SNOW BLIND

Stockholme EP

01/02/2005

The atmospheric intro of "Stockholme" is promising straight away. It's like a synthesised helicopter sound phasing up and down then the bass line lands and it comes apparent the bands name, being the same as a classic Black Sabbath tune, is no coincidence. Not that I'm complaining. I'd rather hear these classic rock influences than the countless Blink 182 soundalikes. The track builds up adding guitar harmonics and hi-hats for the vocals to lay on top, no distortion in earshot. Yet. The sound is good, well produced. The double tracked vocal adds the Ozzy effect and the heavy guitar stabs it's way into the main riff for the chorus, which, I must say, deserves to be stronger after the impressive intro..

Track 2 "Rented Stranger" goes straight into the heavy sound and doesn't quite have the impact of "Stockholme". The first and only guitar solo of this E.P. is well placed, half way through, and it takes off big time. Aw man! This wah solo is worthy of Dave Murray on the first two Maiden albums. Best part of the song for me definitely. Often you'll hear bands similar to these where the guitarist takes over, starts showing off and ultimately spoils the whole affair but they seem to have control of it nicely.

"Hell in Your Eyes" starts with another Sabbath style riff and goes into a deep, slack groove with distortion dropping out. The band sound at their best with this style. I would imagine other influences on the band to be Pantera, Metallica maybe Sepultura but Snowblind are not as thrashy. Nothing wrong with being proud of your influences, the trick is to not make it obvious. There's a lot more to come out of this band. Choruses need to be more convincing. A bit more of a vocal effort would sort that out. Still, a well performed demo.