Highrider - Roll for Initiative

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When you’re dealing with Metal genres that are extremely old, the same and old idea must be in the minds of the musicians who want to follow these paths: you must have enough personality to breathe some life into your musical work; as well you must make something different. In the case of the quartet HIGHRIDER, from Sweden, they show that they have guts enough on their first album, “Roll for Initiative”.

You won’t find something new in musical terms on this album, just the old and good traditional Heavy Metal, but the personal contribution they give is to play in an aggressive form that is different that everything we heard before. It’s like DEEP PURPLE or RAINBOW playing with blood in their eyes, with a more aggressive insight, but with the same melodic essence. Yes, they did something different, and it is really very good for our ears. Using an organic sound quality, the album sounds old and aggressive, but with very good instrumental tunes. Although the rawness level could be not as high as it is on “Roll for Initiative” sonority, but it really matches highly in what the band needs for its musical work.

The eight songs are all very good, showing a talented band (even having only four years of existence). Their moments are the raw and energetic “Nihilist Lament” (very good vocals and fine melodies), the good melodic lines created by the keyboards on “A Burial Scene” (along with bitter and greasy slow parts), the Punk/Hardcore touch on the aggressive tempos of “Batteries”, the nasty harmonies and very good work from bass guitar and drums of “Emotional Werewolf”, and the aggressiveness of the vocals and nasty work from guitars on “Roll Dee Twenty”. They are a very good band, a fine revelation, showing that Gothenburg is not a city focused exclusively on Death Metal.

Originality: 8
Songwriting: 10
Memorability: 8
Production: 7