bands appreciate the riff heavy 70's thing, few of them realize that it takes more than style and the right "vintage" instruments and amplifiers to do this stuff properly.

It also takes decent compositions and intuitive understanding of the music and that's where many new bands just put style over substance and hope nobody notices.

Having said that it's a pleasure to welcome Copenhagen trio Black Book Lodge and their convincing debutalbum "Tundra" to the party. These guys not only master the genre and it's form down to a tee. They launch themselves with songs laden with (doomsday)moods and a unique melancholic sonic quality that's rare among new bands these days. In other words: Black Book Lodge don't rely on lounging in the rays of Zeppelin, Soundgarden and Mastodon, hoping to lap up some of the glory from said rays.

Glorious
And believe me: On and off Black Book Lodge are truly fucking glorious. Lend an ear to the majestic "Crippelgate" – a lesson in developing relatively simple 70's rock into something much bigger. It can be done – if you have basic understanding for this kind of music and after that are capable of and courageous enough to stamp you own moods and dynamic into the equation.

"Tundra" is not an easy album to fathom. Basically it's not particularly catchy but I doubt if that was what Black Book Lodge were after here. After numerous listens, however, you get caught up in the conjuring shaman-like qualities of the songs – not unlike the darker moodier side of the late Jim Morrison's work with The Doors.

In other words: Yeah, you've to to hear this – you may have heard something similar. But it rarely happens!