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Abramis Brama to Reissue Entire Discography; Dansa Tokjävelns Vals Due Nov. 29

Posted in Whathaveyou on October 1st, 2019 by JJ Koczan

abramis brama in 1999

I’m including the full Abramis Brama bio here. Not because I wrote it — which is sometimes my excuse — or because I’m stoked they’re putting the first album out again for the 20th anniversary, though that is cool, but purely for informational purposes. This is a band I think people should know and should know about, and though I’ve written about them a few times over the years, including their 2018 album, Tusen År (review here), I’m not so much of an egotist as to think everyone who ever reads this site always reads this site. There are statistics to back me up on that, which, if I’m honest, I rarely if ever look at anymore. Numbers are what they are, and I’d rather spend time listening to music than thinking about them.

Further, in addition to wanting to have this information in case anyone sees this post and feels up for some perusal, I also want it here for myself, because at some point, I’m going to want clarity on what Abramis Brama were doing when, and true, this is in my email and will be until that server explodes somewhere, but all the better for backup, because again, this is valuable info to me. Facts and figures, dates and times, riffs and grooves.

So yes, Abramis Brama are reissuing Dansa Tokjävelns Vals. In fact they’re reissuing their whole discography between next month and next summer, one per month. And yes, that’s awesome. But please don’t think I’m including the whole bio here just to fill space, because it’s the internet, and filling the space would be impossible.

From the PR:

abramis brama dansa tokjavelns vals

ABRAMIS BRAMA Re-Issues Their Debut Album DANSA TOKJÄVELNS VALS

Abramis Brama’s debut album’s 20th anniversary is celebrated with a release on vinyl for the very first time, kicking off a series of re-releases of the band’s entire catalogue – with one album every month up until summer 2020

Editions:
– Black LP + Tote Bag
– Black LP
– Transparent Blue LP

Release: 2019-11-29

Bio:

Abramis Brama, named after the latin name for the bream fish, hail from the south side of Stockholm, Sweden and has since its formation in 1997 released seven studio albums and one live album with heavy, ecstatic, riff-oriented hard rock – but with Swedish lyrics, an odd choice at the height of the international stoner rock movement around the turn of the millennium.

The quartet consisting of bassist/vocalist Dennis Berg, guitarist Peo Anderson, drummer Fredrik Jansson and original lead vocalist Christian Andersen first recorded a demo of twelve songs in April 1998, followed by debut album ”Dansa tokjävelns vals” in 1999.

New singer Ulf Torkelsson, formerly of Sunflower, joined the band after the release of the first album, and has fronted the band ever since. The follow-up ”När tystnaden lagt sig…” hit record stores in early 2001, and featured many of the band’s best known songs, and a translation of the Pretty Things number ”Cold Stone” into Swedish as ”Kall som sten”.

Covers of Captain Beyond and Swedish proto-metal pioneers November (who were the first hard rock band to sing in Swedish) were released on tribute albums and singles. After being pressured by their label at the time to record an album in English, the band re-wrote the lyrics for their old songs, rerecorded them with producer Per Wikström and released them as ”Nothing Changes” in 2003.

For ”Rubicon”, released in early 2005, the songs were yet again in Swedish. The band added second guitarist Robert Johansson (from tour partners Backdraft) but soon drummer Fredrik Jansson left the band, later joining Witchcraft (and is now in Angel Witch and Lugnet). His replacement Fredrik Liefvendahl (formerly of both Backdraft and Grand Magus) made his debut on record with the band for their ”Live!” album. ”Smakar söndag”, the band’s only studio album as a quintet, was released in 2009 and nominated for the prestigious P3 Guld award in Sweden by the national radio organization.

Guitarist Robert Johansson left the band in 2011. He was not replaced but instead the band carried on as a quartet, with Peo Andersson handling all guitars, like in their early days. However, at the end of a European tour in the fall of 2012 bassist and founding member Dennis Berg quit the band. An appearance at the legendary German tv show Rockpalast (where they performed solely in Swedish) and the Doom Over Vienna festival were some of his last concerts with Abramis Brama.

The band had then already started to write and plan the recordings for a new studio album, and new bass player Mats Rydström (also from Backdraft, nowadays in Avatarium) joined just in time for the first sessions for ”Enkel biljett”. In 2013 the band made their first live appearances with the new line-up, and was also filmed for a feature about Swedish music by the Brazilian tv show Música na Mochila – a show that’s broadcast all over Latin America.

The title track ”Enkel biljett” was released as a vinyl 7” split single with Norwegian friends Black Debbath in January of 2014, and was followed by the full album in May. It got a warm reception from fans and press alike, and Metal Hammer (UK) wrote: ”Abramis Brama have the bases covered, and while Sweden isn’t in danger of running out of vintagegear retro-rawk shapes, these beardy longhairs have their shit nailed.”

