Label: Rune Grammofon, 2021
Personnel - Hedvig Mollestad: guitar; Ellen Brekken: bass; Ivar Loe Bjørnstad: drums.
The powerhouse trio of Norwegian guitarist/composer Hedvig Mollestad is back with another set of hefty tunes professed with an irresistible full-fledged sonority and razor-sharp honesty. The incendiary guitarist forged a special musical partnership with bassist Ellen Brekken and drummer Ivar Loe Bjørnstad, and their intense work has generated seven albums since 2009, the year of the group’s formation.
Unsurprisingly, the music in Ding Dong You’re Dead serves the tastes of contemporary jazz fans, indie rockers and metalheads alike, in a cross-genre format that hooks us in its acute moods.
With a vibe à-la Rage Against the Machine, Brekken’s “Leo Flash Return to the Underworld” is a detailed headbanger with odd-meter signatures and high-flying solos that spread freedom and fury. Prog-rock maniacs won’t be disappointed either, and it's easy to understand from the very first minute why this trio shaped up into something special.
The blues-based “All Flights Cancelled” storms off with a hard-rock energy that recalls Black Sabbath. The blues factor is shared with the ongoing vamp stressed on the indie-pop title track, which unfolds calmly and steadily with bowed bass at first, and then with transient crystal-clear harmonics followed by atmospheric synth-guitar melody.
If “Gimbal” fascinates with thick and dark guitar washes and chromatic power-chords allied to impeccable rhythmic variances, then “The Art of Being John Malkovich” pushes us into a muscular dance-rock experience that interlocks gut-punching backbeat and heedless bass lines. It’s craggy terrain that the trio explores here with gusto.
Different from the rest, but still compatible, the clamant “Magic Moshroom” is a hallucinogenic trip where we rock, swing and dance at the same time. A sheer unexpectedness is created by syncopated drums, impressive bass mobility and improvisatory avant guitar.
“Four Candles” concludes the album on a beautiful, pathos-laden note, appearing in the form of an alternative country-esque ballad graced by colorful jazzy chords and fine percussion.
Mollestad and her trio never stop to surprise and amaze.
Grade A-
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Leo Flash Return to the Underworld ► 04 - Gimbal ► 07 - Four Candles