SWEDISH DEATH CANDY

Reminds us of: The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Black Sabbath, Cream, The Byrds, Hawkwind, Motorhead, The Oh Sees, Faust, The Allman Brothers

Links to websites and music in Green.

If you’ve had a look at the newmusicsocial Instagram account, you’ll have noticed that I like to celebrate my vinyl collection, and in particular bands that remind me of artists that I profile on this site. It has been quite some time since I actually bought vinyl though, as my existing collection takes up a considerable amount of space, and substantially adding to it would bring logistical challenges. Something however impelled me to buy the latest 7 inch Green from Swedish Death Candy, and I will certainly be purchasing the 40th anniversary copy of Joy Divisions’ first album ‘Unknown Pleasures’ when it’s released next month. Why buy ‘Green’ then? Well, I do have something of a fondness for the band, but I also I really miss the unconfined joy that you get with receiving music in such an aesthetically pleasing format, so I took a punt.

Green also comes as a package with A Date with Caligula  which is a great tune and one that appears on my latest playlist for May. If you’re tempted to purchase, be quick as there’s only 300 for sale on their Bandcamp page. I generally tend to like the odd psych-rock tune, but often find a lot of the artists from this genre a little too heavy for my liking. Whilst very part of that movement, Swedish Death Candy stand out for me as they balance heavy Sabbath like rock with more frequent nods toward Jimi Hendrix, and technically these guys are phenomenal musicians who can write well-structured songs.

Their debut EP ‘Liquorice’ was released on Hassle Records in 2015 with the lead track Living Your Life Away also appearing on their first album. Excellent stand-alone singles Won't be Long and Oh My  followed in 2017 alongside a further 2 singles.

Their eponymous debut album was also released in 2017: it’s a joyous cacophony from start to finish, channelling Black Sabbath on songs like Last Dream (interesting video for this by the way) and Broken Engrams, Cream on like Love You Already and Living Your Life Away (another trippy video), the Oh Sees on Pearl and even the Byrds on tracks like Avalanche. In amongst all of this the spirit of Jimi Hendrix looms heavy throughout. I’ve always thought that the best place to start learning the guitar would be Hendrix and it seems like Lead Singer/Guitarist Louis Perry agrees with me, as his playing is superb. Check out their session for KEXP here.       
     
Last year saw ‘A Date with Caligula’ released on download, again with a heavy nod toward the Oh Sees, and Green came out last month. They are regularly gigging - as with a lot of bands that I’m uncovering as I go along I am yet to see them play live, but I am assured that they are excellent and will make sure I catch them as soon as I can, and will post my findings on Instagram

I recommend listening to the album loud from start to finish, and like me I expect even if you’re not particularly into head-banging you will find your head going (probably by track 2)!