In the liner notes Swedish linguist and tv personality Fredrik Lindström called Abramis Brama Sweden’s most consistent band: ”In order to be consistent, you have to be confident. Abramis Brama sings about humanity, onus and existence with a burning commitment that would make Strindberg recant his words that his fire was the biggest in Sweden.”

Since then the band has toured Sweden, not just the major cities but all over this weird land, and played all the key festivals such as Metallsvenskan, Muskelrock, Getaway, Krökbacken and of course Sweden Rock Festival (for the fourth time). Upon their return to Germany in August of 2017, for the Aquamaria Festival, it became evident that good rock’n’roll is in itself a universal language.

In the spring of 2018, Abramis Brama signed with new label Black Lodge Records and released the ”Tusen år” album, which went to #2 on the Swedish hard rock charts and vinyl charts. Starting in November 2019, on the 20th anniversary of the release of the debut album ”Dansa tokjävelns vals”, the complete back catalogue will be re-released on vinyl, one record at a time, with expanded cover art and unreleased bonus tracks in some cases.

www.abramisbrama.com
www.facebook.com/abramisbrama
www.instagram.com/abramisbramaofficial
https://abramisbrama.bandcamp.com/
https://smarturl.it/BLOD128
https://www.facebook.com/blacklodgerecords/
https://blacklodgerecords.bandcamp.com/

Abramis Brama, “Tunga Tankar”

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Abramis Brama, Tusen År: Thousand Year Wildfire

Posted in Reviews on May 9th, 2018 by JJ Koczan

Abramis Brama Tusen År

There’s just nothing here to argue against. I’m sorry. Usually in a review I find it appropriate to cite areas of potential growth as well as what’s really working and the narrative of a given album, but to take a band like Stockholm’s Abramis Brama, who release their seventh album, Tusen År, through Black Lodge Records and with it embark on a 45-minute journey through rock as timeless as it is willfully dated — a style they’ve long since mastered in an aesthetic they helped define — and yeah, I just don’t hear anything in these eight tracks that doesn’t work.

Founding vocalist Ulf Torkelsson and founding guitarist Per-Olof Andersson, partnered once again with the tenured rhythm section of bassist/backing vocalist Mats Rydström (also Avatarium) and drummer Fredrik Liefvendahl (formerly of Grand Magus) — in the band for six and 13 years, respectively — celebrate two decades since their initial single was released with a collection that basks in raw classic heavy rock energy and form. They cover Ashbury with the translated-into-Swedish “Vägen ut” and work in the tradition of bands like November and Träd, Gräs och Stenar in playing proto-heavy and progressive, folk-infused rock on a cut like “Slutet av tunneln,” which ends side A of a well-split vinyl record big on quality and light on pretense as only a band with two decades under its collective belt can be if it so chooses. If nothing else, Tusen År reaffirms that Abramis Brama have been long underrated in the international underground.

No doubt part of that is their Swedish lyrics, but in listening to their work on Tusen År, or the preceding 2014 outing Enkel Biljett (discussed here) or 2009’s more polished-seeming Smakar Söndag (review here), let alone a record like 2005’s Rubicon (discussed here), the fact that the songs are in Swedish is an essential part of the band’s character and sonic persona. It’s something from which they’ve veered only once, on 2003’s Nothing Changes (discussed here), and that’s something they still blame on their record label at the time, Sweden Rock. Either way, theirs stands among the most storied careers in the Swedish heavy rock, and tracks like the uptempo one-two kick of “Löpeld” and the ping-ride-infused roller “Vem du är” at the outset of Tusen År only underscore the immense respect the band is due.

Abramis Brama photo Linda Pettersson

Cleanly produced but overarchingly natural with backing vocal harmonies, hooks and flowing grooves, the initial salvo sets the tone for much of what follows, though as Abramis Brama move into the title-track, they immediately expand the palette of mood to encompass more brooding vibes and a bluesy harmonica solo from Torkelsson amid the sleek shuffle of the verse and bouncing chorus declension. At the halfway point, the title-track breaks into an acoustic-laced jam but eventually pulls back to the more weighted push of its hook before fading out and giving way to “Slutet av tunneln,” to which it has provided a subtle and fluid lead-in. The aforementioned side A closer has its louder moments, starting at 2:32 and just barely leaving room at the end for a return to the quiet acoustic guitar that started out, but the personality of the piece is more defined by its mellow vibe and offers a singular moment to which the winding course of Tusen År‘s side B will ultimately not return, in spite of expectation otherwise.

