UMUR "Hisingen Blues" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish hard/heavy rock act Graveyard. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in March 2011.

The music on "Hisingen Blues" is hard/heavy rock with deep roots in late sixties/early seventies hard rock. I´d especially mention Led Zeppelin as an inspiration. The riffs are hard rocking and blues based, the rythm section is organic and lead vocalist/guitarist Joakim Nilsson has a raw vocal delivery somewhere between Chris Cornell (Soundgarden, Audioslave) and Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin). The album features an organic sound production and what sounds like an analogue recording to me and that´s greatly enjoyable and suits the music well. While there are certainly raw and hard rocking moments on the album like the energetic opener "Ain’t Fit To Live Here" and "RSS", the band also take the tempo down and display how dynamic they can be too. A track like "Uncomfortably Numb" is a good example of this.

"Hisingen Blues" is a great release and a recommended purchase for fans of hard rocking heavy rock. The music is undeniably retro in every way possible, so don´t expect to hear anything here that you haven´t heard before. However what you can expect is to be blown away be the sincerity of the affair and the powerful delivery of the music and that certainly counts as plusses in my book too. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

Time Signature Grateful are the hardrockers...

Genre: veeery old school metal

Although stylistically different bands like Noctum and Graveyard can be considered representatives of a movement in Sweden and elsewhere which retrospectively seeks back to the very earliest incarnations of heavy metal music and its roots in 70s hard rock.

While Noctum seek inspiration mainly in Black Sabbath and similarly doom-ladden early metal bands, Graveyard seem more inspired by Led Zeppelin (and Joakim Nilsson's raw voice sounds like something in between Robert Plant and "Manic Frustration"-era Eric Wagner [who's known to do some Plant copy-catting anyway]), and Graveyard appears generally less doom-ladden than Noctum. Nonetheless, tracks like the heavy "No Good, Mr Holden" and "Ungrateful Ar the Dead", the dark ballads "Uncomfortably Numb" and "Longing" (the latter, which is an instrumental, even has a sort of Morricone-ish spaghetti-western atmosphere to it and is a candidate for my favorite track of the album) and the more uptempo "Buying Truth (Tack & Forlåt)" do have a certain melancholy and darkness to them.

Musically, Graveyard's dirty bluesrock-driven style emphasizes groovy and twangy guitar-riffage backed up by a fat, deep, and broad Geezer Butler-esque bass and hippie-style fill-in rich drumming. In other words, "Hisingen Blues" has all the things that dark 70s hard rock should have, although this is 2011.

The production is raw and retro (and analogue) and has an authentic 70s sound, but lacks the obligatory crackling noise of vinyl releases of the 70s. This not really a problem to me anyways, since I am not that much of a vinyl enthusiast, and I think that younger listeners who are used to the polished production associated with many modern metal styles will also appreciate the clearness of the mixing itself.

Although Graveyard are a retro band, they do strike me as being somewhat more original than many of the other bands who are on the same mission to revive metal in its earliest form as they are, and I am sure that the dirty, raw blues-driven hardrock on "Hisingen Blues" will appeal to fans of proto-metal and early hard rock.

Coffin Joe ...There's a black mass in Hisingen, Sweden.... Imagine Black Sabbath making a lovechild with Led Zeppelin, and you've got a pretty good idea what graveyard sounds like.

Based in Gothenborg Sweden, the band was created out of the ashes of the band Norrsken - One Norrsken member went on to form Witchcraft, which you should also check out. Hisingen Blues is the bands second album and being released through Nuclear Blast Records.

The swedish band plays heavy metal, like they used to make it. Recorded exclusively on analog equipment in a live fashion, this is a pure early 70's heavy revival. Throughout the album there's a strong blues infused psychedelic vibe, that just screams pure old-school rock n' roll. The obvious inspiration is of course Black Sabbath & Led Zeppelin, but there's also nods and hints of Blue Oyster Cult, Janice Joplin, Lynard Skynard & Cream. The guitars have the right fuzzy vibe to them, the bass is groovy and the drums are all over the place, making every song tight and very alive. I am certain that this band is a blast live. The blues have a central place throughout the album, and Joakim Nilsson's vocals are both strong and spot on, giving the album just the right Zeppelin feel without being plagiarism.

What amazes me about this record, is the way Graveyard manages to update their proto-metal sound, keeping it fresh while still being true to their roots. Hisingen Blues have this dark evil heaviness that the early Black Sabbath also posseses. There's just too many bands out there trying too hard to look and sound evil, and here you have four swedish guys in sweaters with mustaches sounding like they just stepped out of a black mass conducted by the dark-one himself!