| Astroqueen
Into Submission Remember the Astroqueen single last month? Yeah, I said it was good, but it's nothing compared to the full deal, Into Submission. The album is best described as "all killer, no filler." Much like Hawkwind or Man or Astroman have space vibes, Astroqueen is heavy into the outer limits. They are into stretching limits and boundaries, and I see no doomy end in sight for Astroqueen. They have taken doom metal ala Black Sabbath and mated it with a keen sense of melodic death metal--they are from Sweden after all--� la Entombed, and twisted it up with a touch of stoner ala Hangnail. There's even the occasional Psychedelic touch. It goes well with the "space vibe." Daniel Angede's vocals are perfect--rough enough, kinda growly, but totally melodic. They are getting penned into the stoner category because of the number of stoner rock compilations upon which Astroqueen appear. But don't despair, Astroqueen have a lot of rock in their souls and they love to bare their souls. Angede and the boys like to speed you up and then hippie it all down real slow and trippy-dippy then jolt you back into their wide world of metal before shooting you "Into Submission" into the stratosphere of stoned-out-cool riffs. Pavement must really believe in the potential of Astroqueen because they shelled out the big bucks to get Andy LaRoque of King Diamond to flawlessly produce Into Submission. Astroqueen are from Sweden; however, not from Gothenburg, but further north in the tiny seaside village of Stenungsund. Tony Jelencovich of the Transport League (also on Pavement) brought their demo to the attention of Pavement by having Astroqueen play a few gigs at his club "Belsepub" (nice pun). Their music is loaded with influences from Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Kyuss and Soundgarden according to the band. Into Submission is a darn near flawless disc. Anyone within earshot will be impressed. This disc is rock enough that you could play it on mainstream radio but it would probably make way too many scouts flock to Stenungsund. |