A
'Folie A Cinq' is a psychotic delusion shared by five interconnected people.
Let me tell you, I can take any amount of this delusion.
On their fifth album now, Swedish metal/rock band,
Sparzanza knocked me out with their fourth effort, '
In Voodoo Veritas' (2009).
It was "Hard, fast, loud, tuneful. When the last track fades you'll check your body for bruises."
The sentiment and the adjectives hold good for
'Folie A Cinq'.
Influenced by Slipknot, Mustasche, Tool and Metallica, as you can imagine, they push at sonic extremes while always remaining totally in control. It's that edginess that makes you want to listen to the music, over and over again.
Their music flirts on the edges of Hardcore, 90% clean vocals, with the cookie monster vocals used sparingly and well. This band have learned the secret. The surefire way you knock down everybody's objections, the way you overcome all barriers, (a secret apparently known only to a surprising few) is this : write killer songs.
And those songs always seem to me to be road tested and battle hardened, tempered in the fires of incessant touring. On blistering anthems like
'Temple Of The Red Eyed Pigs' (honest) and
'Mr.Fish', red hot riffs rain down, burning through sludgy stoner rhythms, with Fredrik Weileby's vocals delivered with the roar of a jet engine.
The fact that all this heavy metal energy comes with an extraordinarily high quotient of pulse quickening tunes and aurally adhesive hooks is what makes the album ignite. Innumerable metal bands would give up their gothic grannies for memorably melodic metal like '
Phoenix Down' and
'Eyes Wide Shut'.
Elsewhere,
'Hell Is Mine' and '
The Reckoning' will undoubtedly have your head a-bangin, while on the balladic '
Follow Me', Weileby impressively wrings pathos from a lovelorn lyric, as the music rises and falls like all good ballads should. The track recalls Saigon Kick in their majestic prime.
Now with major label backing,
Sparzanza might just get the breakthrough they deserve.
'
Folie A Cinq', if this is madness, let me in.
Written by
Brian Friday, March 4, 2011
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