Swedish quartet DYNAMITE was formed in 2012, and have rather quickly managed to jot down an album’s worth of material impressive enough to land them a contract with Swedish label Transubstans Records, who released their debut album “Lock ‘n Load” in the first half of 2013 on their Denomination sublabel.
Describing the contents of this close to 40 minutes long production is fairly easy. We’re dealing with blues based hard rock here, and apart from two somewhat slower constructions it is of the boogie-based, party rock variety. We have steady drum patterns and a driving bass that supports a dual set of compact guitars that tends to opt for playful riff constructions and melodic details, with a fairly intense, high pitched vocalist that sings and shouts on top. Good, old fashioned party rock and roll if you like.
Describing possible influences in this case is just as easy. This is a band that have begged, borrowed, stolen, copied, replicated, duplicated, xeroxed and cloned classic era AC/DC. Not only in terms of general style, but right down to the detail level I suspect avid AC/DC fans will have a field day in tracking down what instrument and vocals details that have been lifted from which songs and albums from the Australian masters. Not a case of blatant cloned songs I’ll hastily add, but a guitar detail here, a vocal approach there, an occasional bass motif nuance or drum flourish. Familiar sounding details from the masters lifted into songs that are made in their style. Which, at least from my point of view, is a brilliant manner in which to acknowledge their peers. And while this might have been accidental, it’s still a factor that for me elevates this album just a bit. No matter if this is by plan or accident, it says something about a band that have an intimate knowledge about the band they have chosen to replicate, and to my ears and my mind why this foursome are so good at it. “Lock ‘N Load” does ebb out a bit towards the end, the final three cuts isn’t quite as convincing as the rest of the album. On the other hand, compositions like Lock and Load, Work Hard For The Money and Wild Wild Woman are cuts that are just as entertaining as anything AC/DC themselves have ever made as far as I’m concerned, and I suspect the latter of these is or will be a firm live favorite with an inviting call and answer sequence that begs for audience interaction.
Apart from a lead vocalist that isn’t quite as intense as the ones who have fronted the originals, Dynamite merits a description as a tight and compact band that have taken their cues from late 70’s AC/DC and continued to make music in that very specific manner. And they have done so in an impressive manner too. If you love this type of music, I’ll be highly surprised if you won’t be charmed by what Dynamite has to offer.
My rating: 80/100
