Skanska Mord - The Last Supper

This CD has been hanging around my house for quite some time waiting to be reviewed, i kept on putting it off because i was hoping one more spin would get me hooked on this Swedish band. I am a big fan of Swedish Stoner Rock so i real excited about hearing this but after some 20 spins of the disc, they strike me as being a little too generic of the Stoner Rock sound. They are not bad at all but you find yourself saying haven't i heard this before somewhere? The band follows the same path as other Stoner greats from that country like Dozer, Truckfighters and so on. Big meaty riffs inspired by 70's hard rock legends with some harmonica and organ thrown in places to fill out the sound. The band members are two members of Half Man, vocalist Jan Bengtsson and bass player Patric Carlsso and three from Mothercake, drummer Thomas J?nsson and guitarists Patrik Berglin and Petter Englund. "Under the Volcano" sets things off in a positive manner with some fine stoner riffing so at first you get yourself strapped in for some killer Stoner workouts but you soon find, its all a little familiar. They are not ripping anyone off, its just too much like so many other bands in the genre. Jan Bengtsson has a great voice in the Soundgarden type vein and the guitar work is polished and is very tight. They have a bluesy feel along with enough fuzz to satisfy most Stoner Rock fans and the band delivers a decent amount of energy throughout the album.

The best tracks all seem to be in the middle to the ending of the CD, tunes like "In the Dark" and "The Hermit" are major highlights with some serious grooves. They are straight up, no bull Stoner Rock tunes so if that is your thing you will dig those two songs. "A Journey" is another cool song with more "no frills" Stoner grooves and is certainly catchy and heavy, the band reminds me of a cross between Greenleaf and The Bought Low at times seeing they have a blues based groove most of the time. The problem i have is in the rest of the album where the band lacks its own personality, its good stuff but way too generic and too traditional for its own good. Being a debut album you can forgive them for maybe playing it safe and they should develop more of their own sound in the next couple of years. For now though this is a album that has some genuine killer moments but just as many stock-standard moments where they sound un-inspired or just sound too much like other bands. It still proves however that Sweden is still a hot-spot for Stoner/Desert Rock bands, how that country continues too produce so many bands with that sound is amazing and Skanksa Mord have that sound indeed. It will be interesting to see where the band takes that sound in the future, definitely a band to watch out for. 6/10

www.myspace.com/skanskamordmusic