The shortest track on Tusen År at 3:24, “Fel kvinna” is primo boogie rock, thick in tone but well geared toward its rhythmic movement and subtly precise drumming, with little space for frills amid its hook and tambourine-inclusive drive. “Vengeance” was included on Ashbury‘s 1983 outing, Endless Skies, and apart from the translation and a better balance in the mix, Abramis Brama are pretty loyal to the original version, featuring the guitar in lead and rhythm layers atop a nodding groove and the flowing vocals that accompany. This departure from original material sets up the transition into closing duo “Hav av lögner” and “Ta mig tillbaka,” two of Tusen År‘s longest — 7:04 and 8:26 — tracks but also some of the catchiest, and, in a mirror of “Löpeld” and “Vem du är” at the beginning, two songs that work in a similar fashion to define some of the essential elements of the album as a whole.

Neither Abramis Brama‘s prowess as songwriters nor their chemistry as performers was in particular doubt, but both are reaffirmed in the ’70s boogie party of “Hav av lögner,” and I don’t care what’s your first language, by the time it gets around to delivering its title line, “Ta mig tillbaka” is 100 percent singalong-worthy. The closer starts out patiently and makes its way gradually through its initial verses, but don’t be fooled — the good times are on their way, and 20 years on from their first radio airplay, Abramis Brama sound like they’re having an absolute blast as “Ta mig tillbaka” swings to its harmonica-topped finish at about 7:30, only to give way to vague, echoing acapella vocals that remind of some lost 45RPM record from the mid-’60s but fade out as an epilogue to the absolute blast beforehand.

Like I said at the outset, there’s nothing to complain about here. This is simply a band aware of who they are and how to make their sound go where they want it to go, ace crafters of classic-style songs that bring a stamp of their own persona to everything they do. It’s not every year a new Abramis Brama comes along, but when one does, it’s almost certainly going to be an occasion to celebrate. That’s certainly the case with Tusen År.

Abramis Brama, “Vem är du”

Abramis Brama website

Abramis Brama on Thee Facebooks

Abeamis Brama on Instaram

Abramis Brama purchase portal

Black Lodge Records on Thee Facebooks

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Abramis Brama to Release Tusen År April 20

Posted in Whathaveyou on February 21st, 2018 by JJ Koczan

Abramis Brama photo Linda Pettersson

I’ll probably post it first, because of the time zone differences and all that, but you should know that I’ve waited until the end of my day to write about the new Abramis Brama album because I knew it would make me happy to think about it coming out and I wanted to finish the afternoon of putting posts together on a particularly high note. And yeah, the long-running Swedish outfit are good for that kind of thing. Tusen År will be their seventh long-player and first on Black Lodge Records, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to get some advanced coverage going for it — you know, beyond this — and maybe interview the band, who remain way, way underappreciated for their contributions to heavy rock both retro and modern.

Yeah, see? I knew that would feel good to think about. New Abramis Brama. What’s not awesome about that? It’s out in April.

From the PR wire:

abramis brama tusen ar

Abramis Brama – Tusen År – Black Lodge Records

Abramis Brama returns with their seventh studio album in 2018, which also celebrates the 20th anniversary of the band’s debut on the Swedish heavy rock scene and national radio airwaves with their signature song “Mamma talar”.

At the time, however, heavy rock with strong 60’s and 70’s roots, sung in their native Swedish tongue, was hardly in fashion. Still, Abramis Brama persevered, and aside from one album (by request of the record label at the time), the band has not swayed, nor betrayed their initial ideals of fusing the doomy thunder of Black Sabbath with the deep groove of Mountain and the lyrical tradition that started with Swedish cult band November in the late 60’s – also adding a Swedish folk influence and some psychedelic touches.

This has garnered them international praise and recognition from listeners and press alike, and by their solid, high energy live performances all over Sweden they’ve created a strong grassroots fan base, that stretch far outside the main cities.

“Tusen år”, the band’s debut for Black Lodge Records, is a very focused rock album that stays true to band’s ideals, and digs deeper with thoughtful, mature, and poetic lyrics – which both celebrate and lament our existence as humans on earth and beyond.

TRACKLIST:
01. Löpeld
02. Vem är du?
03. Tusen år
04. Slutet av tunneln
05. Fel kvinna
06. Vägen ut
07. Hav av lögner
08. Ta mig tillbaka

LINE-UP:
Ulf Torkelsson – lead vocals, harmonica
Per-Olof Andersson – electric and acoustic guitars
Fredrik Liefvendahl – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Mats Rydström – bass, backing vocals

www.abramisbrama.com
www.facebook.com/abramisbrama
www.instagram.com/abramisbramaofficial
http://smarturl.it/tusen-ar
https://www.facebook.com/blacklodgerecords/

Abramis Brama, “Lång Tripp” official video

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