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Mustasch: Sounds like hell, looks like heaven
30/03/12 || gk
Sweden’s Mustasch has been pumping out albums regularly since 2002 and “Sounds like Hell, Looks like Heaven” is the bands 6th full length. I haven’t heard the previous album to this but 2007’s “Latest Version of the Truth” was a fun, stoner friendly, hard rock album with some great songs and I was quite looking forward to checking this out.
“Sounds like Hell…” starts with the short but catchy “Speed Metal”. Very 80’s in feel and while the song title is a bit of a misnomer, the song itself is catchy and fun with a thick bass sound and a pretty cool solo as the song fades out. “The Challenger” has a bit of a bite to the vocals and the big melodic chorus is great to sing along to sitting somewhere between Jorn Lande’s solo albums and Volbeat. 3rd song on the album, “It’s Never Too Late” starts with a ridiculously catchy vocal line that turns into the chorus. Pretty much pop metal at this point but it’s done really well. The album gets off to a great start with these 3 songs and I was quite happy with the way things were going. Then, “Cold Heart Mother Son” has a main riff that sounds like Megadeth’s “Crush ‘em” from “Risk” and it’s a cheesy, boring song that kind of breaks up the momentum. Things pick up again soon enough with “Morning Star” which is also cheesy but fun and has another great chorus. “Your Father must be Proud of You” is easily the best song on the album and an unapologetic homage to 80’s hard rock.
Musically, they sit somewhere between the hard rock of Jorn Lande and the catchy pop metal of Volbeat with a thick bottom end vocalist and chief song writer Ralf Gyllenhammer has a real knack of coming up with kickass vocal melodies and the band balances melody with catchy grooves quite well. I love the bass sound here and it helps in giving the songs a well rounded feel but I have to say that the solos aren’t as good as they used to be and just a little pedestrian but overall, it’s the catchy riffs that are the center piece of this album.
Having heard “Sounds like Hell, Looks like Heaven” for a while now, while there are some really good songs here it just feels like there’s something missing. Almost like Mustasch has traded in some of their roughness for a slick sound that is a bit too clean and sounds manufactured. Fans of the band will probably eat this up but I think I’ll stick with “Another Version of the Truth”.
- Information
- Released: 2012
- Label: Regain Records
- Website: Mustasch MySpace
- Band
- Ralf Gyllenhammar: vocals, guitars
- David Johannesson: guitars
- Mats Stam Johansson: bass
- Danne McKenzie: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Speed Metal
- 02. The Challenger
- 03. It’s Never Too Late
- 04. Cold Heart Mother Son
- 05. Morning Star
- 06. Dead Again
- 07. Your Father Must Be Proud Of You
- 08. Destroyed by Destruction
- 09. I Don’t Hate You
- 10. Northern Star
