You can't keep a good band down.
Then : In 1987, due to a distinct lack of universal acclaim and having achieved something less than global popularity, Finnish melodic rock band,
Zero Nine folded their tent and limped off into the sunset. And that immediately after releasing the wonderful
'Intrigue' album.
Older, wiser, chastened by regret of that hasty decision, they reconstituted the brand in 1996, with the creditworthy comeback album
'Freakshow'.
Now : In 2009, with their ninth album release, the imaginatively titled
'IX', they clearly just keep on keeping on.
The 'melodic rock' tag is an admittedly lazy way of describing the band's music. The truth is there's really no one like
Zero Nine and they are like no one else.
If ever proof of that were needed, it looms large and loud on this new recording.
Fans of the band may find it hard to see through
Zero Nine's disguise on loose limbed, ragged edged openers, '
Totally Stoned' and '
Working For The YSI'. Both have a funky, tongue in cheek tone, with the first track needing little further explanation beyond its title. The second grooves along on a thudding bass line and a rushing chorus, variously referencing the Stones and the
Scorpions in style and structure, though I admit the link is tenuous.
'Thunder's Calling' is tighter, pacier and the riff is sharper. It leads into a curiously off kilter, yet instantly addictive chorus with an aurally adhesive hook.
Those 3 opening tracks emphasise that fact that
Zero Nine were never conformists. They bow even less to convention. Time and experience has provided them with the confidence and the philosophy, within loosely defined melodic rock parameters, to do their own thing.
Strangely then, after those openers, the album becomes progressively more conventional.
'Can't Rewrite History' and
'Crazy Loving You' are high caliber melodic rock with a warm, bluesy glow.
Vocalist Salmirine's voice has audibly coarsened over the years, an attribute that only adds to the conviction behind the lyrics.
The strutting, swaggering
'Full Reaction', '
Set Me Free' and '
Love Is Too Dangerous' are throwbacks to dinosaur hard rock, yet all 3 have a graceful gait, and are beautifully executed.
While second but last track, '
Café Brutale' has an epic, hard rock style, magnificently apposite closing track, '
Shadows Of The Night' returns to the indefatigably impossible-to-define style of vintage
Zero Nine melodic rock.
The initiated will love
'IX'. The unconverted may well remain so.
Written by
Brian Wednesday, November 11, 2009
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