Jorn-Bring Heavy Rock to the Land

Frontiers Records
2012


With a career spanning over 30 albums where does Jorn Lande find enough time to release yet another solo LP? Actually, this is already the seventh "solo" studio album for Jorn as crazy as that seems to me. Does this guy ever sleep? Is he even human? For those who don't know the name Jorn is probably best known for Masterplan although he has played Ark, Millennium, Vagabond, Beyond Twilight, etc. With his new album, "Bring Heavy Rock to the Land" Jorn welcomes back guitarist Jimmy Iversen who previously appeared on “Spirit Black”. Also involved in this latest album is bassist Nic Angileri, second guitarist Tore Morenis (Wild Willy's Gang, Carnivora, Arcturus and Skitliv) and drummer Willy Bendiksen (Wild Willy's Gang, Bad Habitz, Blonde On Blonde, Flax, Høst, Perfect Crime, Road, etc). If you have heard Jorn before then you should already know what to expect. This is another album that walks the line between traditional heavy metal and classic hard rock with Jorn's vocals serving as the highlight. While I wouldn't say he sounds like Dio he has the same kind of powerful voice that the late great Ronnie did (incidentally Jorn released a tribute album to Dio back in 2010 called "Dio"). The promo suggests that Dio, Black Sabbath, Rainbow and Whitesnake are like-minded bands. Those first three do come to mind as does acts like Judas Priest, Warlord, Bible Of the Devil,
Oliver Magnum, Saxon, Riot, Overdrive and Iron Maiden. In other words the perfect blend of classic heavy metal, eighties hard rock/heavy metal and progressive metal! With eight new tracks (all of which are just great!) and two cover songs (Christopher Cross’ "Ride Like the Wind" and a new version of Masterplan's song "Time To Be King") this is an album sure to please the Jorn faithful while potentially pulling in some new fans as well. This one is highly recommended.

Jorn-Live in black

Frontiers
2011

The concert was recorded live on the 10th of June 2010 in front of more than 25 000 people. "Live in Black" has 17 songs taken from Jorn's solo releases. It contains tracks from his "Worldchanger" era up to his last album "Spirit Black". I hate when you get a live album and it sounds just like the studio versions only with some scattered audience noise in between songs. When I hear albums like that I wonder why they were even released or I just assume they plopped them out to fulfill a contract commitment with their label. Fortunately Jorn and his band brought their A game for this performance and actually it sounds like the audience did as well. A number of the songs here are even heavier than their studio counterparts and the band pushes hard to give a solid performance. Jorn himself gives a great performance both with always consistent vocals plus he feeds off the obviously thrilled crowd and vice versa. His band keeps up the same kinds of energy. We are also treated to a drum solo and two guitar solos. This album reminds me on some of some classic live metal albums of the past where it's okay to just give it all be a bit over the top. Really a fine album that I hope to listen to even mopre in the next few weeks.

Jorn-Dio

Frontiers
2010

One important about this album is that it was actually started before Ronnie James Dio's passing. Although the track "Song For Ronnie James" was added in as Jorn's way of thanking Dio for all he did as a performer. Jorn had already previously covered "Kill The King" and "Lonely Is The World/Letters From Earth", but they appear as well. As far as song selection we get a few staples from Dio's long career "Don't talk to strangers" and "Stand Up And Shout". More often than not there are less obvious choices on here such as "Night People" and the terrific "Sunset Superman". Even "Sacred Heart" certainly isn't one of the most popular title tracks that Dio did. Still all of these were solid songs and it's good to see them getting picked for this album. Jorn Lande is a powerful singer so unlike many vocalist it's not a stretch for him to cover Dio. His voice is similar in range and it has been obvious through the years that Ronnie was a huge influence on his approach. He handles all of the songs very well which is something that certainly not many vocalists could handle. Jorn fans already knew that and won't be surprised by how good he sounds here. For me this is a cover album and although the vocals are fine I was hoping they would take a few more liberties with the music and try to add something of their own ideas to them. That doesn't happen nearly enough as the band sticks very much to the originals with little variation. To me that limits the number of times I going to play this in the future. I still stick by the idea that a good cover song should A)be somewhat faithful to the original but B) the band also has to put something of their sound into it as well. Jorn and his band do very well that first part, but so well with the second. So this is a good album, but it's unlikely I'll listen to it that often because the versions are so much like the originals I will likely be listening to the originals when I get the urge to hear these songs.