STONEWALL NOISE ORCHESTRA

70s-influenced Swedish groove rockers S.N.O. (or Stonewall Noise Orchestra for long) have got their game down. They know what makes a crowd happy and album number four from these Black Sabbath-worshippers is rife with crowd-pleasers aplenty. ‘Salvation’ starts off pretty good with ‘Die Die Die’ opening with a riff that promises much and turns into a pretty stomping track with a catchy chorus and all the trimmings but, after that, well it’s pretty much all the same. Stomping American grooves stomp their way across the album’s well-stomped forty two minutes of stomping grooves. But this road trip’s going nowhere except round and round in circles to get to the chorus as quick as they can again and again. And that’s exactly why ‘Salvation’ is just okay. Just about. Catchy choruses, plenty of riffs, a smattering of wah wah and the occasional acoustic guitar (to evoke the desert, probably), singalong melodies and no-brainer lyrics, all that’s missing is the cowbell. Oh, no, wait a minute. There it is in ‘Dead Eden’. And that’s all the boxes ticked.

They’re all good musicians, there are plenty of good riffs, and Singe has got a decent voice and an ear for a hook, but this album does nothing but regurgitate every cliché known to the genre. There’s not much noise, nor do they sound much like an orchestra, and though the wall’s pretty thick and heavy, these guys are capable of much more than churning out what we’ve heard time and again and again and again…

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Transubstans Records

Album

SALVATION

Review by Jason Guest

RUNNING TIME:

42:00

RELEASE DATE:

6th Feb 2013

TRACK LISTING

1) Die Die Die
2) New Age Inc
3) Chemical Sky
4) Monsoon Song
5) The Escape Artist
6) Good Ol' Black Magic
7) Empire
8) The Surgeon and the Virgin
9) Beating Butterflies
10) Dead Eden

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

Sweden

"...this album does nothing but regurgitate every cliché known to the genre."